Old People Writing for Teens, IV

[Stiger05]

Kansas, I have a terrible time with word count! Mine first drafts usually end up around 90k and I intend them to be at 60k.

I will say, my writing has vastly improved (according to others) since I learned to cut. It's painful, sometimes I've cut characters I've absolutely loved. (I had a talking 4 foot rabbit mobster with a bowler hat and cigar who hated humans. He sounds silly, but was so much fun to write!). As painful as it is, it's well worth it.

[nicolemarie]

Thanks for the welcome guys! The community here is amazing and it's about time I join in.

[Stuck In Kansas]

Know what you mean, Stiger. I actually have a character who I truly like in my fourth YA book...but he doesn't truly propel the plot. I'm going to have to be the executioner and whack him. Much as it pains me.

And by the way...a talking four foot tall rabit mobster? THIS character is NOT extraneous! Keep him at all costs! I wanna' read about him! (Characters like that don't come along often. Even if you think he's excisable, I would definitely reconsider).

[Stiger05]

I have plans to use him in another story. His name is Harold.

I don't know if you have this problem, but I find I can cut a lot of unnecessary words like:

all of it
and then
stood up
sat down
clapped his hands
winked his eyes

I'm also a fan of certain words like "that" and "just" and "something" so just eliminating stuff like that cuts several thousand (see, I used two of them right there, haha!).

[Stuck In Kansas]

Stiger: I have been blessed with a mentor who know's her way around. She said one of the first newbie probs is using "that" and "had" a lot. She's right. Bout everything.'

I have a problem. Lots of characters smile, grin, sigh, roll eyes, etc. too much. What's a writer to do? I kinda' think it's necessary.

[JKRowley]

I haven't written a book at 90K yet, and I admire that a bit. I write sparse. I blame the journalist in me.

Jess, how is the NaNo in June going? Getting a lot of words down?

Stiger, Oh my, the ants blowing out of the air things in the car is really, really scary stuff! I don't know what to do about that. Ants are evil.

Although the ants have broken up the rock hard soil in my garden a bit. I did some weeding tonight.

Did some rewriting fixes too. I am a breath away from being done with round 3 of this story. I might have to write a synopsis or a query soon. (Hides in corner, quivering.) I don't know why those things are so hard to write, especially for a gal who is used to summing things up in very few words. I think it is the convincing factor. In journalism, I just have to present facts in a way people can understand them. With a query or synopsis, I have to sell my story, and I am a poor saleswoman.

[Stuck In Kansas]

JK:

I think we're all poor salespeople, hence why we're writers. It's tough. I want to hide out on my sofa, not have to deal with the evil necessities of the necessary part of trying to get established nowadays. Unfortunately, that's how it rolls now. No longer are writers allowed to be artistic and given freedom. Alas, it's come down to having to be...outgoing.

You'll do it. Have faith in yourself. You're a journalist. You should'nt be afraid. Because that's what good journalism is about. Exploring.

[Kewii]

Morning everyone.

I made it back to Canada and now I'm awake stupid early because of jet lag

[justbishop]

Morning all

I want some of what Kansas is on. I somehow tend toward low word count while beng wordy and including too much internalization, lol!

[lisalulu09]

Hello.

[Smiley0501]

[lisalulu09]

I need to figure out how the hell I'm going to get to 20K. Badly.

[mellymel]

Morning everyone!

SIK, I swear to God I came here today w/a plan to post WHAT HAPPENED TO SIK? HE CAME IN WITH A VENGEANCE AND LEFT US JUST THE SAME! But then, here you are Thought you had abandoned us already.

Kewii, you are back in Canada from Kuwait? Do you live in Canada and you are back for good?

I watched a really cheesy horror movie last night called Five Girls. The acting was horrific (though once in a while a line was delivered somewhat decently ), and the plot was just all over the place. But it entertained me enough to keep me holding on til the end. I gave it 3/5 stars on Netflix.

