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• Current word count: 35,826
• New words written: 539
• Words til goal: 4,174 / 188 words a day til the end of September

I’m almost at the end of this novel, and it’s exciting. In the chapter I just started, a bunch of questions from earlier will be answered; it’s an ah ha moment. Then I have the climactic battle chapter and the wrap-up chapter and it’s done.

I’m a list person. When I have a lot of things to do, I like to write lists and get the satisfaction of crossing items off when they’re done. So, for me, one of the things that I think has really motivated me the most during the writing of this novel is the word counts I’ve been putting at the top of each blog post. After each writing session, I’m itching to be able to cross off what I did that morning, so to speak.

And lately, one of the biggest motivations for me has been seeing  the “words a day til the end of September” number going down. This is how many words I have to write each day to make my goal of finishing the novel by the end of September. It’s the “words til goal” number (my goal being 40K) divided by the number of days left until the end of September (a date I aimed for after being imspired by other bloggers aiming for the same date). Today is the first day that number is less than 200.

Each day that I write more than my necessary goal, the lower that “words a day til the end of September” number gets and the more of a reality it becomes that I will make — or even exceed — my goal. I’m now hoping I’ll be finished the book by the end of this week, but this week could be busy, so I’m not sure I’ll achieve that. We’ll see. I’m still way ahead for my end of September goal, and that keeps me motivated.

I think making goals like this is a great way to keep yourself accountable with your writing, but make sure the goals are doable, and keep long-term goals and short-term, even every day goals like this. Each day that you achieve your daily goal will make you feel good and hungry to achieve another one. Before you know it, you’ll have finished another novel.

What are your short- and long-term goals?

Write On!

Current word count: 33,200

New words written: 1,317

Words til goal: 6,800 / 252 words a day til the end of September

On Tuesday, I overslept and didn’t write, but the other days have been slow but I’ve kept up my goals. My day-job has been busy and frying my brain, though — hence no blog posts all week. Sorry!

But today, we have a treat on DayByDayWriter. I am thrilled to have a guest post from Joy Preble, debut author whose Dreaming Anastasia launched in stores Sept. 1. I haven’t read it, but it sounds awesome, and I just love the cover.

Like many of us, when Joy wrote Dreaming Anastasia, she was balancing a dream of writing with a day-job, family and all the other things life throws at us. But, like us, she pursued her dream and now it has come true. Joy didn’t have any special contacts or anything to give her a leg-up in her publishing career. Like us, she had an idea for a story and a desire that wouldn’t quit.

Here’s Joy discussing her inspirational journey to publication. One day I’ll be posting yours!

Preble

So here’s the dirty little secret about writing as a career. It doesn’t initially pay the bills. Okay, there’s Stephenie Meyer. But then there’s the rest of us. And the truth is, I know some people who just take the leap, quite their day job and go for it. Well, I’m not one of them. So what I’m doing instead, is what most writers I know are doing – attempting a precarious balance of writing, other job, family, and personal life. Some days, I think I’m crazy. Mostly, I just don’t think about it too hard. Because the truth is, I’m besotted with happiness that I’m getting to do this thing that I’ve wanted to do forever. Someone is paying me money to write, and I get to have a real book on a shelf in stores all around the world. Can you think of anything better?

Five years ago, I was in my class room after school one day, getting ready to leave. It was a mediocre day in a less than mediocre teaching year, and I was in an equally mediocre mood. Okay, scratch that. I was scraping emotional bottom. I’d been toying with picture book writing and getting the occasional article published here and there, and I was the mom of senior in high school and I was angsty about the whole impending college thing. I’d been writing my whole life, but I’d never really pushed myself. I’d start and stop and start again.

Which was probably exactly what I would have done with this story idea that came into my head that afternoon when it suddenly started raining so hard that I decided to stick around until it let up a bit. The muse didn’t leave me much that day, but she gave me what would eventually become Anne Michaelson, my main character. Anne was smart and funny and snarky and not particularly happy. She knew more than her teachers, and she seemed to want something bigger than what she had. And somehow from there, a story emerged. What if, I wondered, she bumped into someone who could change her life? What if he was handsome and mysterious and had his own problems? What if he told her that she had powers beyond what she imagined? That she could change history? Would she believe him? Would she do what he was telling her she needed to?

And okay, here’s the funny thing: Lots of things changed in that moment. Not the least of which was me.

