It's not a novel, it's a TV series

Just in case: no, it's still meant to be a novel. Unless something really big changes, or someone convinces me my format works better as something else, this is still a novel.

I'm starting to get into the rhythm of writing. The first few days I barely pulled off a couple hundred words and kept getting drawn somewhere else. My brain is a mess - I can't keep my mind on a task for a couple of minutes. But no! I must do it! And I'm starting to get into it, I think. It will probably go downhill from there.

So I noticed something while writing today. During the self-editing, I went back to about the place I finished yesterday and just dropped in there a view-point break (ya know, the fancy asterisks in the middle of the page). Nothing special about those, but I went back to look at the previous ones and noticed really where I drop them. The one I'm talking about? Imagine there's a character getting right into the heat of the action. He avoids certain doom with an inhumanly powerful leap and lands in the midst of the enemies. BAM. ASTERISKS.

That wasn't a view-point break. If anything, that was some kind of sub-chapter. That was, for the lack of a better word, a commercial break. In a novel. That probably tells you much about me, and if it doesn't, I will. See, I grew up on TV. I'm from the generation which definitely watched more TV than read books, and it shows in the way I write. If I know anything about my style, it ends up looking very cinematic. Frequent cuts right into the middle of the scene, the "commercial breaks", dialogues sometimes dominating whole pages. That's a movie written down as a novel. Scratch movie - a TV series.

I have an extensive plan of what is meant to be written in this novel. As I look at it again from this perspective, it's essentially a plan of a TV series, but a written one. No, it's not a screenplay, it's a novel. Except episodic, and cinematic in style. I do hope to be a TV writer one day, but right now, this just shows my background.

Is that bad? Is that good? Is that the main reason of why this book is estimated to have such monstrous word count (which BTW, dropped to about 140,000 since the last post)? If anyone stumbles upon this post, let me know what you think.

The Tyrant Monster of Writing Land: Word Count

I know what some of you might be thinking. "The tyrant monster"? The word count is the most useful thing I've found in writing! It tells me if I'm writing not enough or writing too much, and thus if I will get published or how much I have to correct! I guess that's one way of looking at it. But to a person like me, it feels like a ball chained at my leg to keep me from going.

I'm an overwriter, meaning I write far too much beyond my limits. I wrote the first few scenes of my book recently and estimating how much the whole book will take (by comparing it to the detailed, extensive plan I've made) I calculated to end up at 300,000 words. I'm not kidding you. Three-hundred thousand words. That's two books in Lord of the Rings. That's probably half of the Harry Potter series. That's a seriously monstrous number. I have literally cried whole day because I thought of myself as a terrible writer who will never get published, and life without writing, dull old life in retail, is a life I don't want.

"But hey, it was just a rough estimation and you cried?" Yeah, first thing to remember about me is I'm a madman without a box. While you might find me rather Vulcan in self-control everyday, every once in a while I completely break up for the slightest fucking reason. I guess that's my pon farr, except for no mating going on. That one thing broke me into pieces.

Anyway, while I carried on and tried to write further thinking about that, the number is still hanging over my head menacingly. I know that if I hit anywhere close to it, I'm done (or have to find another outlet for the book - a short story series with a overarching plot? I don't know!) I know that I have to look out for it. But that's why it's my tyrant monster - it threatens me with a spiritual death if I don't follow its wishes.

It probably is a useful tool for many people. It definitely tells you the expectations and chances of getting published. That still doesn't make it good. At best, it's a necessary evil, like realising most people are in fact assholes, egoists and idiots at the same time. It's something I can't change. Doesn't mean I can't swear at it.

So yeah, take that, Tyrant Monster of Writing Land. I will find a way to topple your tower and rescue the princess (completely platonically, of course). One day, I swear, one day...

Foreword

Some time ago I finally learned writing the foreword as a first thing in your book is probably a very bad idea. This isn't the book, though, and I thought some explanation of what I'm doing here would be in order.

This is a writing blog in a meaning of "I will write about my writing here", not "I will publish it here". I intend to get professionally published this time and earn something for it. You're free to follow my insights, or offer your own why you think I'm doing something wrong (because writing well about somebody is boring).

I've spent a good deal of time preparing for the task I've undertaken recently, even if I didn't know it to be preparation when I started. For at least over a year now I've been concentrating on reading. A lot. I've read actual books and novels, I've read the writing techniques and tips. I've watched lectures by published fantasy novelists about their craft*. All in all, good part of my life as a social failure I spent on perfecting my chances in getting something done. And by us, I intend to get this done. Follow me if you wish to learn about my progress and where this is taking me.

* - if by any chance you're Brandon Sanderson, know that you're my guru now
PS. This post has got the most hilarious link possible. No, I'm still learning writing, and I will be till the end of my days.