Monday, September 12, 2011

Thank Goodness for Friends

I adore my friends, both those I've had for ages and all the new ones I've recently made (especially those now following my blog - thank you! =). But the friends my title refers to are not mine, but those of my MC. And thank goodness for them.

For the past few weeks I have been despairing over my Middle Blues, but I am here to tell you I have [hopefully] come up with a solution! Or two, actually.

First, after attending an amazing author talk by Aprilynne Pike at my writing group, I have decided to lower my word count bar from 100K to 80K (she said 70K was about the norm for YA). Immediately upon deciding this, sitting there in the front row listening to her outpouring of wisdom, I felt a bit of the weight lift from my shoulders. For days now I have been feeling that there is no way my story can stretch for 100K. When I originally set the count I thought it could (maybe even go over), but what with my current plot problems, definitely not. So now, although it means updating my progress bar will be a pain since it's in percentages and I'm horrible at math, I am halfway done with my story! Hallelujah! \(ToT)/

Second, since my MC has no interest in attending to the plot, I have decided that one of his friends will step up and get involved instead - and drag his lazy butt along to help. This way the MC stays true to character (because I couldn't change that part of him without throwing off his entire personality), but still has to deal with the plot. Brilliance! This is a true testament of why you create secondary characters for your MC to regularly interact with. You never know when you'll need someone to manipulate the MC to do what you need.

So now I'm halfway finished and the story is flowing again. For once, the Middle isn't looking so blue.

4 comments:

  1. *\o/* Yay! I'm happy for you!

    Yeah, I've heard that most agents/publishers won't look at a novel that's much longer than 70K. If it's any longer than that, then they prefer it to be broken up into two or three books. Or so I hear... but can't remember where so I can't cite my sources! It may be somewhere on Absolute Write...

    Anyways - good for you for sticking through the Middle Blues!!

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  2. Haha, LOVE your blog title. I feel like that most days myself and am no stranger to "middle blues". I'm glad I stumbled across your blog today! Good luck with your MC and his friend! Can't wait to hear more!
    - http://pensuasion.blogspot.com/

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  3. That talk WAS amazing, wasn't it? :P Glad to hear you found a solution!

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