The 150,000-Word Question

Recently, my good friends over on the iWriteNetwork Facebook group were tallying up how many words they had finished of their current work in progress.  Some proudly proclaimed thirty- or forty-thousand words, halfway to the acceptable number for the average novel, which is 80,000 words.  Woohoo!  They were on their way.

I got to thinking, hmmm.  I wonder how far I am.  Now, (until I transfer it all over to yWriter5) each chapter of mine is a separate WordPerfect file (the one true word processor and victim of the great apostasy), so I painstakingly cut and past all 25 chapters into one big long document and then hit the word count button.  [drum roll please!]  I about fainted when it topped out at 149,000 words.

This is a problem.  This is a really, really big problem because I'm only halfway finished with this first installment of my series.  Did I mention that the plot of My Father's Son is so complex wrangling it into submission is like making a dozen two-year-olds dance a waltz?  (Sidebar:  it includes all the plot that has absolutely nothing to do with P&P and easily transferred over from The Famous Mrs. Darcy.)

iWriteNetwork

This morning while trolling around for something to write about, I wandered on over to iWriteNetwork and listened to Canda Mortensen interview Tamara Hart Heiner about her books Perilous and soon-to-be-released Altercation.  They used BlogTalkRadio, which is a spiffy setup and a great way to draw participants to your blog.

iWriteNetwork is an online community of writers, primarily women; its board members living along the Wasatch Front in Utah.  The membership is still relatively small (under 200), but seems to be growing quickly.

In addition to BlogTalkRadio, it has lots of features to add interest, such as user pages, forums, photos, videos, groups, and live chat.  Members control privacy by making and approving friend requests which limit access to their personal page.  The subjects of discussion groups range from romance/women's fiction to inspirational to personal memoirs.

Besides being a good place to network with other writers, I find the community helpful for bouncing ideas, asking questions, receiving guidance, and making friends.  The chat room provides real-time contact and interchange.   iWriteNetwork also provides lots of information on what is going on in the writing world, including activities, competitions, seminars, and writing conferences.

Membership is free, the atmosphere warm and supportive, but, like any specialized community, you have to learn some unique vernacular.  A Facebook group provides an additional platform for interaction.  For fledgling writers just getting their feet wet, it's a comfy little pond to strike out into. 

—A Chaotic Mind