91,127

The word count, so far, for Jeremiah Jericho: Forty-Two. Book two of my trilogy.

It's a YA (young adult), urban fantasy (fantasy in an urban setting) novel. The word count is high and I expect to finish Forty-Two at 100,000 words. Why? because I like thick books. I've read YAs that I didn't want to end and thought could be a little meatier.

Agents might be turned off by that and that's fine, but I can't trim what I feel is necessary for the story to function as awesome. I'm of the mindset that a story takes as many words as needed to be told. One agent told me maybe I should make it more books.

Uh, no.

I don't want a series. I want a trilogy. I want it to stay that way. After I finish this trilogy, I have my mind set on a second trilogy with Jeremiah Jericho.

I don't mind books with big word counts. I read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and that's 500+ thousand. (Word counts I mention are found here.) Joseph Heller's Catch-22 is 174,269 and that's one of my favorite books. As long as the words are used wisely, I don't think the word count matters.

I'm aiming for that idea with my word count. I'm not aiming for the general idea that bigger is better. I want the quantity of my words to be high quality through and through.

Forty-Two sits at a lower word count than the first book. Which is my goal. 

Funny thing about Allowance, I finished it 130,000+ and after a year of edits (and that sounds long, but it's not 365 days of straight editing, it's just a time frame from when I started to when I finished...sort of) I'm down to 106,000ish. I'm very proud of losing 25,000 words. My word count goal had been about 100,000. I'm doing good. I'm proud of this accomplishment. 

How Do You Pronounce That?

Forvo knows. 

A website geared toward audio pronunciations of words from douchebag to porphyrophobia. Since people can upload their version of the pronunciation you get a lot of varying accents and infections. It's a bit addicting to hear words pronounced. Or I'm just weird.

I needed to know how to pronounce Burj Kahlifa and I Googled and found an answer on a different website than Forvo. On Farvo the person that pronounced it didn't do it right. TOO fast. After hearing it from the Pronounce Names website I understood her, but if I heard hers first, I'd have been lost. 

Another website to waste precious time searching for funny words, dirty words and words you just have trouble pronouncing and really want to do your intelligence justice. 

On a different note it would be nice to have a sign off phrase on my blog posts, but I don't have anything right now. I'll just say....whatever. 

What I won't write about...

I've disagreed with the importance of sex in stories. Is it necessary to share that characters have sex to the extent that the reader gets a glimpse of what actually transpired? The only purpose in that is for titillation, not for revelation. That and I don't plan on having a need for sex to be integral in any of my stories. It's a messy addition that really only adds...mess. The only exception I can think of is a romance novel...but then again romance is more relationship than physical and if there's too much heavy petting and not enough conversating (yeah not really a word, but it worked for context and, yes, rhyming)...well...it teeters on a boring precipice.

And for the most part I think it's added in a desperation to save a boring story line. Excitement garnered through arousal is best done in private not in public...for one by another. Romance novels are not my interest. Never will be.

This brings me to my reason for adding a post about it. I got on the conversation with workmates about my novel and the topic of sex popped up. Popped-up probably happened during that conversation, which is why I don't care for such discussions. I don't want to be the reason someone else gets that excited. They asked if there was sex because my character is sixteen. I said no. That sparked a discussion on how one did this and that when he was sixteen because he was so full of sexual need (I don't want to say that word).

I didn't and don't care. Jeremiah Jericho is sixteen. If someone who's NOT sixteen reads it and gears up for some sort of sexual moment...that'll be disturbing. If you're the same age, that's disturbing as well, but not as much as if you're twenty-something and wondering when he'll have sex. What kind of person is infatuated with when someone else is going to have sex? Are they going to ask to watch once they find out it'll happen?

Unless one is interested in having sex in front of others (which is essentially what Jeremiah Jericho would have to do), one wouldn't bother since they're under watch most of every second. Once you introduce sex in that context, it changes the story dynamic to something that I don't want. The focus becomes more when will the next time be than the actual story. Just like girls and women are far more than talking about boys and men, so I believe (and have lived) boys and men are more than their over exaggeration about their adventures with women. They're all women. Girls are what you don't like when you're in kindergarten.