Today it is thunder storming like a mofo. It's been lightening and thundering for over an hour. Supposed to take the girls to the library at 2pm for some superhero workshop I signed them up for and then food shopping, but I guess it's weather pending now.

As for wordage, I'm always on the high end too and then I have to cut the crap out of it. This novel I'm writing now I thought it would only be about 65K, but I'm already at 70k and still about 12-15K from the end (I think). I do end up cutting a lot of extraneous words and sentences where I sometimes "tell" something and then "show" it. Of course, I take out the telling part Here is a cool list of words to look out for (I got this list from a friend who I believe got it from Janice Hardy--author of The Healing Wars Trilogy):


Words to avoid:

That
Almost
About
Very
Sat
Truly
Rather
Fairly
Really
Somewhat
Up
Down
Over
Together
Behind
Out
In order
Around
Only
Just
Even

Words to Rethink
These are words that often show up when you're telling.

As
While
Since
Although
Though
Through
Because
If
When
Before
Until

Word That Often Spell Trouble
These are words that keep us out of the moment or aren't as active as we ought to be. Adverbs, passive verbs, passive writing.

Of
Was, were (especially the was -ing forms)
Have, had
Here
There
-ly
Will be
To be
Thought
Felt
Heard
Saw
Smelled

[lisalulu09]

The first list makes me think of essay writing. XD

[Stiger05]

mel, I'm so copying that list and saving it for all my future revisions.

I sense a lot of control F usage in the future...

[lisalulu09]

So, erm... what do you guys do when you get to a point where you usually lose motivation? I need to try new methods...

[Smiley0501]

Melly!

I was away from my computer for 4 days and I have to say.....it felt really nice.

[Stiger05]

Originally Posted by lisalulu09

So, erm... what do you guys do when you get to a point where you usually lose motivation? I need to try new methods...

I either do flash fiction (from the FF challenge thread) or I hop into SYW and critique. Those sort of things get my writerly juices flowing again.

After that, if I still don't feel motivated, I realize the story I'm working on either isn't ready or isn't going to happen and move on to a different project. I've got lots of starts, a couple up to the 15k range, that just stagnated and refused to move. The two ms I've finished though never really stalled, so I wait for one of those to come along (I've got one now, yay!).

[mellymel]

Hey, Smilie! Yes, break from the net can be so refreshing for the mind and soul

Lisa, I'm having a hard time with this now in finishing my novel. Often when I get like this, it's because something in my novel is not working. I have to figure out what. Sometimes it means completely deleting the last chapter and taking things in a different direction. Right now I'm trying to decide if this is what I need to do, or if there is something else bothering me. But I keep going into my doc and then popping over here or a million other places on the net. I really need to pummel my way through it.

Stiger, glad it could help! I find it very helpful myself (at least the words that apply to first person present), but there are def certain words I have become incredibly aware of in my own writing: just, that, very, really, up, down, etc. I always take out the word "because" because it is incredibly telling (well, not for dialogue obviously). It's amazing how easy it is to overuse the words "just" "that" and "really". I love deleting those suckers though I've become so aware of them that I often catch myself writing them while i'm writing my first drafts so I have less to clean up later.

[RachelxRussell]

Hi! *waves*

Right now I'm wishing I had the issue of trying to find stuff to cut. I'm wanting my YA contemporary fantasy novel to come near 75k (if you want to know why, it's because an agent I wanna query said she feels YA fantasy should come in at that range), but I'm several thousand short of that goal. Now I've gotta figure out some extra scenes to work in without ruining the pace.

[lisalulu09]

My problem is the terrible teens section...

[amlptj]

Morning everyone

[mellymel]

Morning Ally!

Lisa, what do you mean by terrible teen section?

[lisalulu09]

I always struggle with the 10K - 20K section. Big time.

[mellymel]

Ahh, got you. I thought you meant something to do with a "teenagers" section LOL