layla: (Frank - make my day)
Layla ([personal profile] layla) wrote2007-01-30 05:51 pm

500 words a day

Awhile back, I started this YA novel. (One of many.) I got farther along on it than any of my other attempts, though, except for the utterly execrable 500-page fantasy/romance that I wrote in high school.

Anyway, I'm working on the YA novel again ... I spent all of yesterday evening and most of today doing revisions before realizing that I'm simply going to have to FINISH the damn thing before I can revise it successfully. The thing is, I started it with no idea whatsoever of where it was going, resulting in a disorganized mess of different plot threads until it finally shapes up starting in about chapter 4.

At this point, I have about 45,000 words on it, and I'm aiming for 60-70K words. After that I'm going to try to trim out about 10K words of deadweight, leaving me with a nice YA-length novel (where, I understand, 40-60K words is considered optimally publishable length).

My goal from now 'till I finish is to write 500 words a day, come hell or high water. That number is chosen because it's about a page in Appleworks and I have done the "write a page a day" thing before and found that it was do-able. If I actually can do that, I'll be able to finish by early March. I may have to revise that number downwards, though, considering that I'm concurrently working on the Freebird and HM graphic novels and the ongoing Freebird strips.