WEDNESDAY:WRITING-IN-PLACE

Today is almost a week now that I haven’t ventured from the house further than to take the trash out. No trips to the store, or lunch with close friends, not even to the pharmacy drive-thru (they’re mailing my refills). So—that just means I have all the time in the world to stay at home and write. Right?

Um, well, kind of. I do have lots of time. What I need to do the most is finish final editing my first book, Return to Rainbow Ridge, for final release on Amazon Kindle. I had planned on doing that in January, so I’m way behind my self-imposed schedule.

That’s not such a big deal, except I need to get it done so I can say it’s finished, and that I’m finally a published author. Mainly it’s to allow me to focus full-time on the next story, Rule Number One. I’n trying to do both right now. The second book is going through the critique group process, so I need to keep it going. And truth be told, I think the second story will be much better than the first.

It’s so tempting to focus on the second project. Editing like I’m doing on the first book is not the most appealing part of the process, for me, at least. But I have found something to give me new motivation.

I’ve targeted book length at about 300 pages since the start. That seems to be where most successful romance novels end up. The story is the story, and lately I’d decided not to worry too much about page count. That was a good decision, since I had to take out a LOT of the previous version, based on my editor’s recommendations.

in the Microsoft Word manuscript version (8-1/2x11 pages, 12 point Times New Roman font, double-spaced), I was down to almost 250 pages—yikes! That 300 page goal is still looming out there, impossible to completely ignore. The final document has to be reformatted to suit the final print specifications. That means changing it to 5-1/2x8-1/2 and single spaced. When I did that, my 250 manuscript pages ends up at about 280 formatted pages. I feel much better, and will not worry so much about page count. I’ll get there.

I can focus on the story: making sure the plot is complete, balancing out the story elements and chapter lengths.. Then on to grammar checks, proofing, final formatting, etc.

So, yes, I’m writing at home. It’s the main focus of my day. I want what I publish to be great, or at least very good. It will, or it won’t. I can’t control what other people think of my work. But I do want them to be read. That means I have to finish the first one. And I’m, writing, I’m writing . . .