I’m supposed to be writing – after all, I am a writer (I think, no I am, really). I’m supposed to be working on the novel I began for National Novel Writing Month, you may remember I wrote a couple of posts on this, during and at the end. It was a frantic time, but I met the 50,000 word mark, I was delighted with myself.
However, it needed completing. I’m not a complete twit, I do know that 50,000 words does not a novel make, especially if it is of the fantasy/sci-fi fiction genres; these tend towards the ginormous (not that I am ever going to create anything ginormous), 100,000 – 115,000 seems to be typical. Writers Digest.com has some good examples of how long your future creations should be.
In short:
80,000 – 89,999: Totally cool
90,000 – 99,999: Generally safe
70,000 – 79,999: Might be too short; probably all right
100,000 – 109,999: Might be too long; probably all right
Below 70,000: Too short
110,000 or above Too long
So you can see where I hover at the moment – Totally Uncool! Even though I wrote another 10,000. I also scrubbed an equal amount.
Then my daughter, home from Uni for Christmas, went and threw me a curveball. She asked three questions, THREE, that’s all. Two, I could answer (just), but one threw me for a loop. I hadn’t actually considered WHY, the society I was building, was doing what it was doing. In my fevered-little-writers-dungeon of a mind, it just was. Ah, now I was stuck. So I decided to ignore that problem (for the moment). Then I found another problem, this was equally as hard to answer, but from a science/techno perspective – how does one get a second sun on planet Earth???!!! Ah, stuck again.
I kept ploughing away at other sections/chapters – I don’t tend to write in chapters per say, and because I had not resolved two or three issues, it has ground to a halt. I have decided I need to step away from this one, let it rest a while and work on something else ( I generally have a few things going at once)
And so, we’re back to – I’m supposed to be writing. Instead I have been checking my FB account, my Twitter account, looking at other people’s blogs and trying to put my face onto a Star Trek character. I know, that last one piqued your interest didn’t it? There are a number of sites where you can squish a photo of your lovely self into a gap where the well-known characters face should appear;
http://www.faceinhole.com/v2/createScenario.asp?maskid={12D45BD4-D90A-44B3-8213-7ED0EF5EC08B}
These are three of them, in case you’re interested. It all began on FB, where someone had done one of those ‘quizzy’ things, What’s You Identity in Star Trek?
I got Captain. YAY! (Have you guessed yet that I’m a Star Trek fan?!) and proceeded to massage my ego by putting myself in Captain Janeway’s body. There was barely enough room in there for one woman, let alone herself and a sad middle-aged woman with middle-aged spread. But finally, I squeezed my stupid face in. And now it’s about three hours later, and this – Word Press – is all the writing I have done today. I have my writers group tonight and will probably own up to having dicked around all day, I’m like that; I have little shame.
Oh, and here’s the result of todays ‘dicking about’…
Worth it eh?!
Spot the difference!
Flailing Through Life 