Wednesday, May 24, 2006

81000 words

That's what the novel is up to now. My goal was 80000, the minimum to be sellable in today's market. However, I'm not getting excited yet, because there is a huge number of continuity issues in the latter 1/3rd of the novel caused by the massive insertion of material in the middle, so some of those words are going to be leaving. Good riddance, for the most part... the replacement for that material is much better. We learn more about what makes Kathy tick, we learn more about how downright scary she can be (BTW, I modeled that part after an actual kid I once knew -- he was a rather slender and fragile-looking kid who looked as if he ought to be the target of bullies but he scared the shit out of everybody because he was crazy and utterly ruthless, we're talking about the kind of kid who did drive-bys off his bicycle at 11 years old and had a reputation that if you crossed him, you were going to pay, and pay badly), she gets to do some breaking and entry, she even gets to meet Wallace at his apartment in a way that starts out with Wallace pointing his gun at her and ends up with her scaring the shit out of him (and we learn that Wallace has a floral-themed old lady sofa, what a mensch!). Sorry, no love scene with Wallace, you gals wanting some fan service there are just going to have to dream, I did imagine one with Wallace that might make it in at some future draft because it touches upon the relationship between Kathy and her father in a way that's rather revealing and also explains why she hasn't had much sex recently, but it just doesn't fit into the plot as it stands. Still, this means I'm going to have to make a third pass over the material once I get rid of those continuity issues to bring it back up to speed. Maybe Wallace+Kathy could happen then (hah!)...

Anyhow, second draft should be finished shortly. I have a four-day weekend coming up, hopefully that'll help. Unlike Prezniting, writing is hard work. I now have a lot more respect for folks like Stephen King who seem able to churn out good work year after year (and not-so-good work sometimes too, alas).

And oh, I'm still trying to figure out a decent title for the damned thing. This is embarrassing, I have all these great novel titles sitting on my hard drive just waiting for a novel to go with them, and I actually sit down and write a novel to prove to myself that I can, and it's not one of them!

-- Badtux the Writer Penguin

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