June 4th, 2006
I wrote another chapter last night on my urban fantasy. I’m sitting at page eighty-two and I must admit, starting to get worried. I took a couple hours to chart out the rest of the book. It went okay. I think it’s a nice blend of action, romance and scary stuff. Here’s my problem, right now, I don’t think it’s going to be long enough. By that I mean, I think it’s going to fall short of 90K, which would severly limit the amount of places that I could shop the manuscript to. 
I’m going to go over the first five chapters tomorrow to see if they’re missing any information that needs to be there. I also have to start my edits on the other book, since I haven’t done that yet this weekend.
What do you want to accomplish this week?
I’m not much of an outliner. Prewriter? Yep, a terrible one — I like to totally build the world or galaxy or whatever before starting to write. Currently, I’m trying to work out some details about a new paranormal, sketching in how the rules function, and that’s requireing research.
Research is not my friend.. :::sigh:::
But I figure, by the time I have all these notes written, I’ll have a decent world to build up a good vampire-esque story in.
That’s my goal this week….
by Candice Gilmer June 4th, 2006 at 8:11 pmI think I need to find my study. No writing until I do so - I can barely move my chair because of all of the boxes of unpacked books. I hope you can find lots of spots to insert more information. Good luck!
by Eve June 4th, 2006 at 8:18 pmCandice, I’m like that with research…until I really dive in, then I have trouble ripping myself away from the research books long enough to write. It’s sad. Truly. Good luck with your world building.
by Jordan June 4th, 2006 at 8:25 pmEve, I think that’s good priority setting on your part. *ggg* Good luck getting those books put away.
by Jordan June 4th, 2006 at 8:26 pmI’d like to stay awake long enough on Friday night to bake a cake for dad’s birthday. Maybe make buttercream to ice it too.
Less than 90k should be fine. It’s when it’s less than 80k that you should start to worry, I think–I’ve been looking at guidelines for urban fantasy too. Might be the binding, but some like Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty series seem pretty short, as does Elaine Cunningham’s Changeling Detective Agency books.
by May June 5th, 2006 at 1:04 amI just want to get back into a productive mode again. The last three days or so I haven’t been able to do much of anything (including blogging).
by Bryan June 5th, 2006 at 6:53 amMay, I think it depends on the publisher’s guidelines. Most really don’t want the book below 90K. There are a few exceptions. I do agree that it definitely has to be a minimum of 80K, but I was even worried about hitting that until yesterday. This book is kind of writing itself, which is fun, but a little scary too since the ones that do that on me tend to run short. A couple of friends tossed out ways to beef up my subplots, so that my do the trick in the shortage.
by Jordan June 5th, 2006 at 8:31 amBryan, I hear you. I’m trying to keep the ball rolling, since it was SO hard to get started in the first place. Good luck!
by Jordan June 5th, 2006 at 8:34 amI have the opposite problem, Jordan. I’m never worried about adding stuff, it’s cutting.
I’ve got two things I want to complete this week. #1 is a chapter crit for one of my CPs. That one won’t be a problem, so I’m not sweating it. #2, though. That’s the toughie. I want to get a particular ms as close to ready for submission as possible. And that doesn’t just mean tweaks on the ms, which I’m doing too, but also completing a 200 word blurb and finishing the synopsis — the bane of my existence.
by Lynn Daniels June 5th, 2006 at 3:28 pmOne of the writers (published) puts in dialogue to extend word count because it increases space. What I want to acomplish? Make the changes from the written chapter review to 4, 5, 6 and get to crit partners. And, complete chapter 7, all 3 scenes. We have our RWA conference this weekend, Anne Stuart and Carla Neggers (much fun), so I won’t be working on Friday and Saturday. I’ll need to make it up.
by Ursula June 5th, 2006 at 6:15 pmLynn, I just did a rough synopsis for my urban fantasy. It reads a bit more like a blurb than an actual synop, but it shows the story pretty well. Good luck with getting your project together.
by Jordan June 5th, 2006 at 7:05 pmUrsula, My manuscript has quite a bit of dialogue happening. I think I’m going to stick with building up the subplots, but thanks for the recommend. Have a terrific time at your conference. It sounds like you have some great speakers.
by Jordan June 5th, 2006 at 7:06 pmI need to write a query letter and synopsis for two partials I want to send in, and I want to finish a short story.
In other words, lots of stuff to do and no time to do it.
by Karen June 5th, 2006 at 8:01 pmKaren, Welcome to my world of split attention. :/
by Jordan June 5th, 2006 at 8:59 pmWell I’ve accomplished one of my goals for the week, which was to mail out all of the June birthday cards. *grin* I am trying a new system, sending out all the birthday cards for the month in one batch, just to ensure they arrive on time. I get so tired of always missing birthdays for friends, so this seems like a good way to keep track and ensure that it gets done.
I am starting a new quarter so I’ve got to start thinking about research topics for my final papers already. Unbelievable we’re selecting topics in the first week. Other than that I’m trying to fit in some job hunting between classes and work.
by Shannon June 6th, 2006 at 8:07 amGeez Shannon, How do you do it? *ggg* I hear you on the birthday cards. I have fifty million of them for this month. In fact, I need to mail them all this week. Thanks for the reminder. (wg) Good luck picking a subject. I’m sure you’ll come up with a good one.
by Jordan June 6th, 2006 at 8:22 amI’d love to get the timeline for this novella sorted out and the beginning rewritten. (Fifty more pages would be nice but lets be realistic!)
by Cece June 6th, 2006 at 7:02 pmCece, I think you could do it.
by Jordan June 6th, 2006 at 9:10 pm….if I didn’t have kids
by Cece June 7th, 2006 at 10:41 amCece,
by Jordan June 7th, 2006 at 12:24 pm