I lost my mind…indeed!
(and there’s your bastardized earworm for the day)
My aim in editing Word Count is not only to check again for any glaring errors and give it a brush-up, I want to add enough words to it that it becomes a novel rather than a novella.
Now, this is mainly fuelled by my paranoia and feelings of inadequacy. Word Count is a whole book and I am proud of it and have a lot of affection for Daniel (the voice of this first-person tale).
But…I can’t help how I feel when I refer to his story as a novella. As if it is somehow decked out in doilies and fringing; a thing of no substance that I might have knocked out in an afternoon as a kid and stapled together with a cover decorated in unicorns and skulls.
(I was a weird kid, don’t ask!)
Actually, I’ve come to realise that there’s more to be said by Daniel and more that can be added without it feeling as though I’m shoe-horning things in there just to bump up the word total.
So I work through it more slowly than I usually would when doing editing – which I usually attack with the speed of someone trying to swallow liquid cough medicine and not have it touch their throat on the way down.
It’s not a deal breaker – at the moment Word Count stands at 51,683 words and according to the All-Knowing Search Engine it should be at least 60,000 for anyone to take it seriously as a ‘proper’ book and let it join their gang/sit at their table in the canteen.
Do I really care about all that? Not really. When I write my books my only goal is to reach at least 50,000 words because I’m usually doing it as part of NaNoWriMo. If I was happy with the book I would leave it as it is and proudly call it ‘my book’. But…having a goal in mind doesn’t hurt and spurs me on to get the job done. I may not care what other people think but I am proud of Daniel and want him to achieve Book status rather than …book… status.
So I will forge ahead, adding bits here and there and making sure that my mistakes are few and far between, if any.
Just as long as I don’t start constructing long-winded sentences just to add precious words, I think we’ll be alright. If Daniel’s anything like me, he can talk as an Olympic sport so my issue might be in getting him to stop once we get started…(hopefully!)
The Reluctant Writer 