I haven’t written for over two months, so when it came time to start Arcadian in earnest, it was difficult to work up the energy to get going, especially since I have to carry my laptop with me to London everyday if I want to write. The lazy side of me wanted to put starting off until this weekend, throwing out the schedule, but I managed to get going and once I did, it wasn’t so difficult.
Whenever I have a break in writing, it’s always difficult to get back into it. My mind seems to ask why I have to write and then my heart argues that I love to write, I enjoy it, so get going! It’s war, but with a peaceful outcome once the muse gives me a royal kick up the backside and I finally start writing.
I have hit a snag already though. Something which I feared when I had written out the plot outline and seen the length of it! The other day when my laptop had succumbed to a lack of battery and died on me (after around 3.5 hours of writing. good laptop!) I went through the plot outline for the novel and roughly divided it into chapters. I was a little unnerved when I found it might be another 30 chapters. I had already completed 4 at this point, and my average length for a chapter is around 5000 words in this story. That means the novel is looking at coming out around the 170,000 words mark. Far too high if I want to get it trade published by approaching publishers and agents. When I made it home, I checked some of the first novels of other paranormal romance authors and they all varied between 90,000 and 130,000. Most publishers state they want a length of 70,000 to 100,000. If I can get an agent, I might be able to get away with 130,000… or perhaps if my submitted three chapters are good enough, then a publisher might overlook the length… but 170,000??? I’m really hoping that my chopping up of the plot into chapters is wrong and it does come out nearer to 130,000. When I had finished writing up the plot outline, I had an inkling that it was no longer a 100,000 word story as I had first anticipated, but rather one nearer to 130,000. I’m still hoping that my instincts are right on that one!
So, the word count so far (and pretty much for just this past week) is:
27,791 / 125,000
[22.2%]
I’m going to stick with 125,000 as the target. I’m almost at the quarter mark in that case and probably 2 chapters from the first gateway/point of no return.
I also realised on the train home last night that we’re seeing a lot from the heroine’s POV but not a tremendous amount from the hero. He’s had around 1.25 chapters so far, and she’s had around 3.75. Right now it’s important we’re with her though, and I know there are a lot more chapters with the hero to come in the 1/4 to 1/2 way point in the story.
That’s all for now. I’ll try to keep these posts regular. I’ve been so focused on editing and improving my stories recently that as I write, I find myself thinking about previous chapters and things that might need to be changed or chopped to keep the pace. I’m just writing them down in a notebook for now and I’ll address them when I get around to the second draft. I’m not one for tinkering as I write. I’m of the “get it written, then get it right” school of philosophy.
Time for house stuff now – washing, tidying, a bit of exercise, and installing a new shower with my dad!
I really want to keep writing. I haven’t felt the writing bug like this for a long time. It doesn’t help that I almost missed my stop on the train last night because I was so engrossed in writing and I left the hero on the verge of a rather swoon-worthy speech to the heroine!
🙂
