Word count is an important thing to a professional author/ working writer.
Before I started my thing, I kinda had a feel for the importance of the number of words a good book held; especially those written by a creative authors. I never personally felt the actual weight of this importance until I decided to toss my hat into the self-publish arena. Of course, the moment I decided to take my writing career into my own hands, I lost the romantic appeal of being a professional author/working writer. Plain and simple I realized that if you don't write you don't have books and no books means no sells and no sells means no money; at least according to man's formula. Because you may write all you want, sell all you want, but at the same time you can't lose the spirit and art of it all. You have to find a way to balance the earthly hustle with the spiritual bank account. Meaning I must honor my schedule and decide where my energy and word count goes, daily. I only have so many words available to crank out on any given day and currently that number is averaging between 3,000-4,000. Sounds like a lot but it's not. Not for a professional/working writer. I still must maintain my website and blogs. I have a quarterly newsletter that debut in September. There are short stories and novellas to write and if I want to get a Patron account that means more writing for a special market. Then we must not forget the dream of telling novel length myths (93,000 to 100,000 words per myth.) Believe me, I'm not complaining. I know how bless I am to be doing what I love. I appreciate it. Besides, I know with time I will be able to increase my word count due to the development of my skill of communication and the invent of a good writing schedule like Mr. King spoke of in his book On Writing. Another thing that will help me to be able to increase my word count in an organic and spirit-filled way is my reading. Reading will continue to pay off in dividends incomparable. With that said, I will continue to write because that's what writers do. Including this website. It's not just a platform for me to sell my products its a way for me to remain in relationship with my readers and supporters. Because the other thing writers do is communicate and I have much to say. I think of my son, an entertainer. If he's not making someone laugh then he feels lost. If I'm not giving someone something to be filled by I'm lost and in many ways go insane. So, I guess I better write for all things in all directions and let the cookie crumble the way it wants. Dreaded word count. -Thanks for Listening Sabrina-Louise
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There are supposed to be two types of stories: Plot-Driven and Character-Driven. In the past I would have agreed but as I mature as a writer of stories, I see that a powerful book not only has fleshed out characters and complicated plots & subplots, but also bread crumbs for the reader to gobble up in order to become engaged in the relationship between reader and writer.
In today's culture readers also want messages and themes- there must always be a moral of the story otherwise "why bother". Readers want something for their $20-$30 they're handing over to the bookstore. Overall, this means that the recipe for baking a story has become more complicated; overwhelming the write or making progress move at the speed of a turtle. The solution . . . an outline which renders these problems obsolete. With an outline everything from the good to the bad is poured on the grill for the writer to see. With heat of passion and instinct, the unnecessary ideas are removed from the outline and the writing of the book is cooked with short order quickness. How can one constantly provide goody after goody of stories? The answer is outlines. When I first started I was a panters, I felt that outlines squashed my creativity therefore I went through the process of writing draft after draft of a complete manuscript or I would flat out quit the project. I didn't have fully developed ideas when I began, my stories were often dull, and my characters didn't have enough to do which is why my manuscripts weren't considered as a true contemporary seeds for books. But I stuck with the profession, deciding to learn how to structure a written story and plan my works accordingly; hence the promotion of the requirement of an outline for success, Outlines save more heartaches than they cause. Again, it's like cooking, an outline makes certain that you have all the ingredients, tells you what goes where and when, then allow you to sit while the writing of the story rises in you. Much shorter process than if you tried to cook it from scratch. Outlines keep the excitement going because you can skip around during this or that step of the process. Although some may tell you that the outline can be as short as a couple of sentences, I believe the more in depth the summary (which is really what an outline is) is the better. A few quotes, write-out of some body movement, and the writer's voice/style will find their way into the outline- very good stuff. Like driving on a road trip, outlining gives you a snapshot of the directions but lack the sights that you can only get with writing the book. So if you're for saving time, sanity, and confidence, then outline; you won't be sorry, promise. -Thanks for Listening Sabrina-Louise Andielle I used to believe that to write a selling tale you had to just focus on the characters. I thought that the people that occupied my mind and spilled onto the pages were enough- they satisfied me.
Often as storytellers we must choose between a character driven or plot driven story; in the past I've always gone with character. These were the choices given and to me there was no mixing the two. At least that was my understanding of the types of written stories. If we must make a choice then it will be character driven, I stated, since I believed that plot driven ones were too difficult. There were the subplots, the twists, the turns, and the climax and as a fairly new writer I just couldn't grasp it all. But, I'm a reader as well as a writer and soon I began to see that some of the most enjoyable stories written are what you consider plot driven. Being the determined astrological goat that I am I had to add writing plot driven novels to my list of things to beat. So, I studied and studied, printing out articles and blog posts, reading books and even attempting to write plot driven material myself. Now I'm at a point where I feel that it's starting to pay off. My current WIP (Lady Agape & The New Dimension) is allowing me to combine what I've learned and after outlining for this approx. 22 chapters, 93,000 word first self-published project, I see that climax is the one thing I skipped over . . . it's barely there, I'll be honest. Now how can you write a plot driven piece of work and not have a strong climax? I don't know but I designed one with my outline. Meaning, I now have to redo the final 25% of my project jiggling the story once more making that draft #3. This is a fact that doesn't scare me. It's just a short hand of re-writing. I used to wonder how people kept at an outline and didn't lose their creative impulse. Now I see that the same drive is there and with outlining you save yourself having to write the entire manuscript over. Therefore, I will happily write in a climax, a soul gripping one as a matter of fact. I will go back and redesign a few key parts leading up to this point. But most of all, I will no longer say that I am just a character driven writer because I have found the glory of writing about a plot. I used to believe that plot driven stories were too hard, now I know that they're no harder to write than character driven stories. -Thanks for listening Sabrina-Louise Andielle |
AuthorOne of those writer folk telling stories, reviewing the writer's adventure, and presenting the hero's journey. All wrapped in Spirit, the Kingdom of God, the Sanatana Dharma, the Tao, the Way, or the Absolute. Archives
February 2020
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