Now that I’m back to the working world, well working on a clock for others that is. I’m rediscovering my preferred morning routine – a slow wake. I don’t like the up, shower, eat, and dash. It’s not me. Back when I worked full time and Aaron was little I’d get up early to do aerobics and journal a few pages before showering and getting into the morning rush. It was a nice quiet time when everyone else in the house was safe at home sleeping.
Mike is up and out in 30 minutes flat – includes shower. Sure he’s a man, he doesn’t do the swish/swipe cleaning of the bathroom as he goes, he doesn’t have hair to style and no make-up to put on. He doesn’t moisturize or do jewelry coordination. So he’s faster. If I followed his model with my getting ready routine additions – I’d need an hour.
Still I’d like at least two hours before departure if not three. I’ll definitely get up and sacrifice sleep to get an hour of coffee and internet reading (e-mail, doing a blog post, answering G+ & Twitter, possibly checking in with Facebook) before I start the day. I like to take my time easing into the day before I dash out to work.
Heck nowadays I consider my writing more my work and my job more my hobby. LOL! Then again I enjoy both equally so that’s the secret to life isn’t it get paid for what you enjoy doing. Still I don’t want to jump out of bed rush through getting ready and dash out the door. I want to savor life which includes the mornings. Sure I can do the rush thing if I have to do it. But honestly I feel stressed and pushed and judged all day long when I do it that way. I’m not a happy camper when I don’t get my me time before dealing with the day.
Just know if you travel with me I’ll probably get up first and go out of the room to have coffee. Don’t feel you have to follow me, don’t feel you are running late. I’m getting up to get my ‘me time’ so I can face the world. I’ll be much better after that and a shower. Thanks.
There are phrases that stick in our family vocabulary for decades. Some are from beloved media (books, movies, songs, etc.). Others we created ourselves. Most of the self created were unintentional but long lasting. Still today you’ll hear odd sayings slung about our house with love and caring. It’s our own family language, when we shout “Eat More Pizza!” as you leave you know you are near and dear to us.
Some we still use today without really being there for the origin of them. The title falls in that category. The “Peaches, Daddy, PEACHES!” came from my maternal grandmother who loved peaches. This story goes way back before I was born. Apparently my grandparents were traveling in Georgia and Pappaw foolishly drove past a peach stand. Seems that good fresh peaches were hard to get in Tennessee and Nannie wanted some while they were in Georgia. As the silly man drove past she went into a conniption! The most memorable part was the exclamation of “Peaches, Daddy, PEACHES!” Which is still said in our house when peaches are eaten. (a quick side note – do you peel your peaches or just wash and eat the skin? I’m doing a very unscientific survey on peach skin consumption.)
Over our almost 30 years of marriage Mike and I have developed a few of our own. One came from the movie Man on Fire . In this movie the typical action set up happens. A person the reluctant hero cares about is put in danger. This pisses off the reluctant hero who goes into full badass hero mode to save the person who holds their affection. Now when this plot device show up we announce in a deep Suthern Drawl “Not dat’s a man on fuh-eye-ur.” Needless to say this often leads to much badassery action on screen which we both love. So ‘ah man on fuh-eye-ur’ is someone you don’t wanna mess wit. Trust me.
Hulk Need Red Bull – this came from a blog that is now retired. However, you can read it here at The Incredible Hulk Diary That Is On The Internet I’m sure Hulk Blogger where ever he is, is now relieved to know Katie got away from Tom eventually! That was a popular blog in this house back in the day. We all loved to read Hulk’s life adventures. The phrase “Hulk Needs Red Bull” came about when we made a silly/stupid mistake. ‘Hulk not know why do that. Hulk need Red Bull to figure it out.” So it’s still occasionally heard about the house more muttered than proclaimed when silly errors are made.
Finally the “eat more pizza” farewell. This one gets used fairly often between Mike and me. It goes back to the second Terminator movie. This came from a moment when I should have proclaimed “Hulk Needs Red Bull” but I didn’t know about that one yet. Mike was leaving early in the morning. I was just getting up and still in a pre-coffee fog. He kissed me then said in his bad Ah-nold accent “Hasta la vista baby.” I thought he said “Eat more pizza” since I’d packed left over pizza in his lunch. Well, that misunderstanding made us both laugh and became our farewell. Just yesterday when I left for work as I was going out the door as after the kiss and good-byes there was a shouted “EAT MORE PIZZA!” just as shut the door and locked it. It’s a way of saying I love you be safe.
