It's become glaringly apparent to me that I will not be posting regularly to this blog. Maybe I will do so once I finish my novel, but not while I'm working on it.
Speaking of the novel, as of January 31, I have written 79,961 words of the novel, and I am on page 246. I still haven't finished Part One of the novel, though I am getting close and will most likely finish before the end of next week. However, Part One is only about half of the novel, which means I'm looking at a 500-600 page novel. Everything I've read about getting a first novel published suggests that's too long, that agents and publishers won't take a chance on publishing that large of a book with a first time writer. So I think I'm going to have to do some cutting. In the end, doing so will probably make the novel better anyway.
I had a dream last night, a recurring dream that I had quite a bit when I was teaching. In this dream, the details of which vary, I'm a classroom teacher and I'm not prepared for class. Sometimes I don't know where my classroom is. Sometimes I don't know who my students are. Sometimes I have no idea what I'm teaching. And some dreams are a combination of these things. Last night I dreamed that I was teaching, and I panicked because it was the end of January and I hadn't covered ANYTHING yet. At all. As in the students and I had done nothing since school started. Also, and I can't explain why this didn't trip alarm bells in my head to let me know that I was dreaming, but the members of the pop group Fifth Harmony were in my class. I remember starting to call on one of them, and thinking, "I don't know her name. I just know she's part of Fifth Harmony."
Oh well.
Off to write something that hopefully makes more sense than that...
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Progress on my Novel: December 31
So much for restarting this blog, huh?
I didn't write anything all December. And it's not that there wasn't anything to write about. The whole family took our first trip to Chicago, which was really enjoyable. And there's been plenty of stuff happening in the news. But I just haven't taken the time to actually write in this blog. When I do sit down, I want to work on my novel, so that's what I've been doing.
And how has that been going? Fairly well. The goal I set for myself, as I mentioned last month, was to write at least 1,000 words a day six days a week. Other than the week we were in Chicago, I have managed to do just that. And progress has been steady but slow.
On November 30, the day of my last post, I had written 11,362 words (36 pages) and I was in the middle of chapter three. Today I have written 39,113 words (118 pages), and I'm in the middle of chapter seven.
And it's time to get started on word 39,114.
I didn't write anything all December. And it's not that there wasn't anything to write about. The whole family took our first trip to Chicago, which was really enjoyable. And there's been plenty of stuff happening in the news. But I just haven't taken the time to actually write in this blog. When I do sit down, I want to work on my novel, so that's what I've been doing.
And how has that been going? Fairly well. The goal I set for myself, as I mentioned last month, was to write at least 1,000 words a day six days a week. Other than the week we were in Chicago, I have managed to do just that. And progress has been steady but slow.
On November 30, the day of my last post, I had written 11,362 words (36 pages) and I was in the middle of chapter three. Today I have written 39,113 words (118 pages), and I'm in the middle of chapter seven.
And it's time to get started on word 39,114.
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Progress on my Novel: November 30
Wow! I knew when I restarted this blog that I wasn't going to be writing every day, but I wrote much less in November than I imagined I would.
It's not that there isn't anything to write about. Just yesterday, in fact, there were the firings of Matt Lauer and Garrison Keillor, more ICBM tests from North Korea, a President who decries fake news tweeting three untrue, racist videos, a Republican plan to cut taxes (and simultaneously increase the national debt), and the ongoing net neutrality battle. That's fodder for a week's worth of blog posts right there!
No, it's not that I'm lacking anything to write about; it's that I planned to use this blog as a sort of writing practice or a warm up before working on my novel, and so far that hasn't really been an issue. I'm only writing today, in fact, because I said last month that I'd write an update on the last day of each month.
This time last month I was still in the pre-writing phase, frustrated that I was stuck on a year 2017-2073 timeline, which I originally thought would be a page and have maybe 12-15 bulleted items on it, but on October 31 had 43 bulleted items and still had a long way to go. I guessed that I'd finish it by November 7 and then take another week to write an outline, hoping to start actually writing the novel by November 15.
In the end, though, I didn't finish the timeline itself until mid-November, and my 12-15 bulleted item list ended up being 187 bulleted items, each dated to the day. The total document is 22 single spaced pages and just short of 12,000 words long. I'm not complaining, though. The process was absolutely essential, and some of the plot points that were hazy in my head have gelled now thanks to this process. Probably more than half of what is mentioned in that document will never make it in to the novel, but that's okay: If the novel ever actually gets published and becomes successful, there's material there for two or three prequel novels.
I then created an outline for the events in the novel. As expected, that took me about a week, and it is much briefer than the timeline. The outline is four pages total, and it's only about 1,800 words. It's not even in complete sentences.
I started actually writing the novel on November 21. My goal is to write six days a week and to write at a pace of at least 1,000 words per day. I have managed to do that, and yesterday I finished chapter two of the novel, which I'm guessing--based on my outline--will be 26 chapters in length (though I may, in the end, find a chapter much longer than I was anticipating and need to split it, or I might find a need to combine two chapters). In any event, with two chapters written at about 4,500 words each, the novel should end up about 117,000 words in length. Which is--I've read--close to the maximum length a first time author's novel should be. A 117,000 word novel is about 390 pages in length. I may have some cutting to do.
Anyway, that's where I am.
It's not that there isn't anything to write about. Just yesterday, in fact, there were the firings of Matt Lauer and Garrison Keillor, more ICBM tests from North Korea, a President who decries fake news tweeting three untrue, racist videos, a Republican plan to cut taxes (and simultaneously increase the national debt), and the ongoing net neutrality battle. That's fodder for a week's worth of blog posts right there!
No, it's not that I'm lacking anything to write about; it's that I planned to use this blog as a sort of writing practice or a warm up before working on my novel, and so far that hasn't really been an issue. I'm only writing today, in fact, because I said last month that I'd write an update on the last day of each month.
This time last month I was still in the pre-writing phase, frustrated that I was stuck on a year 2017-2073 timeline, which I originally thought would be a page and have maybe 12-15 bulleted items on it, but on October 31 had 43 bulleted items and still had a long way to go. I guessed that I'd finish it by November 7 and then take another week to write an outline, hoping to start actually writing the novel by November 15.
In the end, though, I didn't finish the timeline itself until mid-November, and my 12-15 bulleted item list ended up being 187 bulleted items, each dated to the day. The total document is 22 single spaced pages and just short of 12,000 words long. I'm not complaining, though. The process was absolutely essential, and some of the plot points that were hazy in my head have gelled now thanks to this process. Probably more than half of what is mentioned in that document will never make it in to the novel, but that's okay: If the novel ever actually gets published and becomes successful, there's material there for two or three prequel novels.
I then created an outline for the events in the novel. As expected, that took me about a week, and it is much briefer than the timeline. The outline is four pages total, and it's only about 1,800 words. It's not even in complete sentences.
I started actually writing the novel on November 21. My goal is to write six days a week and to write at a pace of at least 1,000 words per day. I have managed to do that, and yesterday I finished chapter two of the novel, which I'm guessing--based on my outline--will be 26 chapters in length (though I may, in the end, find a chapter much longer than I was anticipating and need to split it, or I might find a need to combine two chapters). In any event, with two chapters written at about 4,500 words each, the novel should end up about 117,000 words in length. Which is--I've read--close to the maximum length a first time author's novel should be. A 117,000 word novel is about 390 pages in length. I may have some cutting to do.
Anyway, that's where I am.
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