Let me interject here that it wasn’t quite that easy. I really was having the mother of all horrible school years. I really didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. And I didn’t just sit down and start writing, the story pouring out of my head all inspired and gooey and oozing with brilliance. In truth, I actually decided to look for another job. Yes, I was just that stubborn about the whole thing. But eventually, for whatever reason, I discovered that this time, the story just wouldn’t let go.

And so I wrote and wrote and wrote. In the fall of 2005, I had a first draft. By the summer of 2006,  I’d signed with an agent at Andrea Brown Literary. And in 2007, Dreaming Anastasia – then titled Spark – sold to Sourcebooks. In between, there were many, many rounds of revision. There was a miraculous moment when two of the agents I’d e-queried during half time on Super Bowl Sunday requested partials. And an equally life-changing moment when my then-agent Michelle Andelman chose to pull me from the slushiest of piles and represent this story that ultimately went on to become a genre-bending combination of fairy tale, fantasy, history, and romance. It was, I suppose, an act of faith for everyone involved.

In between then and now, Michelle left for other work in publishing. I’m now repped by the intrepid and wonderful Jen Rofe. The editor who’d acquired my novel also went on to work elsewhere, and I was placed in the very capable hands of Dan Ehrenhaft. Things could have turned out differently. But they didn’t. Dreaming Anastasia got a totally kick ass cover, and an amazing team of copy editors, and I learned the rest of what goes into making a manuscript into an actual book. (Hint: a lot!)

Dreaming Anastasia has been capturing people’s attention, and as I type this, it’s just a week until release day on September 1st. And mostly what I have learned is that sometimes even dreams you push aside for a very long time, can come true.

Current word count: 29,056

New words written: 541

Words til goal: 10,944 / 332 words a day til the end of September

Writing was a bit slow this morning, and just when I was getting somewhere, my hour was up. But I’ve put in notes so I can get started more quickly tomorrow.

I caught up on some blog reading yesterday and found Brittany Lary’s  Point of View post on the Four Corners Writer’s Group blog. She ponders first person and third person and asks how readers decided which format to use for their books. Like most of the commentors on her post, I think the story and characters dictate which to write in. Both my first novel and my current novel are in third person limited, but that’s how the stories came to me. I do have a story idea — for down the road — that feels as though it has to be told in first person, but other than that one, my ideas tend to lend themselves to third person.

I read a lot where people say they love first person because they feel as though they’re really inside the character’s head. But for me, first person limited does the same thing. The book is telling the story through one character’s eyes and thoughts, and if the character doesn’t see it, or wouldn’t think it, it doesn’t get in the book. It’s not like omniscient, where the book is narrated by an all-seeing being that reveals all action and all the thoughts. To me, that style is distracting and makes it difficult to be really pulled into a book.

But with third-person limited, the reader is just as much inside the head of the character as in first person. The only difference is, with third-person limited, you’re like in Being John Malkovich, you’re still yourself but looking through their eyes — and better than the movie, hearing their thoughts. But in first person, you are that person. Everything is I, so the reader has to become that character. For me as a reader, that can be distracting sometimes, because if the character does something I wouldn’t do, it immediately takes me out of the story. With third-person limited, if the character does something I wouldn’t do, I can still enjoy it because I’m seeing their life, not living it.

Does that make sense?

Just my two cents on it. What’s yours?

Write On!

Current word count: 26,471

New words written: 897

Words til goal: 13,529 / 366 words a day til the end of September

Another good writing morning.

Looking at my word count, and where I am in the story, I think I’m going to overshoot my 40K goal, but that’s ok. What is it Stephen King says? Your final draft is your first draft minus 10 percent, or something like that. And I know this book will need tightening.

My two main characters, the two point of views I’ve been writing in, have come together, and will be together for most of the rest of the book now. I had to make a choice as to which POV to stick with, and I’ve chosen the kid mainly because of the book’s audience. But I was thinking that I might later write the same chapters in the alternate POV just to see what I can discover about the characters and action. I might find new things that I want to incorporate.

Writing is a lot like acting, except you get to play every single role.

When I took theater in college (I have a degree in theater arts and mass communications), one of the aspects I really loved about acting was creating the characters, reading between the lines of the dialog to figure out the backstory, what made the characters tick, how they acted and why, their motivations. The why is the biggie, of course. When I wrote plays in college, I had to do the same for every character, but I could only show what I knew through the dialog and occasional stage direction.

