Manuscript hints and Publisher news

This is an incredibly helpful blog entry by famous author Kim Harrison, from her blog over at wordpress.  She goes into formatting and spacing and all of the nitty gritty type details publishers are looking for that we're all dying to figure out (or maybe that's just me and everyone else already knows these things??).

http://kimharrison.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/formatting-a-manuscript-one-way-to-do-it/

Also of news is this blurb from publisher Harper Voyager (click the link to go directly to the submission guidelines page):

"For the first time in over a decade, Harper Voyager are opening the doors to unsolicited submissions in order to seek new authors with fresh voices, strong storytelling abilities, original ideas and compelling storylines. So, if you believe your manuscript has these qualities, then we want to read it!

We’re seeking all kinds of adult and young adult speculative fiction for digital publication, but particularly epic fantasy, science fiction, urban fantasy, horror, dystopia and supernatural. For more idea of the type of books we love to read and publish, check out our authors and their titles at www.harpervoyagerbooks.com"

This is great news to anyone who is ready with a manuscript that they're dying to submit to a publisher.  I am not anywhere near this stage, but maybe some of you are.  It sounds very exciting and makes me want to hurry and finish my book in the next week so I can make the deadline.  If you are anywhere close I'd say go for it!  Happy Writing! :)

-Kiera

28,734 words and counting

Finding the time...

So remember how I was all excited for school to start because it would mean I had two full hours five days a week of uninterrupted writing time?  Well the first week went really well.  I averaged about 1400 words a day for the first four days.  The fifth day I fell asleep and took a two hour nap instead of writing.  Then came Labor Day weekend.  We had company over and any time to write went out the window.  So come the next Tuesday I get on the computer to write some more.  I only managed 600 words that day because I wanted to watch this silly show I had been catching up with on Netflix.  But I figured any words are better than no words and shrugged it off.  Then Wednesday I totaled my car.  I decided that day deserved a nap.  Thursday and Friday as well (naps are awesome btw).  So here we are to Monday again and if I wanted to add up all of my missed days I could think that I was about 6400 words behind schedule.  But that's gets kind of depressing so I am choosing to think more in terms of I've added five days (so a week) to my writing time.  Had I continued at the 1400 words/day pace I would have finished my first draft at the end of October.  As it is we are now going into November.  But that's assuming 80k words which I may not need to tell the story.

Also, once again I feel like the story is boring and I don't want to write it and if I don't want to write it then no one will want to read it, etc, etc...  However, even if it is the worst manuscript in the history of writing (and surely it can't be THAT bad) I think I should still soldier on if for no other reason than to get to my next book which has a much more interesting plot (in my opinion).  What do you do when you're sick of your own story?

-Kiera
61 pages (88 paperback pages),
22,040 words and counting.

First Draft Complete!

I can't believe I finally did it! I started this book three years ago! After stopping for months at a time I finally got into a good rhythm a few months ago. There is so much work to do on this draft. I changed names, character descriptions, and little plot lines throughout the book as I went along. I plan to re-write the first chapter too. But that's okay! I AM FINISHED WITH MY FIRST DRAFT!!! This was the biggest goal I ever gave myself, and I can't believe I finally accomplished it. I AM SO HAPPY!

First Draft Word Count: 68,833
Double Spaced Pages: 216 (I think that'll be around 275 novel pages.)

Should you be writing?

I've been having trouble finding the time to write this past week.  Really it's because I find the part of the story I'm on tedious....then I think the reader will find it tedious...then I'm loathe to write it...then more time passes....  Anyway I found this tidbit on facebook and thought I'd share with the group:

Seems like sound advice.  Happy writing. :)

-Kiera

16,047 words and counting

The Problem with Tensed Tense

One of the biggest problems that I face while writing is the use of tense. I have a habit of switching back and forth between past and present. When I start typing my story, I begin with past tense because it's a little easier to tell a story from that point. However, as I get into the story, I feel a part of my main character and get drawn into his world and begin describing the things I see in my mind's eye. Unfortunately, that includes switching tenses to the present.

By the time I've caught myself doing it, I have already written a page in present tense. The only thing I can think to do after that is ignore it for the time being.

Here's the way I see it: If you're on a roll and your creative bug is wanting out, let it flow. If you stop to worry about grammar early on in the writing process, you're going to be beating yourself over the head quite a bit and the next thing you know, you've given up on writing. I know. The book I'm writing now is about the fourth one that I've started on. With this one, however, I've made the decision to remind myself each time I begin typing that this is called a ROUGH DRAFT for a reason... It's supposed to be rough!!

