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.