Gauging How Much To Write...

Seriously, why is the prologue the easiest part?

I have about 11, 438 words written for chapter one, and one more scene to write before I think I'll end it. Then it's on to chapter two, a feat that I haven't achieved in... years. Wow. That's kind of embarrassing to admit, but I suppose between college and a writer identity crisis and creative writing classes, that might happen to you...

One thing that I always struggle with is trying to figure out how long to make my chapters. Or how long to make my book, for that matter. That probably sounds weird-- You make it as long as you want. You're the writer. But for as long as I've been writing, I've wondered how you can tell.

This question especially intrigued me when Husband announced he had written about 30,000 words. Now, when Husband and I work, we'll write anywhere from one scene to five, and then ask the other person to read what we've written and give some general critique. This means that I'm following along in his novel, watching things unfold. We've also talked about our storylines, and where they are going, so we can help each other fully develop ideas and make sure details are in place. This means I know where his story is going. And NaNoWriMo has a goal of achieving a novel that has at least or about 50,000 words. So when he made the 30k announcement, I was perplexed. It felt like he had just started his story. So that made me wonder, how realistic of a goal is 50k? How long of a book does 50k words even get you?

A couple days ago my husband came home from work and pulled out a book he had just finished, a sci-fi novel that was printed in sort of your standard, paperback, compact sci-fi/fantasy way. This book has 391 pages, and 18 chapters. He broke it down like this:

Page 123 of the book has 332 words. Assuming that every page has 332 words (which it doesn't, but we're writers, not mathematicians)....
-estimated 129, 812 words in the book
-estimated 7, 212 words in a chapter
This means that, according to this particular scale, 50,000 words is an estimated 150 pages.

I don't know about anyone else, but the shortest novel on my shelf is over 200 pages...

Let's be clear: I'm not trying to judge. I am pretty positive there are short books out there; I just don't think my husband and I are going to write any short novels any time soon. Breaking down a finished, published novel really helped us put things in perspective. Am I going to stop a chapter when it hits 7,000 words? No way. My first chapter is over 11,000 words already, with another scene to go. What I am going to do, however, is make sure that my storyline moves along at a good pace. If I hit 50k and I'm not at a good pace or a good place in my plotline, then maybe I should rethink how things are going.

It will also help me imagine how my novel will look in physical book form instead of blank white screen form, which is, conveniently, a great motivator.

Moving Forward...?

I've probably mentioned this before, but getting a story started is the hardest thing for me as a writer. I feel like I have so many ideas, so many things I want to get down on paper or pounded out on the computer, but it doesn't mean anything if it doesn't have a beginning... I've taken my novel and started it countless times and always, every time, I get partway into it and feel like that route isn't the one that is best. My dear husband has been so kind, and sat me down one day to work through ideas. We talked about different directions the story could go, what characters want and what their motives are, how characters would react to different situations, where they could go, who they could interact with... It was something that I really, really needed. Sometimes I think of an idea and trap myself in that idea, as if I can't come up with anything else. Hearing the ideas processed through someone else was a great way to get them away from me, so I was able to see flaws or compare good ideas to mediocre ones.

My husband has been making tons of progress on his story. He is also one of the best people I could ask for when it comes to talking about story ideas and plots. He's the kind of writer who plans out his storyline for multiple books, and then a week later tells me he scrapped the storyline because it doesn't make sense to send his characters here or there and let me tell you all the reasons why....... It's a very logical way of looking at the plotlines. I'm more of the creative one, the person who feeds the plot details and descriptions. We sort of are involved in each other's writing, because we are good at such different parts of writing.

I hope that this time we are able to move forward-- both of us. There are lots of great ideas on the table, and I'm grateful that I have someone to help me with my writing. There's no reason to write alone, people! Find someone who can write with you, and help each other!

Body Language

I liiiiiiiiive......

Ok, so there are a gazillion different things to remember when you're writing, right? Character development, world building, scene creating, using all five senses, using proper grammar, making actions believable, plot development, on and on and on... As if that's not enough, I want to talk about another one.