"But sex is natural." So is crapping and peeing. I don't go into grave detail with either. Would you read a book that (and wasn't mentioned on the back cover it was even going to, nor is it part of the theme of the story) went into detail about each time the character went to the restroom? So why would I write about sex when sex isn't a theme or an important part of my story?

If you want something sexual, don't read my book. Or any of them. I'm not going to be that kind of writer.

Writing Laws

I don't know how others react, but when I read about writing it creates an interesting dynamic. If I agree with what I've read, it turns into law. I'm going to share a few examples and in doing so I'm not stating the examples are perfect. I only hope they show my point.

For example I read how it's poor form to use "as" sentences. Such as (not in that way): Bob hit Bill as he laughed.

I understand that people can punch and laugh at the same time, but that's not point. It feels like a crutch. I'd rather say: Bob hit Bill, laughing with each connection.

The other thing that I read and turned to law was nix ly-adverbs. It's better to show the action than state He cautiously picked up the mug. I like...He picked up the mug with both hands and stepped toward his seat one for every two a normal human would take.

The examples I provided are most likely not awesome. I know that. Not the point. I've ingrained these as laws in my writing. I don't use "as" sentences nor ly-adverbs endlessly (ha). On occasion I find it useful to use either, but I've seen writers use them like a crutch and it makes me cringe.

When I help others with their writing I don't use my laws to lord over their writing. It's only for my writing. So someone else's "as" sentences will stay if it reads well.

I am not, however, someone that thinks that there are strict writing laws.

What things you've read about writing that turned into laws you abide?

MIA no more

I've been MIA because I was.

I've been writing and going to a writer's group, still. So I didn't stop writing. I only stopped blogging.

I've decided to start up again and right now I've decided to use I've a lot. How am I doing? Since my last blog I've come up with a lot of great ideas for Jeremiah Jericho. I wrote a good query for it and sent it to, I think, five agents. Four of them have sent back rejections. All of the rejections were expected. I wasn't disappointed in them not wanting it. I'm waiting for the final one, because that's the one I expect to say yes. It's not like one of those yes replies that I'm sure of. It's more of a hopeful yes. I hope she says yes. Or at least she says yes to reading a little more of my novel.

I've stopped writing movie reviews for a while, but I've not stopped writing I've. As one can see. Anyway, by not writing movie reviews I can see movies, complain about them in my head and write my novel. It works out for me.

Where am I at right now with Jeremiah Jericho? I'm fixing the formatting of the first book. Christopher and Jeffrey's dialogue. I'm also writing the second novel by the seat of my pants. I had a sketchy idea of where I wanted it to go, but based on how I've written it, it veered off course. A bad thing? I don't know. I think it's an okay thing (you should Google where OK started, it's pretty interesting...saw it in a movie).

Initially I wanted Jeremiah Jericho to be local. I didn't want him to venture off into the world. Mainly because I didn't want to have to dabble in research of places and such. But I allowed the story to control me and dictate where it wanted to go and I've ended up in places I've never visited. So I had to do a little research. It's not going to stop, either. It's become a world thing and it's annoying that's not what I wanted. I'm dealing with that realization. Sadly. It's not too bad, so that's good.

My friend created what Jeremiah Jericho would look like. I liked it, except for the long hair, but I got over that. It's pretty darn cool, I think.

I'm impressed, as I told him. I'm still in awe. It's just neat to see my character in drawn form. I've had other people draw him, but it's not as cool as having a friend do it.

That's where I'm at. It's late and I shouldn't have started this, but I thought I'd update it for fun. I don't know how many people read this, but if no one it's more like a writing diary of sorts.

U.G.L.Y. F.O.O.L.S.

I've decided to write a web series. It's going to be updated every Sunday. It's called U.G.L.Y. F.O.O.L.S. or Ugly Fools. Depending on how lazy you are in writing it.

