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I’m LATE!

Waayyy overdue!

A delinquent. (Gasp!)

Although it’s been far too long since I paid attention to this website…

I’M BACK NOW,

READY TO BEGIN AGAIN.

I hope you, my readers, forgive me for my silence and rejoin me on this crazy writing journey. 

Sometimes, as I walk this path to attaining my publishing goals, life takes over. Deadlines — albeit, my own personal as opposed to contractual — get shoved aside. The last nine (gulp!) months have been like this.

Here’s why:

I was unbalanced.

My relationships with my characters became more important than my real relationships.

I was discouraged.

Harassing thoughts SCREAMED that no one read my words; my website meant nothing.

I was struggling.

Finishing tasks has never been a strong suit of mine. Would I give up this time, too?

Silly of me to think like this.

Because my ideas are worth sharing.

I may be

but I am no longer a quitter.

How about you? What keeps you from reaching your (writing) goals?

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Word Counts

I’ll admit it: The letter K had me stumped. It’s the reason I’m weeks overdue for the Literary WOTW. Sorry, Folks.

I must also apologize for the lame word choice. Again, I’ve been seriously stumped. Although I’m open to suggestions for more worthy literary words beginning with letter K, for now I’m going with what I placed in the title.

What exactly does 20K, 50K, 100K mean to a writer? Until I delved into this world, I had no idea that writers depend on their WORD COUNT, not how many pages or chapters or scenes we’ve written. We set daily writing goals based on how many words we need to fill our pages each day in order to complete our stories by our deadlines. Did you know there are online word count tools to help you figure out how long your story is? Go ahead and Google it. I did.

How many words does one need in order to publish a story? While some agents, editors, and publishers believe that quality is more important than quantity, most agree upon a general amount of words… especially for new writers wishing to turn their stories into books. Also, keep in mind that word counts vary according to the genre or category of your novel.

Estimate word count at 250 words per page for a work of fiction but don’t get tripped up on the numbers. If you’re a new writer (as I am) my advice would be to research the desires of popular literary agents and publishers in your genre. Usually, you can find word counts on their web pages. As you write, edit, and re-write your drafts keep those numbers in mind.

So, here’s what I’ve discovered about generally accepted word counts:

Flash Fiction (magazine article): >1000 words

Short Story: 1000-20,000 words

Novella: 20,000 – 50,000 words

Novel: 50,000 – 110,000 words (although 70-80K being more acceptable for first time novelists)

At this stage of my game — nearing the end of my first draft — numbers don’t mean much to me. I’ve gone waaayyy over the acceptable amount of words; but I haven’t gone back to the beginning to make those first major edits yet. Hopefully, by this time next year, I’ll be much closer to the goal of 80-100K and much more ready to query an agent.

If you are not a writer, you may be wondering how those words get counted. Until I began writing, I barely noticed that my word processing program had a “word count” feature. Now, I can’t live without it. Simply because at this stage of the game, knowing how many words a chapter is helps me to make sure the one before it and after it is larger (or smaller) so that I keep my reader interested. Pacing is important to me. In yWriter – the program I use to create my novel –the number of words is listed next to every chapter, which helps tremendously as I decide what to keep and what to break into two chapters.

So, how about you?

If you are a writer how many K’s are you shooting for?

If you are a reader, how many K’s do you prefer to read? Short books? Long books? Or something in between?

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I’ll be honest. Finding a literary word starting with “J” was not easy. This week’s phrase: JUVENILE LITERATURE is more commonly labeled “Children’s Lit” these days. But I’ll run with it.

JUVENILE LITERATURE is not a genre of books written by or for immature people. It’s a respected genre with its own associations like the CLA and the SCBWI. For more detailed information about JUVENILE LITERATURE, check out the Wikipedia page. In the meantime, here are some categories that you might recall reading on your own as a child… or sharing with children as an adult. (Click on the Wordle to increase its size.)

The genre encompasses books that are intended for children 17 and under, although folks of many ages often enjoy them. During my years as an early childhood educator, I primarily read Children’s Lit. Scholastic Book Clubs and God’s World Book Clubs were my favorite monthly treats. The more books my students bought, the more our class earned for free. I cherished books like “The Giving Tree”, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, and anything by Dr. Seuss… almost as much as the students.

If you’re like me, here’s a fun website: Top 100 Children’s Books of All Time. Read the list and let’s see how many you remember. Do you agree with their choices? Any others that you would add?

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This post was meant to go live last week but I lacked the inspiration to write it. Inspiration is a funny thing. It seems to come and go without reason. In the last year, I have learned that even if I don’t feel inspired to write, I must work on my novel anyway. When I hit that brick wall, it’s imperative that I re-read, talk to someone, research, or think about what might come next in the story. Then write it. Sometimes the inspiration makes me write. Other times I write until the inspiration swoops me away.

What about you? As a writer, where do you find inspiration? What does it mean to be inspired to write?

As a reader, what books inspire you? Which authors make writing seem easy?

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In my quest to discover the Word of the Week for today, I learned something new.

The Hero’s Journey. Aka The Monomyth. 

In a nutshell, The Hero’s Journey is a pattern the author follows to get the main character through a story of transformation. The idea is credited to Joseph Campbell and was first described in his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

The Hero’s Journey is based on 17 steps or stages and divided into 3 sections, although many authors use variations on this pattern. The following is a YouTube video by Christopher Vogler, a Hollywood film producer and writer who has created, The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, a popular guide based on Campbell’s pattern.

This video can explain the Hero’s Journey better than I can. Enjoy the learning.

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As a child, my family and I often played games on long car rides. These days I play my favorite with my own children. It’s called “Categories.” The idea is that one person chooses a category like “Animals” then each game-player takes a turn naming an animal of any kind. Depending on the age or the knowledge base of the people playing, we sometimes choose a sub-category instead. For example, rather than choosing “Animals,” our middle child — a cat lover — might choose “Cat Breeds”. If someone names the animal (or cat breed) twice or can’t think of a new one, that person is “out”.

In literature, there are categories and sub-categories, too. The proper literary terminology is GENRE and SUB-GENRE.

Wikipedia gives an excellent listing of Genres and Sub-genres. My Wordle, which is not exhaustive, is based on their list.

As the years go by, it seems that more genres/sub-genres are created. From what I’ve learned, it also seems that the lines get blurred.  For example, a Children’s book may also be categorized as a fable.

Share your favorite GENRE/SUB-GENRE with us. If I receive comments from 10 or more different readers, I’ll choose a random winner next Tuesday night (June 19, 2012). A $10 Amazon Gift Card is up for grabs so that the winner may buy the book of his/her choice. 

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Here’s an easy one this week.

All books are either FICTION or Non-Fiction. What’s the difference?

Well, Non-fiction books, based on real people and events, are always true. They are factual. Some examples include Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and On Writing by Stephen King.

However:

FICTIONAL books are created from your imagination.

FICTIONAL books are either novels or short stories.

FICTIONAL books can be based on facts, but are made-up plots and characters.

There are four elements necessary in every FICTIONAL book: Plot, Characters, Setting, Theme.

Some examples of FICTION include Harry Potter by JK Rowling, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and The Princess Bride by William Goldman.

FICTION or NON-FICTION. WHICH DO YOU PREFER? 

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