Actually these and other catch phrases are all about familial love. It’s acknowledging the personal journey we share together. It’s remembering our ties that even in our most “Hulk Need Red Bull” moment we’re there for each other. It celebrating the moments we enjoy sharing and celebrating that there is life we share together. When you get all our sayings – you’re part of the family, like it or not.
We all have our indulgences when it comes to reading and movies. There are those we enjoy but aren’t exactly proud to say we love ’em. Back in high school I was a typical girl in that I was a fan of romances. I thought the movie A Place In Time was just dreamy! The flavor I enjoyed the most was Gothic Romance or Period Romances – it they had a bit of mystery to them all the better! I read Jane Eyre multiple times. I think I went through all the Victoria Holt novels in the local library and started in on the novels under Eleanor Hibbert‘s other pen names. Her writing consistency still inspires me as a writer but I out grew my fondness for romances.
Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria hold available here
It was the 80’s and the corny action films were the hottest thing. I developed a like for them. Why I laughed my way through Expendables 2 was the fun of a time past but still celebrated. In reading I got into thrillers because I enjoyed the challenge of working out the plot before the protagonist and the action. John Grisham’s The Firm was a favorite or later add a paranormal twist to it in Dean Koontz’s The Face or Jim Butcher’s Dresden Series.
My popcorn reading and moving watching now moved from romance to action. I enjoy listening to audiobooks as I go about daily activities. I’m not as much a music person any more as a spoken word person. When searching for a new action series for my ears I stumbled upon Patient Zero by Jonathon Maberry. It is full on action that’s for sure, centering around Joe Ledger a cop that comes to lead a tactical anti-terrorist team for the fictional Department of Military Science (DMS). This book centered on a threat of germ warfare – using a specially tailored disease as a zombifying weapon. The DMS rushes to stop it. There is a love interest in it that’s secondary to the main story, which I’m not averse to seeing. It’s fast paced action which is great when biking or walking the dog and fantastic to speed up house cleaning.
The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Mayberry available here.
When it was over I was please to see that it was a series centered around the missions and adventures of Joe Ledger. I moved on to the second novel The Dragon Factory which centered on genetic engineering. Yes they wanted to make super soldiers and more! Again the DMS raced to stop the threat. It was a rollicking action packed novel that I enjoyed very much.
I have to admit I’m not a one book person. Sure I’ve got an audiobook going but I also read the printed word. Usually one or two of those type novels going. This time I lagged a bit getting into the next Joe Ledger installment while I caught up on the printed side. Then I delved into the third novel King of Plagues. Again Joe & his team faced bio-terrorism but with a twist of blackmail and betrayal coupled with outright terrorism – the story opens with the bombing of the London Hospital leaving thousands dead. The book gave me what I came for – a fast pace, action, and thrills. I am looking forward to the next in the series Assassin’s Code followed by The Extinction Machine.
King of Plagues by Jonathan Mayberry is available here.
These aren’t the most beautifully written works. Though genre doesn’t block the ability to have a beautifully written piece check out George R R Martin’s Fevre Dream for horror that is beyond well written that it falls into beautiful prose (for my buck it’s his best exceeding Game of Thrones). Still Joe Ledger has plot holes – just like my favorite action flicks do from Die Hard to Skyfall but if the action is good enough I’ll forgive them to go along for the ride. BUT these aren’t hideously written like some wildly popular series I tried to read to see what the fuss was about – but my red pen itch was too much after the third page I quit. Life is too short to read bad writing that wasn’t corrected by a competent editor. If you and your editor haven’t mastered the elementary basics of English grammar, I won’t waste my time. With Jonathan Maberry you don’t have to worry about this. It’s solid, clean writing that fits the main character and makes a great foundation for page turning action.
