Monday, December 12, 2011

The Story Is Done, Man!

The rough draft of the second short story is finally finished.  This one got totally out of control.  The sad thing is that the story is still relatively tight despite it's length.  There is one minor subplot that could be cut out -- which is probably the first sign of a long short story, when it has subplots -- but I want to keep it because it helps with some character development that is needed to get the short story to line up with the first book.

When I agreed to these short stories, my publisher had asked for something around 15,000 words.  That is a good length for a short story.  When I finished the first one at around 23,000 words, I knew that I was in trouble.  As I worked on the second one, I initially thought it was going to run short.  Boy, I was wrong!  I just finished the rough draft at 30,813 words.

I'm going to take a short break.  I've got an episode of "Once Upon a Time" waiting on my DVR, gifts that need wrapping, and cookies that need baking.  Then I'll come back in the evening and finish the revision before shipping it off to my editor.  The stories I usually write usually get more edits, but I'm running late at the moment and need to move on to my next book.

After the revision, I'll probably spend a little time reading the first book and making some plot notes for the next book.  While both books in the series are being written as stand-alone books, there will be things that tie them together.  For the next couple of days, it will just be me, a couple of white boards, and a legal pad as I plot out the next book.

Wish me luck!

3 comments:

Jessica @ a GREAT read said...

You got about 2 stories there! I actually did my wrapping yesterday and watched Once Upon a Time too! I soooo love that show!

Brenda Hyde said...

Oooh, you use a white board. Hence the awesome word count. LOL I was a panster and I'm finding out that I need to learn to plot. I hope you don't have to cut your stories down too much-- the more the better:)

Jocelynn Drake said...

Jessica: Baking is done. Wrapping... going to work on later. Once Upon a Time, so awesome! Last episode was great but SO SAD!

Brenda: Nah, I doubt there will be much cutting. Since it's a e-book, they generally let me run long as long as it adds to the story.