It explains what I'm doing at the link.

Epiphany's Eureka

While I sit and wonder about the holes in my novel, I try to think of ways to fix them or great ways to just ignore them. The problem I've faced for a while is that Jeffrey is a back up Christopher and that's not what I wanted. I want Jeffrey to stand alone. As in he doesn't need to be a back up battery for Christopher or some sort of comedy relief. He needs to be a character that can be liked, understood and appreciated.

That's when I realized that the reason why Jeffrey seemed so distant is because he doesn't talk about his life. He speaks of nothing but what is going on at present. It will not alter too much if I go back and add some Jeffrey life stories to a few parts of my first novel. It will enhance it and probably make him less similar to Christopher who is just a computer with an attitude.

That was my Epiphany's Eureka. I was sitting at a Starbucks waiting to hand over wedding pictures I took for a person on the internet and I was reading over the notes I got back from my Wednesday night writing group. Something someone said snapped in my head and I thought that Jeffrey needs a past. He has one, I just never really allowed him to speak about it and I think that's muffled his existence. The person who sparked that wasn't even commenting on that. Others have and it's stuck in my mind for a while, so it's good I've come with this.

Sometimes when I sit and think about a story in a semi-quiet area, I come up with great ideas. I don't do it often because I don't like sitting in quite areas. I don't have a lot of sitting and doing nothing moments. I guess I need more of that to fix my problems in my writing. Probably in my life, too. Ha.

I'll try to do that from time to time. Sit down with my writing and just think of a problem I'm having and maybe the quiet (no music, no TV, no other phone or internet to distract me) will be enough for my characters to have the balls to say, "Ummm...I am not really myself. Care to allow me to be me? You know, by allowing me to speak about my past." And maybe, just maybe I'll have another Epiphany's Eureka and fix another problem I've been thinking about.

What problem is that? Well....I guess I'll tell you...Writing a query letter that's cliche and boring just because that's how it's done. I don't do boring. I took pictures for a wedding of a person I met on the internet and I bought them a card to congratulate them. I never met them before that day and I bought them a card and wrote a simple poem in it. Had I proceed in that instance with a cliche manner, I wouldn't have even agreed to do anything for someone online. I would certainly NOT have bought them a card. So it's difficult to do things like everyone else does them when it comes to writing. Which is why I'm on a hunt for an agent that isn't into being safe and cliche ridden. That's a difficult hunt. A hunt I have to make because my novel is so far off the beaten path that Holden Caulfield would want to see the film after reading the book because it would most likely be the only film (if done right) he'd ever enjoy.

That is my problem. I'll see if a moment of silence during the weekend can solve it. Here's to another Epiphany's Eureka.

Write your dreams. Dream your words. And may your soul inspire the ages. 

Uh, Holden that Thought

I am reading “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger because someone told me that Jeremiah Jericho reminded them of Holden Caufield. I have heard about the book for years. I didn't have to read it when I was in high school and I don't think I'd appreciate it too much if I did. Right now I find it amusing and it fits. I'm writing Jeremiah Jericho with a pinch of me in him. And I can go off on tangents, so when I read that Holden does this, I feel in love with the book right away.

When people read what I have written and they dislike the tangents I don't edit them out. I might edit them down, but I won't remove them. There is character in each of the rants or tangents that happen with Jeremiah that if I remove them, his character might get lost in the voices of Christopher and Jeffrey.

Initially when I started “Jeremiah Jericho: Allowance” I wanted there to be only one voice: Christopher. As the story progressed and I decided to have Jeremiah as a reason for why someone committed suicide, I realized that Jeffrey could become an intricate part of the story itself. Which is how I like to write. I like to write with a bare bone idea of where the story is going and allow the story to flow out of me like people go through life. They don't have a writer directing their every move and even though my character does, he doesn't have to have me dictate everything. He can dictate some of what goes on. Only a writer can understand what I'm talking about there.

