Positive Thinking

I recently hit the 10K mark on my new book, Fairville. One of the differences between writing short stories and novels is that, with short stories I hardly ever worried about word count. My point was always to write the story. it was just a matter of getting everything done that needed to be done. The word count took care of itself.

With novels, though, I'm constantly stressing about how many words I have, how many words I've written, and how I'm ever going to make this story novel length.

I think I'm going to go back to my old way of thinking. I think I'm going to just tell the story. Put words on the page. Move the characters around on the Monopoly board like the little pewter darlings they are.

Accept that the word count will take care of itself, as long as I take care of the words that comprise that count.

One of the main reasons I quit pursuing a professional writing career back in the 90s was that I just stressed myself out worrying about the details. I worried so much about marketing and querying and publishing that I sucked all the joy out of writing for myself.

Down at the core, it's all about telling the tale.

Down at the core, it's all telling a tale other people want to read.

I can do that, folks. I just have to get out of my way.