Chipping away

I got 2,000+ words today on the story I'm writing, which isn't bad considering I'm sick like a dog and was working my part-time job. Actually, working the part-time job is probably the only thing that made getting that many words possible. And I say "story," but it's really a draft of a novella called "The Dedication to Magic." A Novella being between 15 and 40 thousand words. "Dedication" will be on the shorter side of that, probably 15 or 16 thousand words, though it may grow longer in the rewrite. My stories tend to do that because I gloss over things in a rush to finish the initial draft.

2,000 words may not seem like a lot -- it's roughly eight pages -- but like with so many things, I'm a plodding writer. But in the time, get my ass in the chair, and I'll slowly build up a reserve of words. I managed to write a novel in four months by wracking up one or two thousand words a day. And I plan to do it again once I'm done with my thesis.

So, once done with this draft of the novella, I'll need to rewrite three short stories and then I'll be able to give my mentor, Liz Hand, everything for my creative thesis (more about Liz in a later post, I think). Then It'll just be a matter of rewriting everything I've given her. A task that makes me feel sort of weak.

And that is enough for one night.

The image, by the way, comes from Life magazine's online archive of images and is licensed for personal, non-commercial use. I reckon this qualifies.