The new story has been swirling around in my head all day. I think my brain needs a break from The Novel, and this is a welcome diversion.
I deleted about half of what I wrote yesterday, and then wrote a whole bunch more. I am not sure if it makes any sense to anyone but me at this point in time, but I have brought the word count up to just over 1100. Why, oh why, are short stories so damn stubborn. I used to write them all the time, but never had to take note of the word count. Just looking at some old stories I have written, none of them fall in the accepted word count range, it would seem – either I write too much (like the one story is just over 10,000 words) or way too little (under 1000).
It is a strange concept this, writing towards a word count. I guess it helps to place the story from a publisher’s perspective, but I wonder if it also doesn’t force people to sometimes add into the story stuff that just shouldn’t be there, or remove things that should.
But yes, the short story is neatly formed and almost fleshed out. I am sure that, by tomorrow, it will have morphed again, but, for now, I am fairly happy with the track it is on.
I decided that I will not work on The Novel this entire week *gasp* and give it some time to breathe, and then focus on it again from this coming week-end. And then, for days on end, all I will do is eat, breathe and sleep the Novel, until I convince myself it is ready for agent submissions.
I did do a quick browse through Agent Query today, and have started making a list of the agents I would like to query, again. The mere thought of it makes me cringe, but I realise that this is a very important part of the entire process, so I will battle through it :)
The funny part of this is that I made a list a couple of months ago of those dream agents to query, and many of them are still on my list. I did discover a couple of new ones (with blogs to boot), so now I need to do some more research. I am just glad that the agents do have blogs, because it makes it so much easier to query someone you have some kind of a relationship with – even if it is mostly one-sided (because I am simply too shy to comment on the blog entries most of the time, or, by the time I read it, I will be comment number 364 in the list, which seems kinda like a ‘me too’ comment)
And this reminds me. I see I have 31 subscribers via Feedburner (today, at least), so there is at least one other person reading this blog. So, this is for you, my reader *grin*, tell me, why do you write? Do you write for the fame and fortune, or for a different reason?
2 comments:
It is really something meaningful and exciting to every blogger when they reach a new milestone or goal.
I usually drop a comment when I want to, will be subscribing to keep up with your posts.
Keep up the excellent tips, I have learnt a thing or two!
I have always thought that creativity in any form should be independent of any restrictions whatsoever. Provided the writer has the discipline not to get too self-indulgent.
Why I write? I guess the simplest answer is that it is the only medium through which I can communicate my ideas succinctly. And it has a unique permanence to it. Words when spoken sink in due course, when written they float forever. I think the inspiration to write in my case stems more from the necessity to express.
Post a Comment