What is your biggest writing faux pas? What have you done to correct it or get over it and continue writing?

-Joseph

Average Book Length

So I was discussing with my brother-in-law the average length of a book.  I had also discussed this with a friend of mine recently and she told me she thought it to be about 80k words.  I could have sworn that I had read a few authors blogs where their books were totaling way over the 100k mark so thought that this estimate seemed to be a little too modest.  Because of this I have been aiming at 125k words (as stated in my previous post on goals).  However, as I said, I was discussing this with my sister's husband on facebook last night and he also said that he had heard from a fairly reputable source that 80,000 words was a good average length.  So, after hearing this twice from two different sources, I decided it would probably be a good idea to do some research for myself.

What I found is that for a first time novel, publishers are much more likely to take a chance on a 60k-90k book than on a 150k epic (closer to Harry Potter size then average novel).  This confused me because I had also heard that a page of written text in Microsoft roughly translated to a written book page.  So I was picturing needing to write 250 or so pages in Word in order to have enough for a book (which given I'm averaging approx 675 words/page would make it about l69k words).  This is not true.  I found one website that listed the average number of words on a regularly sized paperback is around 250.  This varies according to margin sizes, type, spacing, etc...   So I went and picked up two random books from my bookshelf.  One was a paperback, one a hardback, opened to a random page and counted the words.  The paperback had 243 and the hardback 267.  So I would say that the 250 words/page estimate seems to hold true.

So this means that right now my manuscript is on page 24 on Microsoft Word.  However I have 14,136 words, which would be 56.5 pages in an average paperback.  So where I was worried that my first chapter of seven pages was far too short, it would actually be 17 paperback pages.  I don't know about you but this makes me feel much better.  Instead of worrying that I won't have enough story to be able to fill as many pages as I need I now worry about making it more concise and to the point.  Also, I don't need to write a page and a half every day to finish by Christmas.  But, if I continued doing that I would finish by the end of November.  That's right, it cuts three weeks off of my writing estimate.  So I think this is reason to celebrate.  Who's with me? :)

-Kiera
24 pages
14,136 words and counting.

Goals

So I was sitting around today thinking back to when I was in college and wondering how I managed to get all of those paper written in such a timely manner.  The first thing that came to mind was the acknowledgement that I didn't have four kids back then or a husband demanding my attention.  But I was in school full time, worked 60+ hours a week at my student job and still found time to get all of my assignments done.  The trick was that there were deadlines.  When I had deadlines I was forced to prioritize my time in order to get all of my work done by the day they were due.  So I've decided that this book will never get written unless I set up some very definite goals and try to stick to them.

The first goal I have decided is that I will be finished with the first draft by Christmas.  My tentative goal is 125k words (is that realistic? too long? too short? yes I know, however long it takes to tell the story, but still...).  So in order to reach this goal I have figured out that I need to write approximately 1.5 pages a day (excluding Sundays, which I take off).  One and a half pages doesn't seem too daunting when taken one day at a time.  Surely I can make up something that sounds good for such a short amount of space right?  It's only when I start thinking of doing this every day for the next 20 or so weeks that it seems to become an impossible task.  How can I possibly come up with that much stuff?  But I digress.

My next goal, upon completing the first draft, is to finish editing my manuscript by the end of March.  This may be a little optimistic, I don't know as I've never edited an entire book before, but I think I can do it in that time frame.  So once I am finished editing then I will be ready to shop around for agents/publicists or what have you starting in April.  Hopefully this will not be as time consuming as the actual writing of the book as I plan to then start on my next book in May.  I read on Kim Harrison's blog that you should always have something you're working on so that should you find a publisher that loves you and they then ask to see more of your work you actually have something to show them.

Reading full time author's blogs I feel like I may be allowing entirely too much time to write/edit/etc.. this book.  They seem to be whipping them out start to finish in 3-4 months.  However, I've been trying to console myself that most of them are doing this full time as in eight hours a day whereas I am lucky if I get one or two.  Maybe if I didn't have all these other life details distracting me I could finish my book in four weeks instead of twenty, edit in two weeks and have a deal with a publisher by Christmas.  But I don't have that kind of time at this point in my life, so I will be content with my 1-2 hours.  Of course...maybe when all of my kids are in school for 8 hours a day and I'm a world famous author, I can devote more time to my craft. ;)

What are your goals?
-Kiera
20 pages,
12.353 words and counting...