Under 200,000!

I finally got my novel under 200,000 words. It's now 199,213 words! It's still oversize, and it's not much shorter than 200,000 but it is shorter, and that's something. Hurrah!

Writing Stats

I did some editing in my fantasy novel today.

Last time I had 203,308 words.

Now I have 202,818 words.

This means I've only gotten rid of 490 words since lase time but I take heart that I only have six more chapters of editing to do.

Goin' To A Party

I'm going to my friend Kara's for a party and I'm not sure I'll be back in time to blog properly. But I can at least say I finally did some editing last night. Last time I checked in I had: 206,109 words and now I have 203,308 words. I know I didn't do all of that last night so I guess I haven't been a total slacker but I still need to pick up my game.

Writing Stats Monday

Fantasy Novel Edit -- Cutting words at a breakneck snail's pace!
Last Time: 206,499 words
This Time: 206,109 words
I nixed: 390 words

I've been really busy with job hunting stuff, so even that small amount is only because I spied an unnecessary section earlier this week that I was going to fix but decided was easier just to delete altogether.

Writing Stats Monday (on Tuesday)

Last time: 210,579 words
This time: 206,499 words
I cut 4,080 words.

Writing Stats Monday

Science Fiction
644 words

Writing Stats Monday

Sci-Fi
695 words

Fantasy
I only edited a little bit just now, so not much this week. But it is nice to know that the story started out 234,891 words and is currently 210,579 words. So I've cut 24,312 words so far.

I've come to suspect that no one actually looks at my Monday writing stats. This is actually excellent since it means you probably all believe I'm getting so much more done than I actually am...

Writing Stats Monday

Fantasy Novel
Last time it was 211,670 words.
This time it's 210,601 words.
That's 1,069 words cut and my goal of having under 200,000 is looking a lot more feasible.

Writing Stats Monday

Fantasy Novel
Last time I checked it was 213,591 words.
This time it's 211,670 words.
That's a difference of 1,921 words for anyone not wanting to do the math. I think if I could at least get it under 200,000, that would be something.

Writing Stats Monday

Fantasy Novel
Last time it was 214,457 words.
This time it's 213,591 words.

Writing Stats Monday #4
Editing!

Fantasy Novel
At last count 223,576 words
This time it's 222,514 words
That means I've trimmed 1062 words

Children's Novel
At last count 75,543 words
This time its 75,226 words
That's only a difference of 317 words less but I felt like I made important differences to content.

Writing Stats Monday #2

Fantasy Novel

Last week I had it down to 225,766 words.
This week it's at 224,387 words.
That's a total of 1379 words trimmed. It was a lot more last time since I was just giving you the stats since the beginning of the project whereas this is just last week's work. Although, I wish I was going faster.

Children's Novel

Because I'm not working on enough projects (Ha,ha) I decided to start editing my children's novel. This one isn't too horribly long (roughly the same as the 77,508 word first Harry Potter and shorter than the 87,223 word first Percy Jackson). But the industry standard seems to be about a 45,000 word maximum. I'm not going to worry about getting this book as close to that word count but I think I can trim it down. In this case, trimming isn't the only goal of the editing because this is the first time I've edited this novel. But I'll keep track of it anyway.

This novel started at 77,557 words.
Currently it's at 75,543 words.
That's a total of 2,014 words trimmed.
As far as normal content editing, I'm on Chapter 3.

Collaborative Sci-Fi

Last week I had 6,209 words.
This week I have 6416 words.
This is a disappointing total of 207 words for the week. I can't really give the excuse of not being able to write without my sister because I only needed to consult her a little for this part. At this rate Chrissy could easily catch up with me so I better get cracking.

Twitter Novella

Still no stats but we're finishing up at the end of the month. Tune in for the conclusion of our zombie adventure! Will Elsie rescue Paul and his baby Zoe? Can Will find Rhodes before it's too late? Find out at: http://twitter.com/zombienovella/the-story

Wildcard Wednesday
Prose Practice

So this was a blog segment that was left on the cutting room floor so I thought I might do it for Wildcard Wednesday. This is just a brief practice of fiction writing. It's not meant to be a story, just a scene or description to get me thinking about writing. The following is inspired by the cat I saw messing with a vole outside my window.

* * * * *

Aaah! Teeth! I tried to scamper deeper into the bushes but ran into a brick wall. The cat with the bell on his collar watched hungrily, maybe jealously as the black furred monster clawed at the dirt and CHOMP!

I wriggled but that only made him dig in his teeth harder so I went limp. He carried me away holding his stubby black tail high. That tail always bothered me when I'd run away from him before. Had he lost it to a larger cat? I imagined him held in the jaw of a bestial feline exactly like he was holding me now and shivered.

The bell cat followed but my captor didn't believe in sharing. He did, however, believe in playing with his food. He dropped me from his mouth. I knew he was just messing with me but a vole's gotta try, right? I ran.

The cat's claws came at me from both sides as he batted me back and forth, his own personal cat toy. Then I saw my saviors in the form of two little human girls. The tallest sighed, "Mom's not going to be happy if he brings home another one." She chased my pursuer into the tall grass and began to poke him with a stick.

"Leave, him alone, meanie!" cried the shorter girl. I wondered if Meanie was the cat's name. It'd be fitting if it was. The distraction of the girls was all I needed. I darted back into my burrow as the cat glared after me.

Writing Stats Monday

Currently I'm actively working on three writing projects.

Project 1
I'm trying to trim as much off my monster fantasy novel as I can without actually rewriting. This involves a line by line analysis of extraneous words and any scenes that I can lift out without affecting the plot.

Before I started editing, it was 234,891 words.
Currently it's at 225,766 words.
That means I've trimmed 9,125 words. I have a lot more to go...Still, that means I was able to reach my first goal to get it shorter than The Sword of Shannara (226,755 words). The reason I chose that book was because it was the longest fantasy I knew of published by a debut author. Both versions of my final draft are also shorter than Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (257,154 words). But we both know that by book five Rowling could have written anything and made a billion dollars. Phoenix being a case in point. Okay, that's a bit unfair. Phoenix was the worst Potter book, but the worst Potter book is admittedly worth a lot more than the best by most people. Still, five really could have been better.

Also worth noting that I currently have 6 rejections from agents for this novel. Any real author would laugh at such a paltry pile, so I really want some more. I hope to at least have sent to 20 agents by the end of the year (although, it doesn't necessarily have to be for this novel). The reason for this is that someone recently inspired me to think about my goals five years down the line, and I think I'd like to have at least 100 rejections five years from now (or obviously something published, but that's less controllable). To do this I ought to average at least 20 rejections a year which certainly seems doable. I'm not going to ever give up on my fantasy, but I may have to shelve it for a while, which is why all the rejections might not be for it because there are only so many agents that look worth sending to. Then I'd rather start again with a different book for a while rather than send straight to publishers. For now, anyway.

Project 2
My sister and I are collaborating on a science fiction novel. A new experience for me since I've never collaborated on a novel.

For my part of this project I have written 6,209 words.
Overall the story so far is 9,863 words.
This means that my sister has written 3,654 words. Not that it's a competition or anything...But if it was, I'd be winning!

Project 3
Around the same time that I started collaborating with my sister, I also started collaborating with a high school friend of mine on writing a novella about a zombie apocalypse through tweets.

I don't really keep stats on this project, but if you're interested, you can read it here: http://twitter.com/zombienovella/the-story