My concern about the series it that the threats seem to all be bio-hazard related. This can become trite and overly formula that it kicks me out of the story or another aspect of the plot is brought more to the forefront to cover this fact. This is what knocked me out of the House series years before it ended. It became too formula and the romance part moved to the forefront. I’m not a romance fan any more as the main plot line. I enjoyed two to three years of House and no matter where Joe Ledger goes I’ll have enjoyed three fun action novels. All in all I can’t complain too much, but you know me I can always finding something to fret over or kvetch about.
Fear Itself – Wolverine, Issue 3. Writer Seth Peck, Penciller: Roland Boschi, John Lucas, Colorist: Dan Brown Letterer: Jared Fletcher Orig. Published: by Marvel on September 07, 2011
I started doing Comic Comments just to share my thoughts about a comic with other comic readers. Kinda like chatting about a movie at a fast food joint after seeing it. Not a true review of the comic but more just commenting on it from my reading. If it’s working or not is hard to tell because I don’t get many comments back (apparently I’m sitting alone at a table chatting about the comic I just read) and very few e-mails. However it’s new and my inner voice says, keep your head down keep doing the column for a year THEN start to evaluate it.
Like all writing it’s developing organically, creating its own form just like characters and stories do as you work on them. The number of scanned pages has dropped. The legal statement has to be done. The shape has taken on a formula for now of intro, legal, creative team, discussion, few scans with comments. Seems to work for me right now but I’m running into some trouble defining just what I want the discussion to be.
I’m leaning more toward a review. I’ve been looking about at comic reviews and find there are basically three types – summary, cheerleader, critic.
The summary one retells the story of what happened in the comic. This is an easy one to fall into for me. It’s the sharing of my love for this style of storytelling that inspired the whole column to begin with. I want to share what’s going on with the title! However, a commentary or review isn’t about retelling the story. It’s to discuss the story with those who have read it or inspire someone to read it and then discuss.
The cheerleader one goes against my basic kvetching nature. Also if every comic book you read is yippeee-skipee wonderful great. I have to wonder about you more than the books. Trust me, comic book fans love to complain. If you are all rainbows, sparkles, and unicorns something’s up. I’ve come to the conclusion they are brownnosers. Why? maybe freebies from the big publishers, maybe promoting a friend’s indy, maybe just too Mary Sue to say what they really think, maybe secretly it’s the creative team doing the review (has happened in novels). I don’t know, but if all your articles on comics are rosy then I’m suspicious.
There there’s the critic or overly critical or a troll or just plain bitchy. This is the flip side of the cheerleader. Doesn’t matter what the title does it stinks. Sure there are occasional books that just plain stink even more rarely a whole title that stinks. These are few and far between. Publishers don’t invest money in actually printing if it is crap. Usually the art or the story will be a bright point in a book, sometimes it’s a matter of taste of if it went well. I can appreciate something that’s not my taste but well done for the genre it is. For example I’m not into Anime but I can tell great Anime when I see it – it’s just not my bag.
I try to strike a balance in my comments not reveal too much, not be overly approving or overly critical. I know I don’t always succeed. Sometimes I do. I’m not sure where the column is going, more toward review, summary, critique, or fangurling. I think it’ll waffle for a while longer while I find my Comic Comments voice. The one thing I do know is I’ll keep doing it. I enjoy it. It’s a labor of love. I don’t have anyone here in real life to share this interest with so I reach out here and occasionally get nods and emails from other comic book readers. Maybe I might even interest someone in picking up a comic now and again to look at it with a different eye than before. Heck if I can do that I think it makes it all worth while.
Next time I promise I’ll be back with a comic in tow to share. However if you can offer any input on how you see this thing going and what you as a reader want to see it do I’d love to hear it. Like Logan says your choice! Until next time peeps.
A special thanks to Diatribe and Ovations blog for reminding me of this skunk story. It always makes me cringe and laugh.
First let me set the scene, it was in my early days of working for this company. I was in one of three cubes in a large room that was once a waiting room like area for 4 offices. We were administration support for the production team leaders in the offices. Office doors never closed, we all got along and liked each other. It was like a big processing family with shouting and laughing back and forth. The radio played in the background as keys clicked and copiers whirled with the sounds of great people doing a good job. You know a good work environment like that couldn’t last and with layoffs it was decimated leaving those of us that remained over worked and separated. However in this golden era of enough work for everyone and camaraderie too boot is where the skunk story sets.