Now, writing novels, I can explore the characters more fully on the page, but, unlike in playwriting, where you’re actively playing every role to produce the dialog, with a third-person limited novel, you’re only actively playing the role of the main character, but you still need to know what’s going on in the heads of the others to make their actions and dialog realistic.

Switching back and forth between the POVs of my two main characters has been interesting, and I found that when I wrote in one character’s POV for a while, before I switched, I had to scroll back to the earlier chapters to get back into the head of the other character so I could write in his point of view. Now that the two of them are having a conversation, it’s a little odd for me, as I try to actively play just one of the roles, because I’ve been actively playing both.

When I was at the SCBWI summer conference a couple of years ago, an author suggested we write a scene through a different POV as a great way to get to know our characters and to find new and different things to add into the story, the wonderful details that bring a story to life. Writing in the two POVs as I have been, I can see how that would be a really interesting exercise, because each character will look at a scene differently depending on their circumstances, and their view will prompt their actions.

Take my novel, for example, the 11-year-old protagonist will see his backgarden as somewhere safe and normal. He won’t describe it much, because he knows it so well. But, taken from the POV of someone who has never seen it, they’ll notice where the trees are, what kinds of flowers are growing, whether the lawn is green or brown. Seeing it just from my protagonist’s view, I might not see all the little details, but seeing it from the alternate POV, I can see so much more because I’m looking at it through his more innocent eyes.

So for us writers, it can be good to see each scene through different POVs, so we can get a complete picture of the story in our novel.

How’s your writing going?

Write On!

Current word count: 16,822

Words written today: 394

Words til goal: 23,178 / 367 words a day til the end of September

Additional writing: revised two chapters in first novel. Now on chapter 20 of 33.

Yesterday I said that, as well as working on my new book, I have been revising my original novel, especially the opening chapter. In fact, I moved a lot of parts around so that a scene in chapter two became the new opener, a scene from the original chapter one was placed in the new chapter two, and 4,000 words were cut. The opener of this book has had more facelifts than Joan Rivers (ok, maybe not that many, but close ), but this is normal, especially for the opening scenes.

To me, chapter one is the most important parts of a book, because it has to draw in the reader. The first few sentences have the biggest job of all. After chapter one, the second most important part of a manuscript is every other sentence, because each one has to keep the reader turning pages, and those at the end must resonate with the reader enough that he or she will want to treasure that book, recommend it to friends and seek out more by the same author. But that’s all after the reader has been enticed by chapter one.

There’s a generalization that most of the time, what’s written in chapter three is really the best start for the story because it takes a while for the writer to get into the story. This was very true for this manuscript. As this opener has had so much work done on it, I thought it would be interesting to detail it for you guys:

First draft of chapter one: POV not protagonist’s; scene showed the discovery of an item that is the reason for the protagonist to move.

Second draft of chapter one: same reason for scene but I tried a different POV, again not the protagonist (he can’t be in this scene). The reason I tried this second version of basically the same scene was because the first version was in an adult’s POV and I thought it would be better in a kid’s.

Third draft of chapter one: at a writer’s retreat, an agent suggested I use the same POV throughout, which meant I couldn’t use the item discovery scene as my protagonist couldn’t be in that scene. So my old chapter two, in which the protagonist is back home and first learns about them moving, became chapter one. This scene was reworked about three times for action as I got to know the character, but I’m not including them as individual drafts here.

Fourth draft of chapter one: In my new chapter one, my protagonist learned about them moving, but in chapter two he learned more about it as he eavesdropped on his parents talking, then in chapter three they moved. In the fourth draft, I realized that the story doesn’t start until they get to the new place, so I cut down all that back story to a couple paragraphs (at least it ended up being a couple paragraphs after many edits) and put it in chapter three, which became my new chapter one.

NOTE: All of this was before I had even finished the book! It was around this time that I got more dedicated, starting writing every day, and decided to forge ahead to the end of the book before I did any more editing.

In subsequent drafts of the full novel, the chapter one didn’t change too much from that fourth draft, except getting tighter and using better word choices. Until…

Fifth complete draft of chapter one: This was my latest reworking of the section, in which chapter two (technically, I think it would have been the original chapter four) became chapter one. Now in the opening scene, he has already moved in and is starting to explore his surroundings, the surroundings that bring him into the story.

I haven’t listed all the little word, sentence structure revisions that have been done in the various chapter ones. This lists just the major reworkings. But rest assured, there were numerous revisions for writing.

