For some reason, I find my self revising the second draft of Naga Story. And I’m not sure why. I finished its first draft a long time ago. Two jobs and three (or four?) novels have passed since then. I stopped production because when I was done, I just felt disgusted with it. I felt the quality of the writing was poor, I barely had enough story to make 90,000 words (which would be reduced upon the second draft). I didn’t know what audience this was for. It wasn’t commercial enough (what shelf do you put “lovesick snake girl” on in Barnes & Noble?). I remember being excited during pre-writing–the…
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Superhero Make-a-Wish Story is Done
First draft word count: 139,000 Oh lordy, I’ve got my work cut out cutting work out for this one. Not sure how it got so big. I mean, I know there are things I can cut. Mostly characters. I’ve got one person who doesn’t even appear in the second half and another who only existed for a romantic subplot which I only got halfway on once I realized how long this was going to be. And I always overwrite the first draft. Stephen King said to be a cutter-outter, not a putter-inner. So I’ve modeled my writing style to compliment that strategy. He said the second draft should equal the…
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Updates
So when it comes to my latest novel, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that I’ve reached my 90,000-word goal. The bad news is I’m only barely past the halfway point. I’m always worried about having enough material to make a full-length novel. That’s my biggest fear as a writer. Naga Story turned out to be 90,000 on the dot. Fairy War was about 50,000 which was perfect for the target audience. I have a bad habit of writing short but the market wants long. So when I plan a novel, I try to add in more scenes than would be strictly necessary. They like Stephen…
