Time in Pages

I've been asked to write a few novellas to accompany the release of my YA Steampunk series next year.

They can be any character or event in the series. So...yay! Between 2500-5000 words long.  Whoa...what?! 

At first I was concerned at the time frame. I have until summer, but they want a few and thats a tight timeline for all the different ones I have in mind. 

Then I started writing...OMG this is hard!  I don't have enough time/pages to do what I want with the little vignettes and backstory.

There's so much more to the characters and the world. I know, I spent years creating and fine tuning them both. 

BUT...I can DO this...right? *sigh*

So the average novella is 20 pages which is around 5,000 words. Thats a lot, right? I handwrote out a story beginning. I thought I was being brief but I'm at page 11 already so I have to slash, slash, slash!

I guess it feels like time measured out in pages is a bit constraining. I have to cut out extraneous things like too much setting description, etc. And that's sort of difficult if your world is a steampunk post apocalyptic version of New York...like we're talking major world building needed here.

I'm hoping it works out.  I have in mind 5-8 novellas so hopefully I will get the process down pretty soon. 

Never realized how challenging this would be. Hats off to the other authors out there whose free novellas I gobbled up and loved...you guys rock!

+Raquel Byrnes 

A NaNoWriMo Cure?

So I had a really rough year so far. My mother-in-law- passed away and then my own mother not three weeks later. With my husband and children reeling it was all I could do to keep our home functioning at a reasonably normal level...and that was ALL I could do.

I managed to get my second novel in to the publisher in by the deadline, but only just. It was LITERALLY the actual deadline date.  That is so unusual for my Type-A self and let me tell you, it was a miracle.

But something happened to me. I don't know if it was the stress or sorrow or the way I just stuffed everything down to get through the days...whatever it was that I did to survive until now...it sort of fritzed me out.

So I am floundering. I have an outline that I've really, really, REALLY, fought to get done. I have an encouraging spouse and critique partner rooting for me. 

I have the scenes in my head. I CAN SEE THEM. 

Feel them. Hear them. I can practically TASTE them!

And yet I sit at my laptop and wrestle through doubt and critical thoughts and insecurity. I write and delete and repeat.  I am getting nowhere.

Then my NaNoWriMo buddies started emailing. I started to get pumped. I started to feel excited and engaged and even...ambitious again.

So I am going to do NaNo this year with a vengeance. I usually join for the kids in my writing class and spend most of my time on forums and encouraging others. This time I am doing NaNo for me.

I am committing to me time. To my story.  To the idea that digging in and believing in myself will bust me out of this funk.  

If you all are doing NaNo add me as a writing buddy. We can do this crazy thing together.

+Raquel Byrnes