This kind of reworking is not unusual. Each story is different, and every time you write a new story, it will be different. But working on finding the best opening scene can take multiple tries. But it’s important work, necessary work. Many readers won’t buy a book unless they’ve read the first few pages and want to read more. I’m like that, and I know I’m not alone. If I’m interested in the title, I’ll read the jacket copy, and if I’m interested in the jacket copy, I’ll open the book and read the first few pages. If I’m not bored, I’ll buy the book. So, to satisfy readers like myself, I have to make sure that those opening pages really sing.

In my critique group a few weeks ago, a member of the group brought in his third revision of his chapter one and he sighed — with a smile — saying he didn’t think it would be his last revision. No, it won’t be. But that’s ok. It’s part of the process and part of the journey of writing the story. As I wrote all those chapter ones that eventually got cut, I learned about the characters. I now know more about the characters than what’s in the final book, and I think that’s the way it should be.

So, if you’re on your third and fourth version of your chapter one, don’t worry, you’ll find the perfect opener, even if it takes a few more drafts. The important thing is to keep trying.

How’s your writing or revising coming?

Write On!

If you haven’t already, check out my interview with author Chynna Laird. With four kids and studies for her B.A. in psychology, she has a lot on her plate, but still managed to write and get published two books. She’s an inspiration. If she can do it, so can we.

Quick check in:

Current word count: 16,428

Words written today: 392

Words til goal: 23,572 / 368 words a day til the end of September

I have a confession. For the last couple weeks, after I’ve reached my writing goal in my new book, I’ve been going back to my first novel and working on it again.

I submitted it to agents a few weeks ago, and at that time, I believed that it was ready. I had been through lots of revisions, and I was happy with it. But during my continued research for agents, I read two things that made me think I should give my novel another look: In two interviews, separate agents said they didn’t want to see a novel with an opening scene that shows someone moving as it’s unoriginal (I was guilty of that, but I didn’t think of it as unoriginal, as the move is pertinent to the plot) and I read interviews with different people saying the word count for middle grade novels is between 20K and 50K, topping out at 40K according to one (my novel was a little over 60K, but I had read MG word counts were upto 70K to 80K when I started writing it, so I thought I was well within the guidelines).

I had only sent it to a few agents and had gotten positive responses, but after seeing these things, it did make me wonder if I was hurting the chances of the book. I was well into my next novel, but I decided that I would at least look at my first novel and see if there were changes I could make. If I could figure out ways to change the beginning, I’d try it and see if it worked. All I had to lose was the time.

Two weekends ago, I did just that, rewriting the first three chapters (which had already been rewritten about six times). I found a new place to start the novel and moved a few things around to keep all the pertinent information and story flow. In the end, I managed to cut out 4,000 words and now the book gets into the story much quicker than in the earlier version. It has gotten good reviews from critiquers so far.

I’ve now got around 54K words and would love to get the whole thing below 50K, but I’m not as concerned about the word count as I was the opening. The interesting thing is, knowing that I wanted to cut back on the words, I found myself being more vigilant about deciding if a scene or section of a scene was needed. This past weekend, I cut a scene that was about 1,00o words because I realized that, although I liked the scene, it didn’t add anything new. The action in it reinforced action from the scene before it and set up the next scene, but without it, the story wasn’t missing anything (I did add in a little background in the next scene for flow). Before, when I thought I had a good word count, I left the scene in because it had some fun action. But being vigilant about whether a scene really adds something NEW is important.

I’m very pleased with the changes and have put off sending the book to more agents until I’ve finished going through the whole thing — again. I’m disappointed that I didn’t think of these things before, that I didn’t scrutinize every scene to make sure it was as original as it could be and that it added to the story, moved the plot along. But, such is life. We live and learn.

I’ll let you know how this shakes out.

How’s your writing coming?

Write On!

Current word count: 10,700

Words written today: 580

Words to goal: 29,300/341 words a day until the end of September

Working on my second novel, the writing is going much quicker than the first. The fact that I’m writing every day helps enormously, not only because of the time spent on it, but also because during that time, I’ve been able to continue from where I left off yesterday pretty well. The story is alive in my mind. It took a couple years to complete the first draft of my first novel. Sometimes I’d have months between writing sessions, which didn’t help keep my mind on the story. So, it’s weird to think that I can finish a novel in a matter of months. (Hey, I’m totally amazed that anyone can finish a 50K novel in National Novel Writing Month in November.) The progress also helps to keep me going.

