My head feels like it’s about to split, but I got the outline revised and cut and chiselled down to thirty scenes. Done for the day because I don’t think I can look at the screen for another minute. This damned thing has been like sweating blood.
Tomorrow I’ll start back into writing pages, knowing that I’m now officially way behind. Dammit. But at least now I know where I’m going.
I’m not going to go Rose and start subtracting ten points for every you in a non-angry non-debate post. [g]
Whew! I was in negative points, I think.
Jim — I’ve only ever added words to one book, and that was the first one, and then only because it was 75,000 words long when Baen bought it and my contract called for 90,000, so I thought they wanted it to be 90,000.
When Toni Weisskopf called and asked me how things were going and I told her I had almost all of the extra words added in, she nearly stopped breathing. I didn’t do it by padding in words, of course (which is what I now realize she thought I was doing) but by adding tiny interstitial scenes that actually made the book better.
I won’t be short on words. There are already some interstitial scenes that I KNOW I have to write in the first part. My only concern at this point is time.
ER…Holly, I hate to make your job harder, but it sounds as if you’ve taken all of your extra words all out of the second half (re: "last third") of the book. I will not be surprised, when you get to editing the whole novel together, that you end up having to put a few of those scenes back in and tighten up the front half to make your word goal…
Still, by tightening up the outline at this point, you’ve hopefully squeezed the extra words out of the back half.
Good luck as always. 🙂
(And, yes, I noticed lots of "yous" in here. Delete if you must, but for what it’s worth, I’m not writing in anger. )
The "you" thing only counts if it’s presented as follows: "You’re an idiot, your father was a hamster and your mother smelt of elderberries…" or whatever that damned quote was. I haven’t seen that movie in years now. I’m not going to go Rose and start subtracting ten points for every you in a non-angry non-debate post. [g]
YAY! I’m so glad you got to where you wanted to be.
I’m sympathetic because I’m currently bashing my brain against the plot for my NaNo novel. It’s coming, but slowly. I think, though, that I’ll have at least a basic outline by Nov. 1. 🙂
Yeah! Happy dance sent your way. But first, a facial by Olga the massage therapist….
Take comfort that if you don’t know where you’re going or how you plan to get there, it’s pretty darn hard to get to the desired destination. I suspect you’ll make good progress now. Hurray to you for having the wisdom to "check the map."
(And, yes, I noticed lots of "yous" in here. Delete if you must, but for what it’s worth, I’m not writing in anger.)