But never fear, I come with a handy dandy reference!

My husband was working browsing the internet at work today and discovered a page about body language. It's amazing how little subtleties in your writing can make such a difference, and how your characters act around each other can portray so much without them speaking a single word!

I'll link you to the page on submissive body language, but there are other links at the bottom for emotions, aggressive body language, and floppy language. (I haven't read up on floppy language yet, so you'll have to investigate that on your own. I am the writer who also has a small child that crawls up my leg quite frequently, so I don't always remember to finish what I start. I could read it now, but I'm sick and I should be sleeping. We all procrastinate. Don't judge. Tangent. Tangent tangent tangent tangent.....)

I'm super excited about this resource because it is simple. Basic. Easy. Why get complicated with fine details when there are so many other things to remember in your writing?? Exactly. Keep it simple. I'm pretty sure there is such a thing as over-writing and turning away readers that just want to enjoy a great story. Body language can help create it.

"Hey, Alice!" called Sarah.
Alice turned to see a bright-eyed blonde girl approaching, one arm waving in the air. As Sarah drew closer, Alice folded her arms and hunched over the books she carried.
"How are you?" Sarah asked. "I haven't seen you in forever."

Versus:

"Hey, Alice!" called Sarah.
Alice turned to see a bright-eyed blonde girl approaching, one arm waving in the air. As Sarah drew closer, Alice straightened and tucked the books she carried under one arm.
"How are you?" Sarah asked. "I haven't seen you in forever."

Exactly.

Body language. Simple. Easy. Less cliche than:

"Hey, Alice!" called Sarah.
Alice turned to see a bright-eyed blonde girl approaching, one arm waving in the air. As Sarah drew closer, a grin spread across Alice's face.
"How are you?" Sarah asked. "I haven't seen you in forever."

Ok, maybe the grin thing isn't as cliche. You're certainly allowed to show emotion along with body language. That would take the second example further. Alice straightens and tucks her books under her arm. I guess out of context one could see a couple things, like maybe Alice is straightening up and getting ready for a fight with a frenemy. Maybe Alice is straightening up because her day was pretty crappy and it's nice to see a friend, an ally. But the body language is a good precursor. It readies the reader for different reactions.

I don't even know if I'm making sense. This happens a lot. Oh well.

Body language! Awesome resource! I shouldn't let my sick brain write blog posts. Write!

Still Stuck

So when I work on my novel lately, I've really been struggling with how to start it. I've been developing these characters and this novel since I was in high school. The storyline, the characters, everything has undergone a lot of changes over the years, especially when I was taking Creative Writing classes on campus. The main character that I've always had has lost her part in the story, I don't know where to put her or what to have happen to her. Instead, my second main character has developed an even stronger story and back story. Its throwing me off.

It occurred to me today that I could just make the second main character's story the forefront of the story, instead of the first main character, but that sort of terrifies me. I don't know how on earth I would be able to do that, set the first main character's story as a sideline...

I don't know if this is making any sense, but my novel is sort of going through an identity crisis, and it's hard to deal with. My husband has been trying to talk me through it, but I'm not excited about any of the ideas. I like them, but I'm not excited. Maybe it's because I'm scared to try a completely different route with this. I know it needs to be done, but I'm a complete pansy.

This novel business is tough work.

Getting It Together

So I've been stuck with my story, right? I've felt for a long time like I've been staring at a wall, and over time realised my characters had no direction and I didn't know how this story could possibly progress.

What really started my latest endeavor with it was when I realised that my bad guy had no motives. And the motive that I had previously considered was kind of really lame. My second idea for him was also lame-- closer, but still pretty pathetic and cheesy. Without a direction for the bad guy, my main characters were left living their lives as they normally would, nothing was changing or harming them.

