This week has been a good week on the whole if we discount the weather plummeting to zero again just as my daffodils decided to was safe enough to bud:( Also had to have some blood tests to see if we can discover just why I am not picking up as quickly as I should now that heart has been stabilized. Results next week so fingers crossed it’s just a matter of adjusting drug does. My visit to check rat poison levels was good I have reached the desired level.
I have a great time editing The Ancestors Tale – this has been in creation for over a year now – some parts written, some dictated – there is a difference – when I dictate I am using more varied and complex vocabulary! Who would have thought? Some written/dictated when I was well and some when ill – again a big difference – I can see this editing is going to be a complicated challenge but you know what – it’s a challenge that I am enjoying:)
My Scrivener workshop has highlighted a few things to be looked at in the Ancestors. One of which I am seeking advice. More of that later.
I am this year showcasing the previous three in the Sefuty Chronicle series before Ancestors appears at the end of the year. AS I missed last year’s deadline for it – this showcasing is as a reminder and hopefully to garner some new readers and hopefully some up to date reviews. Ellen’s Tale is on her way as a must read and the other two will finish in the next months. Then later in the year I will be organizing some tours – I need to get some reviewers first.
While Ellen is being showcased I have signed her up on Morgan Bailey’s novel nights in – 10 weeks worth of instalments. Morgan offers this blog for books of no greater length than 100,000 words – Ellen is the only one of the three short enough –so I need to chop her up into ten 10,000 word sections.
Now my –‘help wanted please’ – bit:
All the Sefuty Chronicles are made up of archival material i.e. recordings- transcripts of recordings, letters and journal entries. Sections (chapters) are of varying length and Ellen’s Tale having no chapters at all – it is written in sections – Ellen Welfitt or Bix Sefune for instance – the whole interview in one section (chapter) so some are very long say 12,000 words some very short for instance 1500 words depending on who is being interviewed – also the transcripts are interspersed with letters – fairly short but collected together so there may be any from 1 to 5 letters in a section. I will need to put chapters in I think for this 10 week project.
I have read that chapters of 2,000 words are easy to read – this seems very short to me (well it would wouldn’t it:) What are people’s thoughts on the length of chapters? Bearing in mind the structure of these books. The overview of Ancestors is beginning to throw up a similar question how long should a section be? Ancestors is slightly different in that there are 4 sections of archival material, but for the first time there is a main narrative running through it – the man reading the ancestors accounts of 100 years previous also remembers the past 40 years of his life. Would I need to have a different chapter structure for the memories?
Does any of this make any sense? Have any of you read Ellen’s Tale – I think the formula works in any case people do come back for more so it can’t be so unreadable – but it does need some flexibility of mind to read.
How long is a chapter?
ROW80. This week:
Words: I have been editing like crazy. It is NaNoEdMo – 50 hours of editing min in a month – concentrates the mind. All of The Ancestors Tale has now gone through autocrit and basic mistakes have been highlighted. In the process I have re-arranged the order of events a little to make I hope a more pleasing effect. Going through autocrat work in the removing of repeated words and phrases I am re-thinking sentence construction and so the story tightens and improves – a small miracle!
Memoir is also going well the 2 workshops have helped a great deal here and I have sound framework and have begun to fill in the gaps exposed.
Blogs: Only one this week for Insecure Writers, ‘Wonderful dysfuctional human beings’
Workshops: 2 x memoir – great – 1 x Scrivener – I have fallen deeply in awe of scrivener – I am so pleased I joined this workshop – I hadn’t realised just how amazing it was.
Networking: Bit of a struggle this week – but have done some every day.
Next Week: More of the same – mainly editing but hope to start actually writing some A-Z blogs for April – have some drafted and have decided on what to include under every letter except 2!
I hope everyone has had a reasonable week and wish you all a good coming week.
albereta ross writes 