So in walks the young and newest production team leader. He’s not his usual self but quiet and withdrawn. He hangs up his coat in his office and gets to work. Everyone has a bad morning and we all figure it’s his. We leave him to his coffee and morning e-mails for an attitude adjustment what ever is needed.
It’s not long before people start asking one another “Do you smell a SKUNK?” Now this is odd because we are all in the center of a large shielded building. We processed radioactive waste and the office area has no windows or outside walls. Add to it that it is in an accessed controlled area that is fenced in and wild life is kept out. I know I walked the fence line regularly as part of my job. So needless to say it was odd to smell a wild animal.
Sheepishly from the unusually quiet office came the answer. “It’s my coat. I’ll take it outside.” He quietly walks the aisle between the cubicles holding out the offending barn coat. Yep, we all got a good strong whiff it was the coat. I’m sure every office from our quad to the door got a good whiff of that coat! As it warmed up it got more pungent.
Now we are all curious – how did his coat come to smell like a skunk? Needless to say all 6 of us were waiting for his return. Once he came back, clothes changed to scrubs (we wore scrubs under the canaries yellow protective gear and respirator to keep from risking contamination on street clothes) we all stuck our heads out to hear the answer. It was up to Oscar, the senior team leader, to ask the embarrassed young man what happened.
It all started with his new hunting dog. He’d been working with the dog and had gotten very close to it. So much so the dog went wild when it was about time for him to get home. So his wife, who was home with the new baby, had taken to letting the dog out about half hour before he got home so the excitement of doggie anticipation didn’t wake the napping infant. (The production shift changed at 3pm). Usually when he got home the dog would run circles about the yard in joy and greet him once he was out of the truck, having mastered the rules of stay back from the auto gate and running truck. Only that previous afternoon was different. As he drove down the road to his house the dog didn’t greet him at the fence and run the length of it barking welcome to the truck. As he pulled into the driveway, no dog in view. He was worried. He loved that new dog. Then suddenly from around the back of the house there came the dog tearing toward the truck with all he’s got. “Oh he was off doing doggie stuff at the woods and missed hearing me. Now he’s making up for it!” the young man thought. Well, before he could get out of the stopped truck, the dog jumped into his lap through the open door. “Aww it’s okay boy! You don’t have to run the fence welcoming me!” Then it hit him. The dog had just been sprayed by a skunk. Now it was all over him and the dog was rubbing his burning eyes on the truck passenger seat!
That was when he began the mantra of “I love my dog, I love my dog.” His eyes started watering from the smell! He got out and got sick as the stench was too great. Seems that the dog wasn’t the only one getting the tomato juice bath that night. The coat was washed and dried so many times and the truck sat with door wide open and fans blowing on the wet upholstery from a good vinegar and baking soda scrub. The dog was at the vet being shaved and treated for its eyes were chemically burned from the spray. This poor guy rode to work in snowy weather with his windows down sitting on garbage bags placed over the wet drivers seat. He’d parked his truck in the far lot and left it open to air out more. Now the offending coat hung on the open driver door and the clothes aired out in the bed of the vehicle. All told the infamous “skunk dog welcome” as it came to be known in the office cost the guy a bundle in vet bills, truck cleaning bills, and new winter coat. Yes at times his new mantra of “I love my dog, I LOVE MY DOG” became audible as he dealt with the incident.
Now whenever I hear a skunk story I remember the skunk dog welcome and how it took some time for our enclosed office to shed the smell. Until next time peeps.
Image from Card Cow and used from their embed on your website service.
I love books. I’ve always loved books. Trips to the library were great when I was a kid. My first memories of the library in Greeneville were the old one. The one that was the Carnegie Library. My mom read me the whole Wizard of Oz series out loud. I loved it. I carried on the tradition with Harry Potter until Aaron was old enough to read those on his own and didn’t want to wait the chapter a day that we did.
The children’s library was down in the basement. One Summer I remember I got an outline of the library for the summer reading club. As I read a book I got a brick sticker in my library. The goal was to build your own library on paper without Andrew having to give a penny. I was so proud when mine was finished!