So decided to get my ducks in a row. I've never been good at keeping a storyline together. At some point I had created documents with information on my characters, but nothing super fancy or even coherent. What I did this time was open a brand new word document, format it in the OCD fashion I've had lately (due to typing up recipes for my mother) and start collecting lists. A list of my main characters. A list of the secondary characters. A list of the bad guy and his group. And then I went into information on the countries-- Country A, ruled in this fashion/by these people, significant characters to the storyline from that country, etc. Country B, ruled by these people.... and so on. As I started to organise myself, put my thoughts down, I committed (at least for now) to naming countries and characters that had thus far gone unnamed which made them more tangible to me. I put key points of characters down, things that I had to remember throughout the story.

Little by little, over the course of a couple of days of playing with this, I fleshed out how I wanted the bad guy to interact with his cronies, his supporters, and how he would deal with other people. This spread to considering how other characters interacted with each other, even if they wouldn't see each other until chapters later. I eventually came up with a direction for the bad guy. I ran the suggestion past my husband, and he agreed that it was pretty good and definitely do-able.

My husband mentioned to me once that you really don't have to think about politics or technicalities with characters. They're people. They think like people. Their individual personalities will determine how politics work. How does King A treat his people? His family? What does he think of King B next door? So on and so forth. That's all there is to it. And that same idea I accidentally applied to figuring out my way around the wall. How does this character react to this idea or this other character? That's all there is.

I'm getting excited again about my story. I was so discouraged for so long, and now I feel like I actually have a story I could tell. I don't have everything figured out, but I'm getting there. And it's all because I decided to organise myself and get it together...

(It's also really nice to have all my ideas in one place, so I don't have to go hunting through four different documents just to find what I was trying to remember.)

Stuck

I want to write. I want to write really, really badly. I want to write more of my novel, the story that's been brewing and developing in my head for years. But I'm stuck.

The other day, while I was trying to fall back asleep, my head was trying to solve problems with my story. (Except I'm pregnant right now, and need sleep, so I wouldn't let it.)

My husband keeps telling me I should use my free time to work on my novel, especially since I'll be too tired for a while after baby comes. I actually got really frustrated with him about it, because I just don't know what to do. I want to move forward with it, but I don't know how to get my characters from where they are now to where they need to be. My brain has come up with eight different ways, but I'm not sure about any of them-- am I introducing too many ideas? Too many characters? Will I be able to keep track of everything? Will it make sense to my readers? Is there a better, more efficient way..?

A while ago my brain told me to not worry about going forward with the storyline, but rather to go back and try and finish the uncompleted scene in my prologue. I went back and re-read it... and I feel stuck there, too. What do I really want to convey in that scene? What is most important for my readers to know at this point in time? What about the following scene with the same characters-- is it necessary? What information do I want to convey there?

Sometimes I feel like there are too many steps to writing a story. It's discouraging.

At the same time, I know this roadblock won't be forever, and that soon I'll figure it out and gleefully be on my way again. It just takes patience... Darn it all.

Writer's Remorse

I'm not one of those people who writes every day, or even every week. I'm more of a Herculean writer, where I sit down to play with my work and suddenly I've written a couple scenes or reworked some things or figured out the next chapter of my story. This can be good and bad, because at least then my scenes are each entire coherent scenes, but at the same time it could be argued that I'm not really practicing my art very well.

The biggest downside I find with my Herculean efforts is writer's remorse. I write scenes and sections, and then don't see them for weeks. When I open that word document again to continue writing, while I wait for the pages of writing to load, I'm left to stare at the opening paragraph on the document. Often I cringe at it and wish that it wasn't such a bad paragraph, but my brain can't seem to focus on how to make it better. My brain would rather waste its funds on pity parties and bemoaning the fact that someday I'll have to go back and fix it.

This always leads to the big question writers always ask themselves: Why do I do this to myself?

I don't have an answer. I've read lots of answers by other successful authors, but I guess it just comes down to the fact that we're all crazy and will do what we must to enjoy our hobbies.

Until then, I'll have to decide whether I want to rework that opening scene of chapter two, or whether I want to just grit my teeth and just keep moving forward.