Sunday, April 27, 2008

New Story, New Word Count

My story in Word Catalyst is up! A few of you will recognize it as one I submitted to a contest earlier in the year. It wasn’t what they were looking for, but it’s a decent little story and I knew I could find it a home without much trouble.

I passed the 75K mark on my WIP last night. At this rate I might just make my goal of finishing before I leave for vacation in a few weeks. I really would like to have the draft complete because vacations having a way of rebooting my brain and I’ll be able to tackle the revisions with fresh eyes immediately upon my return.

I think I might end up with something worth pitching. I’m at least not having much trouble coming up with a query letter in my head, which is something I can’t usually say about my stories. So depending on how this turns out, I may shop it around a bit and see what kind of response I get. If it turns into more hassle than my time is worth, though, I’ve got a lot of fun ideas for how to put this out on the web.

I'm sometimes tempted to post excerpts or character sketches, but I'm holding back for now because I think I may end up changing some names and making the story more dark and gritty overall (as if it isn't already). But I'm at that stage where the characters are pestering me all the time and sometimes it's hard to shut them up. The only way to silence them is by letting them out, so we'll see how much longer I can keep them bottled up like this.

Does anyone else have this problem with their characters, or am I just crazy?

11 comments:

jjdebenedictis said...

I think every writer has that problem with their characters; would we write nearly as much if the li'l bastards weren't hassling us all the time? :-D

Anonymous said...

Oh, oh, oh! Congratulations on getting your story published -- I remember it well, it's one of my favorites, well one of my many favorites. :)

And I'm so excited for you, about your WIP! I'm itching to know more about it! Positively i-t-c-h-i-n-g! :) Good luck getting it done before your vacation -- I know you can do it! Full steam ahead! :)

Chris Eldin said...

Congratulations on getting ever so close to your milestone! And for getting your story published!! Keep going while the energy is there.
:-)

Anonymous said...

Your characters have problems? Take 'em to a shrink.

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

Sadly, Trevor, there are no more shrinks in their world. Too bad, because some of them could really use one. :-)

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on the story, I really enjoyed it.
Also the WIP, excellent news. Sounds great, looking forward to reading it :)

Anonymous said...

Oh, forgot to say -- my characters drive me nuts, too, and they especially love to natter at me right before I go to sleep, when I'm in the shower, or during my mountain hikes!

MaoMao said...

I don't write so I don't have no karackters yakkin at me, but I yak at Momma so much she probly thinks I'm onna her karakters!! hehehe

Kittyhugs and purrs from MaoMaoMaoMaoMaoMaoMao!

Chris Eldin said...

I hope you check your blog this week---if you have time, please pop over to my blog for "Author's Week." Easy fun contests, free books....
:-)

Bernita said...

Congratulations. Lovely news!
I have one minor character who wants to take over, won't shut up. My main problem is that my MC is too reserved.

Alice Audrey said...

Mine won't shut up even after I write their stories.

So which book is this?