I like letters. The shapes of them. The contrast between lower and upper case. The dots for the “i” and “j,” crossing “t’s.” I like writing very small. I like putting more than one line of text inside one line of college-ruled paper. I like college-ruled paper. I like a good pen. Not a fancy … More August
Yesterday I finished chapter 9 of this third draft of my novel. At 5,479 words, it is not quite the longest chapter in the book (as of yet): chapter 2 is a hefty 6,621 words. But still, it’s long. As of now, this draft is 34,266 words and, by my reckoning, about 1/3 finished. After … More Update
“First sentences are doors to worlds.”—Ursula K. LeGuin Last night was Will’s first soccer game of the school year. It’s still more than a week before the first day of school, but soccer has been underway for a while now. Yesterday’s game felt familiar: the boys tore up the field and all of us parents … More A First Sentence
I have just now finished chapter five of this latest draft. The chapter is 2,864 words long, which brings the grand total of words in this draft to 20,227. They say that most novels are between 80,000 and 100,000 words. Does this mean that I am between 1/4 and 1/5 of the way done? If … More Progress
