Yesterday, I hit the 50% mark on my current Epically Fantasy project. There can be no celebrating, no rejoicing, because it is, of course, all a lie. I’ve no idea if I’ve written 50% or not, and it eats at me.
What I’ve actually done is written 40k (41k as of this morning) of a projected 80k novel. Is it really going to be 80k? I have no idea, because despite all my efforts I can’t seem to get a cohesive outline out of my brain. I see the story, I know the flow, the ebbs and peaks and such, but I’ve yet to successfully pin down enough to be able to say “yes, these are the definitive sequence of events that shall be this story!” And without that, I find it hard to estimate how long each section will be, so the whole is really out of the question.
So why did I chose 80k as my arbitrary number? Because its doable. While on the low end of fantasy book lengths (which average closer to 100-120k), it’s still considered a reasonable length. That’s about 300 pages, a page length I’ve really learned to appreciate in recent years. As I look at what I’ve written so far, and what’s still left to write, I think I might exceed that mark, but I should at least make it. In other words, the number doesn’t really represent anything at this point except for an ideal. It would be nice if it did, and with a better organized brain I could probably make it, but the reality is that that 50% marker is just a self motivating joke.
And yet.
And yet it sure is nice to see that progress indicator start to turn from red and orange to yellow and green, to see that percent done inch closer to 100.
Related articles
- Getting Real (ephixbooks.wordpress.com)
- On Writing: Finished Book II (thinkinglazy.wordpress.com)
- 7 Writing Lessons from George R. R. Martin (siripaulson.wordpress.com)
- Five By Five: 25 Questions About Writing By Non-Writers (occupiedandpreoccupied.wordpress.com)
The Halfway to Nowhere Mark [writing] http://t.co/ASpKVwXGDe