The Journal: The Ongoing Saga

In today’s Journal

* The Ongoing Saga of Recasting a Novel
* The Numbers

The Ongoing Saga of Recasting a Novel

The first two days went more slowly than I’d hoped. I hadn’t remembered how much of the original Book 4 was predicated on and directly affected by Isabel’s death. So cycling won’t work.

Cycling means reading and allowing yourself to touch the story as you read. That is not helpful when recasting a book. Remember, I’ve never done this before so I’m learning as I go.

As I read, cycling through the book, my conscious, critical mind kept popping in: “You could probably keep this scene. Just change it up a little and make it work,” etc.

Fortunately, I soon recognized what was going on. So instead of continuing to read through the novel, I switched over to read my reverse outline. If a chapter or major scene on the RO had anything to do with the death (or the two ensuing deaths and funerals, etc.) I went to the novel, highlighted those chapters or scenes as blocks of text (without reading them), and hit the delete key.

In all, I deleted slightly less than half the novel. So I have a clean slate to work with after having been handed the first two chapters and several other chapters that have nothing to do with the death.

That gave me a clean “brought forward” number of 24,256 words. Then I added the two days of writing I’ve done thus far. So the total as of yesterday was 29,273. Which means if this novel runs true to form for the others in this series, I should have about 21,000 words to go. So probably a weeks’ work. With any luck, I’ll finish in 5 or 6 days.

By the way, if you’re one of those who thinks your words or scenes are golden (Golden Words Syndrome), don’t try this at home. (grin) But seriously, words are to a writer what nails are to a carpenter. If you find a bent one, toss it out. There are always more words.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Licensing Pioneer…” at https://wwd.com/eye/people/pioneering-fashion-licensing-executive-ruth-mccarthy-manton-dies-at-1234688061/. Thanks to K.C. Riggs for the tip.

See “Story #1 of Challenge” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/story-1-of-challenge/. Dean has challenged himself to write a short story every day of this year plus a novel every month.

See “Journey to the Center of the Earth” at https://www.outsideonline.com/2419910/journey-center-earth-cave-oilbirds. Possible story ideas.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 410 words

Recasting of The Journey Home: Part 4
Words brought fwd (before the death)………… 24256

Day 1…… 1735 words. Total words to date…… 25991
Day 2…… 3282 words. Total words to date…… 29273

Writing of The Journey Home: Part 5 (novel)

Day 1…… 4179 words. Total words to date…… 4179
Day 2…… 4825 words. Total words to date…… 9004
Day 3…… 2746 words. Total words to date…… 11750
Day 4…… 4032 words. Total words to date…… 15782
Day 5…… 2873 words. Total words to date…… 18655

Total fiction words for January……… 5017
Total fiction words for the year………… 5017
Total nonfiction words for December… 2540
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 2540
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 7557

Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… X
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… X
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 54
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 214
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31