Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Kitchen-sink-itis!!!!!!!

Hey guys! :D

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while ... I've been so into my story that it and studying for finals is pretty much all I've been doing (and applying for summer internships and jobs)!

So I think I have finally sorted out all the details of my characters (YAY!). I don't want to give to much away just yet in what I mean by that, but I think I've finally figured out a way for the characters in The Zebra Stripes to not be so complicated that it looks like I added everything but the kitchen sink, but also not too bland so it's like every other story in my genre.

So yeah, word count right now is: 46,760!
But I still have a lot of edits to do since I'm taking out certain characteristics and adding new ones (I had to delete like 5,000 words the other day because of the changes ... it was SO SAD, especially since it takes me SO long to write 5,000 words!). My "goal" is for the first draft to be around 70,000 words give or take; but if I don't get there that's fine (my first book's first draft was about 57,000 words but the final draft is now about 69,000 words ... so I know editing will probably add to it).

It is hard though, because I'm still doubting myself a little bit because I want my book to be unique, but I don't want it to stray too far off from my original idea (which was inspired by another series I've read), but then I don't want my book to be too much like the series (though I think I got that down; I'd say only the general idea and concept). It's like, I have so many ideas that I want to use that all connect to my story in one way or another, but I'm afraid that I might be overdoing it and I should only stick to like 2 of the ideas instead of all like 5, you know? *Sigh, sometimes it's frustrated to have too many ideas because I over think things WAY too much ...

So I think that's all for now folks! :)

X<3O

4 comments:

  1. Congrats on getting the characters sorted out and having that many words! It would take me probably a few MONTHS to get to that many words, mainly because I'll be like, "So I'll do ______ today. And then I'll do—Ooh! I've been wanting to watch that show for AGES!" And there goes my entire plan. I'm not the best at making plans anyway.

    Many successful books have multiple ideas interpreted in there. If they all make sense, then you should totally use every one of them! If you think some of them may be disconnected and only take away from the story, then you should take them away. Otherwise, I think 5 is a fine amount of ideas to put in there! It's really up to you!

    Good luck!!

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    Replies
    1. Haha thanks Eileen!
      Yeah, I definitely haven't been watching as much TV as I could be ... but the beauty of DVR is that I can watch a little bit at a time (although it tends to get dangerously close to 100% full a lot of the time lol).
      Haha I don't really plan at all; I just start writing, and then when I start to get tired (or it starts to get REALLY late), I stop ... I also get sidetracked easily (like just staring at my computer screen, or going on YouTube, or something like that), so it definitely isn't easy. :)

      Yeah, yesterday before I went to bed I was able to find a way to pretty much incorporate all of my ideas (with some tweaking of course) except one main one that just wasn't necessary and I felt was a little awkward. So today (after studying some more for finals) I'm basically just going to focus on making those changes so I can continue writing (cause I pretty much have every chapter laid out and outlined for the rest of the book)! Fingers-crossed I don't have to delete too much haha! :)

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    2. Don't mention it!

      I usually spend my late nights reading until I can barely keep my eyelids open. And TV is just so tempting, especially if there's Pretty Little Liars or the Lying Game or something like that on. What shows do you usually watch? And whenever I'm trying to do my homework, I end up going on YouTube, Facebook, and then I check my blog, and then my email, and then I check everybody else's blogs, and the list goes on an on.

      Good job with making all your ideas work! Having your book outlined is also really good! That one that wasn't very necessary will probably be able to be cut out of your story pretty easily without much deleting and work, if it really is unnecessary!

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    3. That's good that you read at night! I wish I did that more...
      Lol TV is tempting! Oh gosh, I have so many TV shows I love I don't know where to start; Though ABC Family definitely has some awesome shows that I love!!!
      Haha I'm the exact same way when I'm trying to do homework; it's so hard not to!!!

      Thanks again! :)
      Yeah, I ALWAYS outline my book, not because I necessarily "want" to, but because I always end up writing down ideas that I have or basically entire scenes that suddenly pop into my mind when I'm still chapters away from where it could go! I'm very happy with the story so far; I'm 91 words away from 50,000 words!

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