The last novel I wrote took about four years. I don’t want a repeat of that so, to keep myself moving along at a good pace, I’ve set a goal of 500 words a day. It’s a very doable goal, and one that will have me completing the novel in about half a year.
In truth, I didn’t really think I needed a goal. I created the story, outlined it, and wrote the first 15,000 words a few years ago. I only put it aside so I could concentrate on completing my MFA.
Then I put it aside again when I realized I needed to solidify my screenwriting skills. Now that I’ve written five screenplays, I feel confident I can write novels again without forgetting how to write screenplays.
I’ve been chomping at the bit to throw myself back into this novel, but it’s proven harder than expected.
Silly me. I thought shifting back and forth between the two types of writing would be easy. I wasn’t taking into account that the type of writing needed for novels is almost a polar opposite from that of screenplays.
I guess the novel-writing brain muscles have become a little weak with disuse.
I need to pump them up. Get them working at optimum level again.
Lift that word!
Pull that paragraph!
Toss away that bad sentence!
Build that scene… I mean chapter! Build that chapter!
Much better.
I can feel those novel-writing muscles growing.
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