I also learned a lot with my first novel, about writing, story structure, point of view, scenes. When I started my first novel, I spent what seemed like forever just on the first half. It started out switching POVs, then went to single third person. And it had all this extra stuff that wasn’t needed. So much got cut out. But going through that helped me to learn how to get closer to a better manuscript the first time. Not that I won’t need revisions — writing is rewriting — but it’s looking like it will be closer. We’ll see.

With this second novel, I’ll no doubt learn even more new things that will help me with the next novel, and the next, and so on.

I don’t know if writers, or anyone, ever truly perfect their craft. Maybe to others it might seem like they do, but to the writer, I think there’s always something to learn from every story they write.

What are you learning from your current work in progress?

Write On!

Happy Fourth! Hope you had lots of great food, company and fireworks. We just saw our local fireworks from our backyard. Very nice.

I finally got some more writing done today, and here’s my daily word count:

Current word count: 9,240

Words written today: 787

Words to goal: 30,760/ 350 per day til end of September

I’ve changed the final word count, which I was planning to be around 50,000 for a middle grade novel. 50K is lower than my first novel, which is 60,000. Now, that 60K fit right in the correct range for middle grade novels that I had researched when I was writing the book. Back then, I had found articles that said a middle grade novel should be up to 65,000, so I thought I was quite good at 60K. Apparently not.

Recently, I’ve read in a couple places that the word counts wanted for middle grade novels are between 20,000 and 50,000. Here’s a post from June on the blog Pursue Your Writing Dream, entitled Writing for Kids: Middle Grade Novels. And here’s a post from the Guide to Literary Agents blog that cites agent Michelle Andelman as saying the correct word count for a middle grade novel is 20,000 to 40,000.

It seems as though my old research is showing its age.

Now, there’s something to be said for writing as much as you need to tell the story, and I know that some agents don’t stick to these guidelines too severely. But, we have to remember that this is a business. And, especially for new writers, it can’t hurt to make our books as tight as possible.

Let’s face it, for many of us writers — ok, probably all — we think all our words are golden. But, as hard as it is to cut some great piece of writing that we’re so proud of, if the story doesn’t need it, it shouldn’t be in there. First and foremost, we writers are storytellers, and the story should be the most important thing. If the average middle grade novel is in the 20K to 50K range, then the average good story for that age group should be able to be told within that range.

Are there exceptions? Always. Each of the subsequent Harry Potter books get farther and farther away from 50K.

But again, for new writers, it doesn’t hurt — and probably helps — to rein in the writing and concentrate on story. And that doesn’t mean we can’t also have great writing. It just means, tell a tight story in just the right words. Tell a tight story first, then find make the writing great in the revision.

So, there’s the challenge. And now, although I had been aiming for a 50K MG novel, I’ve now lowered that to 40K. Cut 10% or so in the revision and I should be right smack in the right range.

How are you guys doing with your daily word counts?

Anyone else find out you’re off the average manuscript length?

Write On!

With a full-time job and family, it can be hard to make sure writing is given its time, especially if you’re not a “working” writer, i.e. getting paid, with deadlines. So, for me, setting goals can help keep you going and see your progress.

Yesterday, I decided I wanted to finish my new novel by the end of October. No particular reason why. The date just stuck out in my head, maybe because I’d love to try National Novel Writing Month in November and see if I can write 50,000 words in one month — which I think is going to be an impossibility for someone like me with a day-job and family, but who knows.

Anyway, to get to 50,000 words by the end of October, I have to write … 354 words a day. Ok, for some reason, I did a rough calculation of this yesterday and came up with about 1,600 words, starting with 45,000 words still needed (I already had 5,000) divided by four month of four weeks each. Just now I did the calculation properly with the exact number of days (127, including yesterday, as I started yesterday) and came up with 354. My in-my-head math must have been way off yesterday. Ah! The 1,600 was probably the number needed for a week! This is why I’m a writer and not a mathematician.

Anyhoo, so I need to write 354 words a day. That’s way more doable than 1,600. Yesterday I wrote about 1,500 in about three hours and I was thinking there’s no way I was going to be able to do 1,600 on work days. But 354 is much more doable.

So, I’m going to write a blog post every day, and at the beginning, I’ll keep a running tally of where I am in the word count.

If you’d like to tally yours too, join me in the comments. It’ll help us all keep going and inspiring each other.

Today’s start: 6,191

End: 6,794

Total for the day: 603

Still needed: 43,206/345 a day

Write On!