I understand he's not real, but when you write and your characters are speaking and acting and you think on the cuff of what they'd do, you're treating them as a real person. Giving them a life of their own without planning their every step. That's how I like to write. That's how Jeffrey came to be. If I didn't do that, it would be just Jeremiah and Christopher. I would feel that there was something missing.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I like Holden Caufield.

I am enjoying writing my second book that's part of this trilogy. I'm writing fresh thoughts and ideas down. I think that it's coming about well. You always have to give a lot of humor to soften the blow of a evil moment and right now I'm laying on the humor because Jeremiah is headed back to NYC to attend a funeral. It's going to be a powerful moment for him and his mother.

That is a bit of me in there. Humor it up before something sad or, even, during something sad. I'm always allowed to be angry, but I cannot stand others being angry. I have to make them laugh or feel better.

Better stop before another tangent jumps out of me.

Write your dreams. Dream your words. And may your soul inspire the ages. 

Hello

I am wondering what I'm doing with a blog. What am I the writer of a novel that's not published writing a blog for? Also, not to mention the fact that I am someone who is in dire need of a pocket editor to sift through my mess to fix it pretty. Mainly because I'm a terrible grammar person. Yes. Just like I'm a terrible speller. And no that's not nearly as important for a writer to grasp perfectly as people think.

Yes. I know that it's good to understand grammar and spelling. I understand that I am not great at it. I am not stating that I refuse to learn or refuse to bother doing it right and grammar is useless. What I'm stating is that I make mistakes and do so accidentally. I say that because people like to point out my mistakes as if making them means I shouldn't be a writer. That's like stating an illegible scientist is too muddled in the mind to understand what they're illegiblely writing. Just because a scientist writes fives that look like S's or S's that look likes fives, doesn't mean they don't know what they're going on about. Just because a doctor smokes doesn't mean they don't get what health damage they're doing to themselves. They're able to state what's wrong with their words, not with their actions. Their actions on their health doesn't mean they don't know what they're talking about. They can still understand that it's wrong, say it's wrong and yet still do the wrong thing knowingly.

I think I made a clearly muddy point.

I titled my blog after my novel. My screen name is my pen name. I know what that means. I'm not delusional to think that Googling J_Jammer doesn't bring up a whole slew of things that people will find questionable. It doesn't bother me. My method to my Salvador Dali madness is mine. Whether or not it's gotten doesn't much matter.

I have finished my novel Jeremiah Jericho: Allowance. I have been editing it a while. I feel there is something missing and I've whittled it down to a few things that I'm going back over and inserting. One of them was a new villain. Another is giving Christopher free famous phrases to latch onto for a nice little surprise for Jeremiah at the end.

I have started the second in the series, Jeremiah Jericho: Forty-Two. I wrote a few things a year ago. I edited it and fixed up a few bleh points. I'm now writing new material for it. I have mapped out where I want the story to go in a nice bit of pencil. I really can't wait to write the end. I really love the end. When I read Hunger Games: Catching Fire I was excited to read the cliffhanger ending. I loved it. Ever single word.

The reason I loved it so much was because people always state that it's not a good idea to write a cliffhanger in your book. She did it. I am going to do it. I don't care if you're not supposed to do it. If it works, it works. I'm going to make it work.

My inspiration for writhing Jeremiah Jericho is from the following books:

1. Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
2. 1984 – George Orewell
3. The Princess Bride – William Goldman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
5. Animal Farm – George Orewell

These books are a huge influence on my writing. Some were before I read them. Figure that out.

I saw Salvador Dali's artwork for $19 (with a coupon) in Florida and I enjoyed it. I've seen some of his work before, but never have I delved into it. Not that I have soaked it in, I think that Jeremiah Jericho taps into that dream realm that Salvador Dali created with his defiant view on art. Though I don't paint or draw, his stance on art made me laugh because he did everything someone wasn't supposed to do and he did it because he saw things differently. I didn't like everything I saw by him, but I did love his reason for doing it.

Another influence before I knew who he was...fully.

Write your dreams. Dream your words. And may your soul inspire the ages.