After settling on a title and writing the first sentence, for me, the next important milestone in writing a novel is 20,000 words. At the 20K word mark I am convinced that I will complete the story, even if I’m still not sure about the narrative ahead. I have found that 20K usually represents between ¼ and 1/5 the length of the book, so it also a sizeable chunk of the whole.
Yesterday I reached 20K words on “More More Time,” my latest project. Today I will take a breath. There are five central characters in this story, with Maxwell Ruth being the main protagonist. He is a crotchety high school history teacher in his early sixties who starts hearing a most unusual message after a fall down his basement stairs. This has been the most difficult book so far. I started it in November 2011, while “Chimney Bluffs” (now with my publisher) was under review by a freelance editor that I depend on (Sarah Cypher). Her extensive feedback on “Chimney Bluffs” made me put “More More Time” down for four months while I re - wrote much of Chimney Bluffs. It also led me to question what I was doing with “More More Time.” So, once I completed “Chimney Bluffs” and sent it to my publisher, I started from scratch with “More More Time” and now feel I am in a (kinda) better place.
As for “Chimney Bluffs,” Katrina Robinson, my editor at Savant, and I have been editing for about five months and in the next week or so it will go to the publisher for fine - tooth - comb editing. It is slated for release in the fall of this year. I hope we hit the target, because I’d like to get it out before the holidays.
In the meantime, things are quiet this summer with “Charlie No Face.” Did a few readings in the spring and have one coming in the fall. Spencerport High School will use it in their curriculum in September. I will be very interested to see how that goes.
My best to everyone!
Dave