word count days 254 and 255
Yesterday I produced about 1000 keepable words for Skein. Beginning in media res I kill the hero first thing. This sorta creates a gap in my lineup, but I'm developing a workaround.
I have to be careful of two bad habits I have: Writing long and meticulous research.
A novella is harder to sell than a short story for an unpublished fantasy writer such as myself. Until my name on the cover is a draw, editors will be more likely to give me a try if I don't send them something that takes up half their fiction space. I put a lot of nifty world building into today's writing -- material I may need to excise and store for use in later works.
Also spent too much of today picking out what crops would be growing where my people are and making sure I had the mechanics of medieval felting right and playing with names.
I really want to call one of my main characters Wepwawet, but it's hard to misspell that into anything that sounds impressive to ears accustomed to English. May just misspell the less popular variant of his name, Upuaut, into something suggestive of martial prowess. At the moment he's "GUY2." Yes, I use placeholder names until the right one occurs to me. I know some writers who cannot write until they have the names all worked out. As one once explained to me, she can not tell a story until she knows who it's about. For me who the story is about is also vital, but what I name that person is a function of what best serves the story.
I have to be careful of two bad habits I have: Writing long and meticulous research.
A novella is harder to sell than a short story for an unpublished fantasy writer such as myself. Until my name on the cover is a draw, editors will be more likely to give me a try if I don't send them something that takes up half their fiction space. I put a lot of nifty world building into today's writing -- material I may need to excise and store for use in later works.
Also spent too much of today picking out what crops would be growing where my people are and making sure I had the mechanics of medieval felting right and playing with names.
I really want to call one of my main characters Wepwawet, but it's hard to misspell that into anything that sounds impressive to ears accustomed to English. May just misspell the less popular variant of his name, Upuaut, into something suggestive of martial prowess. At the moment he's "GUY2." Yes, I use placeholder names until the right one occurs to me. I know some writers who cannot write until they have the names all worked out. As one once explained to me, she can not tell a story until she knows who it's about. For me who the story is about is also vital, but what I name that person is a function of what best serves the story.