Later built the library that is in use today. They had contest to guess what the new library would look like. I painted a picture of what I thought it would look like based on our police station, town hall and such. Turned out I was RIGHT! down to the decorative rail around the crown of the roof. I was again so proud!
Many of the books I read from there have become life long friends. My Side of The Mountain by Jean Craighead George was a favorite that I shared with Aaron. I fell for the love literary writing of Gene Wolfe in his Shadow of the Torturer. I found Gothic romance in Victoria Holt’s books and later matured to enjoy the historical fiction of Eleanor Hibbert’s other pen names. Some books – the titles are long gone from my memory as are the authors to which I owe thanks but their stories, their stories are dear treasured friends.
It wasn’t just the fiction section I loved. I remember getting books about King Tut’s treasures, the old west, Hollywood back in the Studio Heyday, NASA’s space exploration, and so much more. It was all there all free and ALL interesting. I knew how to research before I left high school just because if I wanted to know something I had full faith the library could tell me.
I fully supported libraries every where I went from then to today. I worked in our high school library my senior year. I volunteered full time for two years in Aaron’s elementary school’s library. I still can get lost in a library for hours just browsing. I love them!
Now don’t think that my bibliotheca amor negated my also loving bookstores. I bought and buy books at least weekly. Some old favorites are held together by rubber bands. Seems that some books are great guests you pass on to the next reader’s party and others become treasured family members of your shelves. I can’t tell you how many times I read Gone With The Wind or Jane Eyre in my younger days. Rest You Merry by Charlotte MacLeod has become a personal holiday tradition to read.
When I was driving a lot I got into audiobooks. I love them even more today. I listen when I’m in the car, cleaning the house, doing research, beading, walking the dog, on the bike, and so on. I love them. I prefer the spoken word over music most of the time now. I just can’t get enough of stories, fiction or nonfiction, comic book, printed, or audio – tell me something, tell me something new, tell me something interesting – take me places I can never go, introduce me to people I could never meet, let me be someone else in a new world for awhile. That’s what happens when I read or listen to a story. I’m no longer bored with every day life chores. Audio books have their place but nothing is the same as curling up with a book and immersing yourself in the story, history, life, – the power of the written word. Which is why I aspire to be a writer I’d guess.
So now the question in the title. I say I’m a biblophile – a book lover. Mike claims that no I’m a biblomaniac – crazy over books. We used to playfully argue the point. Really it doesn’t matter – I’m happy. I enjoy books in any form but I think honestly my deepest love still goes back to words on paper – don’t need electricty or programs or players or viewers. Just a bit of light -the sun supplies that daily here- and the willingness to be transported without going anywhere.
Photo by me of the window at the Simmons Library in Kenosha. I used some effects by Pixlr photo app for Google Chrome.
I’ve already posted the first 20 posts of my series on G+ that I called Creepy October . These are tales based on truth that have a creepy/mysterious almost spook aspect to them. I stopped at the post on the 19th. So here’s the list for the rest of the series. If you enjoy this kind of thing hop over and learn more.
Oct. 20th The Ghost Blimp of WWII a USA blimp on patrol off the coast of California don’t forget this was the area of the battle for LA the real incident took place
Oct 21st Resurrection Mary the famous hitch hiking ghost from Resurrection Cemetery in October and the women that might have been the source for the legend
Oct 22nd Teresita Basita Case a strange case that really took place in Chicago in the late 70s that seriously brought up the subject of ghost testimony in court
Oct 23rd Robert The Doll the creepy supposedly possessed doll in Key West
Oct 27th The Mad Gasser of Mattoon Was anyone really gassing the citizens of small towns in Illinois and Virginia? If so who was it and why do it?
Oct 28th What Happened to Fredrick Valentich? A pilot flying over the Australian Outback disappears but first he radios back a strange description of something…
Oct 29th Strange Love of Carl Tanzer back to Key West for the odd story of obsession, grave robbing, necrophilia, and love?!?
Word count – something you hear a lot about once you delve into writing. There’s NaNoWriMo where the goal is 50,000 in a month no matter what. Books on wriitng talk about daily goals in word count. Publishers call for pieces by word count. Publishers often state pay by the word. When writers talk about how their writing day went it’s in word count. So yeah, in writing, word count counts.
