In today’s Journal
* Six Novels in 90 Days? Almost…
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Yesterday, just before this Journal went live at 10 a.m., the last chapter of the novel wrapped. But something (that tiny little creative voice) was still nagging at me. So I decided to take a break. I went up to the house and announced the last chapter was finished, the novel was finished, and the series was finished.
And the nagging voice welled up. The series was finished—but not quite. I’d always thought this would be at least a 10-book series, but it just wasn’t. But there was still something missing. And the little voice finally told me what that was.
The characters weren’t quite through. They needed me to write an epilogue—a series epilogue—not only to put a cap on the series, but to provide a bridge to the next series.
Talk about getting input directly from the characters! These particular characters told me (loudly) they still have a lot of stories to tell, and they aren’t ready to let me go.
The only difference between this series and the next is that the major setting was the first-ever generation ship from Earth—a ship called The Ark—and in the new series the setting will be the new world, a planet the general herself named Terra 2. Should be interesting. There, I anticipate older characters will move into new roles (as we all do in life) and new characters will move to the fore.
Anyway, after the break I moved over to my business computer to write this, and then I headed back to the story to write the series epilogue.
Update: At 11:35 a.m. I ran the spell check and sent the new novel off to my first readers.
I don’t usually celebrate endings. I usually celebrate only beginnings. But for me, this one is a little special personally. It’s the last novel in a series, my 60th novel overall, and… I THOUGHT it was my 6th novel started and finished all in the first 90 days of this year.
Nope. For all the noise I made about it recently, in actuality I screwed up. I thought I had written Journey 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 since January 1, plus The Portals.
But spreadsheets and numbers don’t lie. Actually, I wrote the first 18,655 words of Journey 5 in Decemeber. What screwed me up was that I had also finished Journey 4 in December, but then chose to write a 21,873-word recast of it in January.
So I wrote enough words to have started and finished 6 novels during the first quarter, but in reality I started and finished only 5 novels: Journey 6-9 and The Portals. Oh well. It was a nice feeling while it lasted.
But no, in case you’re wondering, it isn’t important enough to set a goal of writing 6 novels in a quarter. Besides, the idea of it is overwhelming. The idea of even writing “a novel” is overwhelming. As I always have, I’ll write one sentence at a time and see what happens. I wish the same for you.
But I’m still excited despite my unintentional self-deception. Everything will change tomorrow morning, but at this moment…
* with my novel count, I’m on track to write 24 novels this year,
* with my fiction word count, I’m on track to write 1,134,102 words of publishable fiction this year, and
* with my overall word count, I’m on track to write 1,403,612 words of fiction and nonfiction this year.
I’ve never made 1,000,000 words of fiction in a year, so that would be cool.
In fact, all of that would be wonderful. It probably ain’t gonna happen (grin), but it’s great that ‘at this moment’ it’s possible.
If you haven’t pulled the trigger on writing into the dark yet, that’s fine. You do have a choice: you can control the characters from an ivory tower, or you can take off the robes, slip into some jeans and a t-shirt, roll off the parapet into the trenches and race through the story with the characters. I chose the latter. For me it’s more fun that way. I’m not responsible for the characters. I just report what they do and say. (grin)
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Writing Into The Dark” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/04/writing-into-the-dark.html. Good article, but WITD on Kill Zone? Could’a knocked me over with a feather.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 720 words
Writing of The Journey Home: Part 9 (novel)
Day 1…… 2019 words. Total words to date…… 2019
Day 2…… 3650 words. Total words to date…… 5669
Day 3…… 3760 words. Total words to date…… 9429
Day 4…… 2834 words. Total words to date…… 12263
Day 5…… 2959 words. Total words to date…… 15222
Day 6…… 3394 words. Total words to date…… 18616
Day 7…… 2727 words. Total words to date…… 21343
Day 8…… 3436 words. Total words to date…… 24779
Day 9…… 4043 words. Total words to date…… 28822
Day 10… 2558 words. Total words to date…… 31380
Day 11… 7097 words. Total words to date…… 38477
Day 12… 4077 words. Total words to date…… 42554
Day 13… 4953 words. Total words to date…… 47507
Day 14… 3574 words. Total words to date…… 51081 (done)
Total fiction words for March……… 88089
Total fiction words for the year………… 287077
Total nonfiction words for March… 21370
Total nonfiction words for April… 710
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 68110
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 355187
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 6
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 60
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.