I am a writer

from Vintage Anchor
When you think about what being a writer means, the above (which I got from Facebook) says a lot of  it. Because for the last couple of years my main writing of fiction involved editing and rewriting, I had forgotten how all encompassing writing an original novel actually is. This winter I did a novella, followed it with the Arizona historical (which ended up 117,000 some words give or take when final editing is finished this summer) and now am into the Oregon one with it nearing its rough draft's completion.

Perhaps if one stops at the minimum length for a novel, which is 60,000 words, this total absorption would be less so. You'd live with these characters less time and have less complexity to the novel. But if  you go for the longer lengths or into what are considered epic lengths of over 100,000 words, you live with them and their problems in a way that takes over your own life. That's just my warning to be prepared to any author who has yet to write something that long and complex.

image from CanStock
I've shown these statistics before but basically here are averages for lengths of books: 

Novel-- over 40,000 wordsnovella 17,500 to 40,000 wordsnovelette 7500 to 17,500 wordsshort story -- under 7500 words 
Some would say that a novel must be 80,000-95,000 words and an epic or saga is over 100,000. It seems it's all a bit subjective but, one this is true, where novellas and short stories can be looser in form, novels not so much. There are expectations for what the reader will find in the novel- which I wrote about in an earlier blog.

The first full length, historical romance novel I ever wrote was140,000 words. It's the one I spent over a thousand dollars (and that was over fifteen years ago) working with a consulting writer on editing. Recently it got another look by me and it's still at 135,000 words and yes, that's epic, a length that most editors (at least back in the years when I submitted manuscripts) wouldn't even bother to read from an unpublished writer. The thing is it's a story not only of love but the trip west on a wagon train. Even though it centers on one couple and one family, that still makes for a lot of story.

Anyway the work currently sucking me in is set in Oregon and involves the history of the state in 1865. While writing it, once in awhile I come up for air and realize there is no me. Instead of my life, I am fretting over if my hero is reacting logically, would my heroine really do that, what about that villain, is he acting and reacting consistently to his character (yes, even villains should)? And on it goes. It's especially bad in the middle of the night when it's all I can think about.

When I finish the rough draft of this book, I really need a break from writing (although I already have an idea for the book that would follow this one). I need to get back into my own life and find out what's going on. It turns out that my husband has been pulled into a technology project right now to the point he's not really here either. We are going through the paces of looking after the livestock and our place, but our imaginations are elsewhere. Possibly bad timing as it might be best if we staggered our obsessions.