As a newbie I struggled with this concept. On one hand it’s not hard for me to churn out 3,000 words a day. Then on the other hand I tend to ramble, those aren’t sellable words they’d be edited down to say 1,200 or so. Part of my growth as a writer was coming to terms with word counts and using them productively. The hardest writing isn’t getting big numbers but saying what you want to say in small numbers. Writing short is the hardest. Mike learned that this weekend when a 500 word paper took him 16 hours to write, where as 3,000 word paper on the topic would have been easier.
Why Count? Words Per Page
First let’s look at why word count is the industry standard of measurement. Printing isn’t cheap. The expense of making a paper book is a major investment by the publisher. Depending on font size, layout design, and type of book the word count varies from 250 per page for large print books to 1,000 per page for pure reference books. Novels fall about 350 – 400 words per page. Sure this is going to change given ebooks. But then again just how that will be is still up in the air, the market is still hashing that one out. Right now if you want sale success like Harry Potter, Twilight, and 50 Shades (and honestly what writer doesn’t?) printed paper books are a driver in sales and a marketing tool. Word count is a measure of printing expenses that the publisher is ask to bear up front.
What’s a short story word count? What’s a novel?
The next question that arises is how many words in a novel? The typical answer is 75,000. That’s a good median number across genres. The truth is NaNoWriMo is short even for the lower end of the genre scale. I’ve read many blogs by very successful agents and editors all agree the kiss of death is to fall outside the industry accepted range for your genre. Every type of book has what’s expected in word count driven by printing concerns and audience preference for length (we’ll get back to this idea) be it a children’s book, young adult, fiction or non-fiction there are industry ranges.
I mostly deal in fiction. I’ve sold short stories and I want to sell novels. The short stories I’ve sold have fallen 3,000 – 5,000 words, the industry guidelines for shorts ranges from 1,000 – 7,000. So my experience has fallen right in the middle of that. Steampunk gets a large word count than say noir mystery because of the genre tropes. This concept carries over to novels too. Depending on the genre word counts for novels vary widely. On the low end are cozy mysteries and category romances these can be as low as 55,000 but no higher than 80,000. The high end is high fantasy and literary running 80,000 – 200,000. I tend to write mystery, thriller, or crime type of stories those fall again in the middle 75,000 – 90,000.
These aren’t set in concrete and are hazy at the ends so do some research reading several agent and editor blogs to get an idea of your specific market. Also if you are writing to a contract, hold to the requirements do NOT exceed or fall short. Second if you are writing or submitting to a call – meet their guidelines it’s one of the first ways they thin their pile is tossing out the too short and the too long without reading them.
What drives these counts for different genres?
Also consider your sales record as a writer when setting out your word count goals. Let’s face it, proven best selling authors get carte blanche almost when it comes to word length. Just look at Stephen King’s The Stand or the advancing size of J K Rowling’s Potter novels to see it in action. If either of them hadn’t had millions if not billions of sold books under their belts and proven best sellers on release day those books would have been much smaller. For first time writers writing within the call and guidelines is the best, don’t push either end of your chosen genre’s limits.
Another word about these guidelines for novels, they are always in flux. Reader preferences as well as printing expense drive them. What a modern reader generally reads for is action and experiences. Where as the Victorian reader read for description. Think about that for a minute. If we want to know what it is like in India we hop on the internet and see pictures, documentaries, articles, chat with people in India and maybe even book a trip there. It’s easy for us to see it virtually or in real life. Not so much so in Victorian times, they couldn’t do that. Photographs were new and expensive. Travel was expensive, arduous, and rarely for great distances. Printing was affordable so they read to ‘see’ what new places were like. Today we can easily see a place now a reader reads to experience things he can’t. It might be a thriller or might be another life in an exotic place.
These preferences drive word counts. steampunk, fantasy, science fiction readers read more for the life in an exotic place reasons these take more descriptive scenes. Description takes more words than action. So these get higher end word limits. This even showed true going to my short story experience. On the other hand – mystery, police procedural, thrillers all take place in a world we know but the reader is there for the action. So those have lower limits, the writer doesn’t have to establish the world- it’s already there and the reader knows it.
Do chapters have word count guidelines?
