So, haven't made as much progress lately as I did the first part of the month. But Oracle's Promise is coming along. I just really want to finish it since I've been writing this book for 7 years and never finished. I'm struggling to get through this draft for a variety of reasons. One of which is below the other WiP updates. The other is that I keep questioning where I'm going with this. Currently I'm contemplating eliminating the YA element of this all (names a protagonist who would be pre-teen/teen) and focusing the story where I currently am. We'll see. But every major change my mind contemplates I shove to the side because I just want to get the dang thing written for once.
Some random facts about Oracle's Promise:
Current draft: 39, 803 words and 85 pages
Original draft: 90, 931 words and 185 pages
OK, I'm doing good. You know why? Because the current draft covers just about everything essential from the original draft, plus some added intrigue and depth. My current draft has more chapters. And where I'm at now in the current draft is further along in the story than the original draft!
Yes, you read that correctly. I've cut roughly 51, 128 words! Wow!
Also, I've decided to aim my word count a little lower given this new fact. I was aiming for 120,000 words in order that I might be able to explore the story but have lots of wiggle room for slashing apart. Now I'm aiming more in the range of 90,000 words. So the status bar has been changed accordingly. Which is why you may have noticed a significant jump in percentage completion.
"The" appears 2, 741 times"Was" appears 421 times
"To" appears 1,106 times
That's according to Wordle. A fun little gadget on the web for finding those pesky repeats.
I've added a poem to ...Futile but I still have a ways to go on it. Most of the poetry in it is complete garbage, but that's because there are a lot of first drafts in there right now. I'm just trying to get to the page count I need before I start making major revisions to it.
As for the rest of the WiPs, "A Rose by any Other Name" is being critiqued bit by bit. Which I may or may not be fully prepared for. Sigh. We'll see what comes of this story once the entire thing has been through the critiquing process. My poetry collections that are in-progress are stalled. Mostly because I seem to have misplaced my mojo and lack inspiration for any poetry at the moment. Shattered Secrets, the other fantasy series I've got percolating, is totally backburner right now because I'm devoting so much time to Sunstone and to Oracle's Promise.
So, where does this week leave me? Oh, yeah, with a murder-mystery novel screaming in my head to be developed and written. I'm making sure to note down everything that comes to mind for it so that when I actually can devote the time and energy to it, I can remember everything that I've thought up for it. Problem is, I haven't read any decent number of murder mysteries or any related genre in a long time. I went through a Tony Hillerman phase senior year into freshman of college. But it faded. The man wrote too many books to catch up on them all. I did read a Hillerman novel last semester for one of my classes. So I'm going to have to go get a library card and force myself to read a library book. I hate library books. I don't know why, but I do. But I need to read a lot of mysteries if I'm going to write one of my own.
Love your comment 'which I may or may not be prepared for'...that's the way I feel about every critique just before it begins. Thankful for the help, but it's hard to put your stuff out there.
ReplyDeleteAnd, seems like your mind is an idea factory! If you ever get too many, send some my way, hahahaha
Don't you hate when there's a murder mystery screaming in your head? That line cracked me up. Get that one down on paper. =)
ReplyDeleteWow, you cut a lot. That's hard to do.
ReplyDeleteA murder mystery sounds good. I haven't read one of those in a long while. :)
You got it, Tess. And critiquing is hard.
ReplyDeleteAnne, it does read pretty funny, huh?
The weird thing on the cuts, Jennifer, is that I didn't realize they were happening at the time. I knew that I'd cut some unessential events, but the meat of it remained the same. So to be so much shorter has be both thrilled and concerned.
Wow, that's a lot of cuttage! Great job. I always think it's awesome when people cut and think their work is better. It almost always is for me, too.
ReplyDeleteWhy are you considering taking out the YA element? Just curious.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Elana! I don't know about better, but I'm pretty sure the pacing is a lot faster thanks to it.
ReplyDeleteGroupie, I'm considering it because I'm considering cutting my main character and her friends. I can't conceive of a way to actually start the book with her (the way I have the story laid out and how the mythology and such drives the story) and I really don't like her.
Currently, I'm finding excuses to not have to write about her. She's just fully entered the story and she's been unconscious for 4 days. I really find every excuse imaginable to write about my adult characters versus my 10-year-old MC and her friends (that she will make shortly) who are around the same age, maybe a bit older.
Yeah, if you're dreading writing the character, readers probably won't enjoy reading about her. I think it's funny that you've left her unconscious to avoid her, lol.
ReplyDeleteI'm learning that sending characters into an unconscious state is sort of a crutch event for me. I think it's happened five times excluding my MC, and two of those are the same character.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...draft 2 revision checklist seems to be growing.
But I'm going to keep writing draft 1 the way I have it laid out and see if I don't like it then.
I think the problem is that my MC is 10. And I relate older. Which naturally, I think, leads me to enjoy my 18+ characters infinitely more.
Whew, that is some major cutting! I imagine it must have been painful.
ReplyDeleteCritiquing is definitely not easy to give or receive, but if it's any help, just remind yourself that your critiquers are at least as inexperienced as you are, and what they say are just suggestions that you can take or leave as you please. AND they're probably uglier than you.
A 10-year-old seems like it would be really hard to write. I've thought about this, and I don't think I could write a believable character older than 6 or younger than 16. I wonder what that says about my childhood...
LOL
ReplyDeleteMy talking about critiques was in no way meant as a diss for any of the critiquers. Just simply my own ability to receive the critiques may not be quite where it needs to be at the moment.
Wasn't taken as such =)
ReplyDeleteI think it's like the old adage about giving speeches: Imagine the audience is naked. If you apply something similar to being critiqued it might take a bit of the edge off. Just a theory at this point though.
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ReplyDeleteCoco Chanel said "Always remove. Never add." Of course, she was talking about accessories...
ReplyDeleteEditing is a difficult, time consuming, and emotional process. I'm frankly jealous of your progress! "The Oracle's Promise" sounds intriguing.
You have so many projects...how are you doing it?!
Thanks. My biggest hope right now is that Oracle's Promise turns out half as well on paper when all is said and done as it currently is in my head.
ReplyDeleteAs for the sheer volume of projects, I work on most when I get the inspiration. The bulk of them are poetry collections that I add to as the poems come to me. My main focus is on Oracle's Promise.