4,000 words today. Best Beast Mode Day yet! The book is now at 10,600 words.
I didn’t get to my computer until about 3PM, so it’s a miracle I had such a good word count day. I dictated most of my words today to go easy on my wrist/thumb.
Also, at the bottom of each post from here on, I’ll start including status snapshots of what books I’m working on so I can document my progress,
I expected today to be a low day due to more family visiting. I also spent 3 hours on the road today with nothing but corn and soy fields as far as the eye could see. Just me, in my car, on country roads, listening to an audiobook. I was a great day for a drive, let me tell you. I got to do a lot of thinking and reflecting.
Tomorrow things go back to normal for a few days and then I’ll have a few more speed bumps that I’ll write about when I get to them. But so far, so good because I’m keeping momentum and momentum is everything in a challenge like this. (But zero is okay, too).
Someone asked yesterday about a blog post I did earlier this year about the stages of a novel. I thought it would be fun to bring this back, as I know many of you are attempting Beast Mode too.
EVERY NOVEL HAS STAGES
Novels are kind of like people. As they develop more words (or “age”), things start happening.
0-5,000: Young Manuscript. Needs your constant attention. Many novels fail here.
5,000-10,000: Adolescent manuscript. It’s still developing and you don’t know what it will become, but it’s still sweet and mostly plays nice with you.
10,000-20,000: Teenage manuscript. Things really start to go off the rails. This is when the “honeymoon” phase ends and, if things don’t come together, when people start abandoning their manuscripts en masse.
20,000-30,000: Adult manuscript. Around this range, the story itself is solidifying and mostly formed. It’s less problematic for you and you’ve got a handle on most of it. You may still deal with writer’s block somewhere in the 20s but it’s usually not as bad as during the teenage phase.
30,000-40,000: Middle age manuscript. Aside from a mid-life crisis somewhere in this range, it’s fine. It usually won’t give you trouble except for making plot lines and character threads merge. Sometimes that can be a challenge.
40,000-50,000: Senior citizen manuscript. The novel just wants to retire already. LOL. In my experience, this range FLIES by. Once I see the picture of the end, I turn on my turbo-thrusters and focus completely on getting the story done.
I’m being silly with the names, of course, and every manuscript length is different, but this is about the lifecycle that I experience every time. I’m always happy once I get to around the 66%-75% mark. It means the novel is a sure thing.
*
PROGRESS SO FAR:
Indie Author Confidential Vol. 6: With cover designer.
Writing App Book: 10,600 words
Writing App Tool: 10% complete