We’ve talked about page word counts. We’ve talked about total story word counts. What about chapters? If you thought the other was kind of fuzzy, chapters are totally blurry. There are lots of avenues of thought on this. Some will say let the chapter breaks fall naturally where they may as long as you are in the guidelines total limits good! Others will say 2,500 to 3,500 words per chapter for action based stories and 3,500 to 7,000 for more world building stories. Others will favor ending the chapter on a hook or cliff to pull the reader forward into the story.
I listened to all the pros and cons of the stances on chapter lengths. I then went to the library and looked over chapter sizes in best sellers in the genre I aspired to write. I also looked at how each chapter ended. Was it with a hook, a cliff, or end of scene or mixture? I also thought about myself as a reader. What chapter types did I like to read in this genre? I realized I often say to myself – I’ll read to the end of the chapter then I flip to see how many pages that is. If it’s a lot of pages I don’t and stick my bookmark in it then go off to the next thing. If there’s just a few I’ll read on. Same about the ending. If it’s end of scene I’ll put the book down. If it’s a hook or cliff I’ll look at the next chapter’s length and if it’s not too long I’ll keep reading.
Finally I talked to authors. Not newbies like me but experienced ones. Ones that have had best sellers. Ones that have multiple novels published. Ones that have had multiple books published not only in various genres but in both fiction and non-fiction. I came away with several things. The first important one was stressed over and over – stay within the overall guidelines. Second it’s easier when planning and writing to set word count expectations for chapters. Thirdly I had several in my genre say that their writing went faster when they accepted the idea that chapters end with a hook or cliff as well as the 2,500 to 3,500 word count guideline. Also a few noted that with planning and those guidelines their amount of proofing/rewriting time dropped drastically. So given what I saw published, what I like as a reader, what experienced well published authors were telling me – I settled on those as my guidelines. Ya know what? That USA Today best seller knew what she was talking about! It is easier to write and plan with those in place.
Word counts count if you decide they do.
In the end it comes down to why you write in the first place. Are you writing to sell? If so then yes they count. They determine if an agent or publisher looks at your manuscript. They determine your pay. They effect the style and structure of your story. They are driven by the market both aspects economic and customer preference. IF your are writing to sell then do your research know what is expected and meet those expectations.
IF you are writing for enjoyment – yours and your friends/family. Then no, they don’t count. You don’t have to worry about how many words you have any where. If you fall here don’t worry just tell your complete story well and enjoy.
This photo from the Haines Museum in Waukegan IL. I made it when we toured the museum. Then for the theme of Creepy October I used Pixlr-O-Matic to add creepy effects.
It all started unintentionally on October 2nd but by the 9th it had become intentional. Now I fully mean to make it to November 1st. What am I talking about? My posts on Google + about creepy stories based in truth. That’s what! I’ll warn you I’m a prolific poster on G+. It’s where I go to share neat stuff I happen upon and where I go to make long rambling posts about the day. But in October I started adding a link to something creepy in honor of the pending holiday of Halloween.
If you’ve been reading for long you KNOW I love the odd, strange, bizarre, and creepy. Yes sometimes I like to be among those things most like me. As I found myself posting more oddities I thought why not share some of my favorite strange stories each day. I’d kick off telling about how I encountered the story or what I thought of the story then I’d link to a site that went more in depth. Then like all things when you try to think of them – uh brain freeze. Still I’ve made one a day since the idea hit me. Last night at writer’s group I asked for refreshers on creepy stories particularly ones local. Now I’ve got a list to keep me going some suggested by friend others ones that hit me as the suggestions were flying.
Here’s links to the Creepy October posts so far:
October 2nd Creepiest New Species This is the post that inadvertently set off the idea.
October 3rd 10 Creepiest Graves The idea is taking shape here getting more Halloweenish
October 8th 10 Haunted Roads Missed a few days and still using the wonderful Listverse but you have to admit they are a great source and addicting too!
October 9th Mysterious Harlequin Ahh now the idea has fully formed in my head. I’ve branched out find stories. This one is creepy!
This gives you a peek at what I do on other streams. You see Flickr often and my Twitter feed is on the lower right of my posts. BUT you don’t get to see my G+ so much and thus I thought I’d share. If you are over there find me and join in the fun! If not enjoy these posts and the links they provide. Also if you know of creepy tales based on truth – tell me I LOVE THEM!
