Nonetheless, in about a month and a quarter, I will be a grandfather. There are some days that I feel really, really old. At the ripe old age of 57, this is one of those days.
Because I spent my Sunday prepping and attending a baby shower (never really experienced the phenomenon that is weekend golfing until I went to a country club), blogging was the very low on the list of things that I needed to get done.
Nonetheless (hey, I'm getting good at working on archaic words into my writings) here I am writing this somewhat informative blog post.
In regards to my current writing project, Hot Mess, while I'm making steady progress with it (up to 80k+ words), it seems to have spun a little bit out of control. To whit, while I have 21 chapters written, I'm somewhere between one-third and halfway through the story. I'm at the point where the first part of the story plateaus/climaxes, which will be followed by the immediate valley/peak of the second part, which of course is followed by the third part doing a partial repeat of the second, except the story ends.
I'm finding it quite enlightening to discover and apply a few of the basics concepts learned from reading other books/writers, with the most notable being that to properly bring certain characters thought to be done with after a period time forward to further along/fill out the story. I think it's making this story more fulfilling and meatier. I'm also getting better at rounding out the various sub-plots so that they better compliment the main story plot.
Having said all of that, I'm now reevaluating what the final word count will be. Based on doing some research to figure out what kind of fantasy story I'm writing (low fantasy), I can say with confidence that the final word count should be either slightly south or slightly north of 130k words.
So...yeah. This will be a hefty novel for sure, as I'm already starting on a second three ring binder for this story, and while I have roughly ninety percent of the plotline endings reasonably figured out, I still have that remaining ten percent to figure out.
And a gentle reminder to everyone, I'm writing this entire story out by hand. Which means that I used approximately 220 sheets of paper (roughly ten sheets per chapter) to write this bad boy out, as well as two pens. As the bulk of the advice given to newbie writers these days is minimize/eliminate outside distractions, writing by hand allows me to not only eliminate about ninety-five percent of my various Internet distractions, but allows me to enhance my concentration to a level rarely seen these days.
And that is very acceptable in my life these days.
Have a happy Monday and a mellow Tuesday through Sunday.
{c} 2022 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved
Easier to focus on paper without the computer screen tempting one away.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on becoming a grandfather soon. Then you get to spoil the kid rotten and then give him back.
Thanks. I do intend to spoil them rotten.
DeleteI found it was the only real solution to my various writing issues. Once I was able to move back into my den is when all the temptations began to resurface after a 5 month hiatus of bieng in a very public place in the main house.
Congratulations on your upcoming grandfather-hood! If you think 57 is old, wait'll you get to be my age (67). ☺ It sounds like your book will be quite an epic. Great idea to eliminate the online distractions while writing it.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm joining a few friends who are grandparents at the same age as me, so it'll be interesting.
DeleteRe: writing. I decided that since I couldn't really type for extended periods of time, but could write (print very well and very fast), I decided to go with writing. The almost zero distractions (YouTube for the phone and nothing else) made it that much easier for me to concentrate with my writing.
Yikes, you are becoming akin to Stephen King length epics! My hand is cramped just thinking about it...
ReplyDeleteI love subplots that tie in by the close.
I am older, and last week, I became a Great, Great Aunt! My little Sis's granddaughter had a baby! Got to see the shower thanks to FB. They are in FL .
- Ev / SnaggleTooth
Congrats on becoming a great-great-auntie!
DeleteI had an inkling that this story would become an "epic" of some type. Most of, if not all of the basic plot points/elements were there in the original draft, so it was the simple (ha!) matter of fleshing everything out properly.
57, you mere child? When I was 57, I got my first tattoo! Carpe diem, Gramps!
ReplyDeletePerhaps, but I had a few coworkers who were grandparents one or two times over at my age.
DeleteI would love to get a tattoo, but it's the one thing that my wife has put her foot down on. She said that when she met me, I didn't have one, so she doesn't want to see one on me. Thus, only my children have tats.