Traditional Benchmarks

I can't remember exactly where in college I had heard this from, but a professor once professed that in literature, you should write a million words before you start to write. The implication is that once you have written those 1,000,000 words, you will have harnessed your style of writing, as well as worked out your own common writing flaws.

I'm trying to justify whether or not I have met this goal, as I am looking to get published this year. Have I written 1,000,000 words in my life. Yes, I know this without a moments pause for doubt. The question is, have I written a million words on the path to better and serious writing. Discount chat room conversation, discount friendly e-mails and texts and light thread posts and computer coding; discount all those words that are not a serious investment in literature.

After all those words are tossed aside, what is left. Letters, stories, reports, informational and recreational articles, thesis papers, serious forum content, formal e-mails and I would believe that all the words written under the teachings of the K-12 + College English program would count, as well as any writing done in a secondary language.

Though I have yet to complete anything for formal publishing, my wide array of half finished texts probably push me over the top of 1,000,000 words. I am by no means pushing this obstacle in the way of any writer other than myself. It is a large goal to contemplate. I say that if you find you have passed this mark and are not submitting serious writing to some sort of a publisher, you should so that the audience of the world can have a look at your sharpened pen.

A Walk & A Talk

One of my proofers on my proofing panel for my stories, the harshest critic, in-fact, was over for a day at my house, and we spoke as I continue reaching the end of my first novel. He finds it painful as an English major just graduating this semester when he looks at the shelves and finds out what quality of writing is actually getting published out there.

I told him about an author I had recently met who had gotten their work published, and without pushing it through an editor, so the text still had errors in it when it hit the shelves. We both came to the agreement that this person must have had a very good letter to the publisher when they submitted their text, as this cover letter is important. I hadn't had the chance to read the text yet, but if the letter you write to the publisher can be that influential as to make or break your publishing chances, I had better do well.

Our conversation leaked further into all the works I would like to finish in the world of literature, as they are numerous in number, and I haven't finished or submitted a single one yet. He began speaking of the lack of originality in literature and how he wouldn't start the writing of a book with characters and a plot, but rather, he'd start with the message the text was supposed to push, and work its way back from there. He'd find a way to express the message through events and characters in the book, specifically side characters so the book would not sound 'preachy'.

He commented that most of the ideas I had were messages that had been over-expressed in literature already, and that he would pick the books up, but probably not buy any of them. This went double for my graphic novel ideas. I am happy to have a friend that is so bold and honest in criticism, as I am a bit of a sadist and his altruistic views of the purpose of literature will only serve to elevate the quality of what I produce. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to alter everything I make to suit his palate, but if I were to make one text out of the many I have sketched out that he would wish to buy, I know I have diversified my audience to include a higher caliber of reader.

My retort to his claim of a message being expressed already, and the general lack of originality in literature, was that in writing, I could take a message and express it how I saw fit. All those who would read the message through my text would then have my antiquities, my mores, and the metaphors I thought expressed the message best now attached to how they view the idea.

Unlike him, I don't start, or rather haven't started any of my stories thus far with the idea of pushing a message through, the message has always come from the work mid-stream. If his agenda is to push ideas through writing, my agenda is to tell a good tale. We agreed to disagree.

The Road Ahead

This morning, upon waking, I decided to re-catalogue the skeletons of all my book ideas. After weeding out the contemporarily less viable ones, I was left with about 28 novels, and four graphic novels. I ran out of go-juice before getting through all of them, so the stack of 'to-do' items is larger yet.

I find again that it is important to get finger to key, or pencil to paper and push these works from my mind to printed type. The large fault I've had with my writing since middle school (or perhaps before), is that I do not have the gift of short story. I never have been able to stop writing a book.

As I am working through one or two novels, I'll get another four or five great ideas for additional texts unrelated to the one I'm working on. Sometimes I'll spider off and work on them. The endgame is more tasks due out with none removed from my list.

If it came to pass that I could have a career in sharing my mind and imagination with the world through picture, text, and maybe even screen, I know that I would never run out of resources. The world today (especially Hollywood), is low on originality. Though I can't claim to be truly original, I have so many fresh ideas that haven't been attempted yet to my knowledge, and it is clouding which path to take first.

I just have to plow ahead and get one work on the shelves. That might help the process.

State of Progress of My Works Today

I'll start first with my written novel, I am at 56K words and 12.5 chapters. The main character and his traveling companion are about to meet up with a bad-ass that gets his own book earlier in the time line. I can't wait. This is my 4th and hopefully final rewrite of this book before I get my panel of proofers to go over it. After that, I'm submitting for publishing. Should be another 3 months or so.

Game engine. Well, I haven't put any more progress on pulling together and arranging the elements of what I want to submit for publishing this year, but I have done a nifty bit of spreadsheet work for the rules of another D6 based game engine. It is a universal RPG like most I try to make, and also has another element of growth control that the moderator can use to keep people even without looking like they're shorting the man in front.

The system has guides for equipment, rules for combo attacks, counter attacks, critical hits, spells, special attacks, and energy assisted skills. It's all very malleable to whatever setting the player wants. Now, as always, I just need play testing.

My graphic novel. Well, we have all the main characters and their pets done up in two separate representations. We need to get the rest of the concept art and the cells for each character finished before we can start production. Problem with this graphic novel in specific, is that we're going to go through a lot of characters, none of which get prolonged screen time. This means a lot more time invested on concept art then on actual page cells.

I'm not going to bend to cheaper production though! If I do, my subconscious mind might retaliate against me. My sister asked me after I laid out the vision from my dream of Book 1 and 2 of this graphic novel, 'what if the publisher ends up wanting a Book 3 or more? And what if they're offering a LOT of money?'

I had this book in a dream, and do not wish to compromise it at all, so I simply answered: 'I'll sleep on it.'

Well, the muse is going to strike me once more, so I'm back to chapter 13 of my fantasy novel.