This is my credenza after the last clean out. If you click over to Flickr and put your mouse over the image there are boxes commenting on the wall collection. Oh I’ve gotten new curtains since then…
There wasn’t room to turn a thought over in my office any more. I mean physical room to do it. I’m one of these people who can’t think when clutter gets to be too much. I’m not sure what my threshold is but I reached it in my office. The clutter may or may not be where visitors can see it, generally it’s not. Clutter on shelves, in drawers, in closets behind closed containers takes up space for me to think. I can’t explain it but it does. It’s all part of the Mary Louise Cycle of cleaning. First I start out orderly and vow to keep it that way. Next I become productive. Then I over extend a bit and clutter builds on surfaces. This is followed by putting it away. This step is known as the CLEAN UP. The next part is away gets filled up. Then clutter comes out onto the surfaces. Then I deal with it on the surfaces but start being nagged by the away that is full of stuff I don’t need now and haven’t needed in some time. Then I get bogged down, I can’t think. I feel closed in by stuff – stuff put away in the crammed full away. I try to find something and the packed full away gets in the way of finding that thing. I remember back at the beginning of the cycle when I could put my hands on things quickly because I didn’t have to dig in the cleaned up stuff to get to the important thing. THEN comes the CLEAN OUT.
The CLEAN OUT is a big deal because everything gets emptied, sorted, evaluated, and categorized. There is the I need this stuff that goes back close to hand. Probably the type of thing was looking for when I got fed up with digging in the Cleaned up stuff clutter stuff. Then there is the donate stuff. It’s served its purpose for me. Time for it to go serve someone else. This is followed by the keep until I need again stuff. This is mostly resting writing projects, genealogy documentation, or reference books. I tend to let large projects rest a month or two before going back to start rewrite or edit. I find the distance helps me. Finally the tiniest category of all is the keep just because I like it stuff. This applies to a very few books, a few things Aaron gave me when he was a child, some art supplies, and a box of pens. My rule is this stuff cannot exceed one file box. Nope never. So far I’ve not had to toss anything because the file box isn’t full. I’m VERY discerning about what goes there and I’m a damn good packer.
Why do I tell you this? Because for the last two and half days I’ve been involved in a major CLEAN OUT of my office. In many ways I’m heading into a new chapter of life. Aaron is on his own. I’ve just finished a 2nd draft novel. I’m approaching surgery and recuperation time. It’s a transition period for me to the next thing. Not that I’m ending anything I’m just building on it, like one chapter of a novel builds on the next. Yet you know from reading chapters end signaling a change in the on-going story. Life is the same. I’m ending one chapter and moving to the next.
My office is my sanctuary. It’s my place to be me and from there build outward to the home, the house, the town, and the world. I want my sanctuary orderly as I venture into the next chapter. It helps me build if I’m not digging through clutter to find the important things. What’s important in tangible things change over time. That years worth of bank statements that was so important for my first mortgage approval doesn’t matter now. That book I enjoyed but is over can be passed on to someone else to enjoy. I want to be surrounded by what appeals to me now, what is useful to me now, what I need now, what’s important now. That can’t be EVERYTHING – decisions have to be made with what is taking up physical space and by doing that I also clear out mental space.
So far all the files are now in order. My desk top is clear. What is close to hand reflects current projects that are used at least weekly. The shelves here in my tiny office hold references I need for those current projects. Tomorrow I tackled the office supply drawers and the next day the office closet. So far I’ve three large grocery bags of books and a box of odds and ends for donation. I’ve taken out one large trash bag of stuff I don’t need any more. I’ve got some boxes of genealogy documentation that can be stored, the digital copies are at my fingertips. I’ve got a file box of a novel draft that needs to rest in the dark for 4-12 weeks. I’m sure a box office supplies we don’t need now that Aaron is out of school will be collected next for donation. Gosh knows what I’ll find in the closet – I’m hoping Narnia isn’t back there I’d have to have another cold draft I have to block this winter. Besides I need to make room so I can run through another Mary Louise Cycle in this chapter.
Mary Louise Eklund 