There’s an interesting article linked on The Passive Voice blog about the importance of a table of contents, especially in ebooks. The article is geared mostly for non-fiction, which is a whole different beast from novels and novellas, but the discussion on TPV got me thinking: for ebooks, is it better to name chapters or… Continue reading Do you like your chapters named or numbered?
Tag: writing chapters
plot vs. PLOT and an interesting serial publishing idea
Back in English 318 at BYU, Brandon Sanderson used to tell us that there was a big difference between “little-p plot” and “big-p Plot.” The first applies mostly to chapters and scenes, which he said he could teach us. The second refers to the overall story structure, which he couldn’t teach in a classroom setting… Continue reading plot vs. PLOT and an interesting serial publishing idea
Danger: difficult plot ahead
Just a quick post before I turn in and try to catch up on the sleep that I didn’t get last night (insomnia sucks). I’m entering a very difficult part of the revision for Mercenary Savior. I’m a little more than a third of the way through the story (as you can tell from the… Continue reading Danger: difficult plot ahead
Bringing Stella Home 2.0 is finished!
Just in time for the new year, too! I finished it at approximately 11:25 pm on New Year’s eve 2010. Here’s the breakdown: ms pages: 491 words: 136,095 file size: 1,869 KB chapters: 30 start date: 14 July 2009 end date: 31 December 2009 And the wordle image: I’m glad to have it finished. It’s… Continue reading Bringing Stella Home 2.0 is finished!
Genesis Earth 3.0 is almost finished!
Yeah! Only five more scenes to go! I love revising. Every time I finish a scene, or a chapter, or a draft, I look back and think “man, this is so much better than it used to be!” Later, maybe, I look at it and say “okay, it still needs work,” but to know that… Continue reading Genesis Earth 3.0 is almost finished!
13,837 words in a day?
Yeah, that’s right. Believe it or not, I barreled through about 13,837 words today. That’s thirteen THOUSAND, not thirteen hundred. Now, only about a thousand of that was new stuff that I was writing. Most of the rest of it was rearranging scenes that I’d already written, touching them up only a tiny bit. I… Continue reading 13,837 words in a day?
Ugh. Just ugh.
Man, it was hard to write. So hard, I only just finished, and it’s 1:30 am. Ugh. The reason it was hard was because the character’s reactions in this scene needed to be totally revamped. That also necessitated a complete shift in the structure of the writing, because the rough draft consisted almost entirely of… Continue reading Ugh. Just ugh.
Almost at part 3
Wow, writing this novel is going a lot faster than I had thought. At the same time, though, I sometimes worry that I’m not going fast enough. I broke the 50k mark this week, and I haven’t even gotten to any of the major climaxes yet. This thing could easily go to 90k words before… Continue reading Almost at part 3
Progress!
I’m sludging through the middle of Bringing Estella Home. I’ve heard people call this the “blue collar work” of writing, all the parts between the beginning chapters and climactic ending chapters. I believe it. In particular, I was having some difficulty with chapter 7 last week. I have, basically, three separate plot threads tied up… Continue reading Progress!
update on the novel
Ughh……. Alright, in the tradition of last year when I would write until 2am every night and then blog on it before going to bed, here is another update on how Bringing Estella Home is going right now. It’s getting tougher. I’m right in the middle of it right now, in chapter 7, and I’m… Continue reading update on the novel