The last two weeks at work were In. Sane.
But I have been editing the hardcopy draft of the novella (is it still a novella at 50K words? I think it falls short of category length -60K) Anywho, I'm a little over half-way done. It funny how you think something is pretty damn polished and probably only needs a few tweaks and next thing you know you're cringing at what you thought was so grand and gutting your work. again. *sigh*.
'K, it's not that bad. Surprisingly few typos (Yay, crit partners for previous hard work!!) but still a bit too wordy/flowery in places and in other some fleshing out or clarification was needed. I really like the men in this story. Like the humor, and after all the angsting that the heroine was a bit of a cypher she's emerged with a personality after all the revisions. I am a little concerned about how the hero's best-friend's potty mouth is going to go over with editors/readers. But I don't want to neuter him. The casual profanity is soo him. lol. I did make one concession -- one of his favourite swear words is motherf***r (edited for tender sensibilities) I write it as 'mother effer' in the story. Just doesn't seem as strong written that way.
Man I'm sitting here typing and all I want to do is go back to bed. Just been an incredibly mentally exhausting week. :-P
And now for the joke. Got this earlier this week, or it might have been late last week. It's an oldie but cute.
HELGA'S DIARY ON A CRUISE SHIP
DEAR DIARY - DAY 1
All packed for the cruise ship -- all my nicest dresses, swimsuits, short sets. Really, really exciting. Our local Red Hat chapter decided on this "all-girls" trip.
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DEAR DIARY - DAY 2
Entire day at sea, beautiful. Saw whales and dolphins. Met the Captain today -- seems like a very nice man.
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DEAR DIARY - DAY 3
At the pool today. Did some shuffleboard, hit golf balls off the deck. Captain invited me to join him at his table for dinner. Felt honoured and had a wonderful time. He is very attractive and attentive.
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DEAR DIARY - DAY 4
Won $800.00 in the ship's casino. Captain asked me to have dinner with him in his own cabin. Had a scrumptious meal complete with caviar and champagne. He asked me to stay the night, but I declined. Told him I could not be unfaithful to my husband.
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DEAR DIARY - DAY 5
Pool again today. Got sunburned, and I went inside to drink at piano-bar, stayed there for rest of day. Captain saw me, bought me several large drinks.
Really is charming. Again asked me to visit his cabin for the night. Again I declined. He told me, if I did not let him have his way with me, he would sink the ship.. I was shocked..
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DEAR DIARY - DAY 6
Today I saved 1600 lives.
Twice
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4 comments:
The standard/accepted length for a novella generally runs 18-40K. Less than 18K = a novelette, more than 40K = a novel. My latest was about 30K, which I think is a good mid-length novella.
I don't have a problem writing profanity, although occasionally I'll work with creative alternatives or avoid it altogether to give myself a challenge. I liked how Trevanian handled a foul-mouthed character in Shibumi; he had him swear in the testicles of saints. "By the snake-bitten balls of St. Francis"; that sort of thing. Aside from being laugh out loud funny, it really added great color to the characterization.
more than 40K = a novel.
Yikes. Thanks for the info, Lynn. Of course, now I'm even more concerned about the issues with this story, that might be acceptable for a novella, but could prove problemic for an official novel length.
Then again, I seem to be cutting a lot in this final review.
Oh, about the swearing, some of that is getting snipped for all characters, I'm not a big swearer myself (I still say shazbot. lol). But now I have to go look up those Trevanian books. Love the testicular cursing. *g*
Shibumi is a wonderful novel. Probably out of print now, but so worth hunting down at the nearest used book store. :)
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