Monday, March 2, 2009

Word Count: Out of Control Edition

I started a time traveler story several weeks ago, a fun little thing that I expected to run about 4,000 words total and take a matter of hours to write. HA HA HA HA HA. It's well over 5,000 words now with another thousand to go--maybe more--and I don't think I'll ever finish it at this rate. I also have the distinct feeling that the story is flopping around all over the place, completely out of my control.

You know, I used to under-write. Now I'm turning into one of those wasteful over-writers who have to go in and cut cut cut once a story's done.

I've had a headache all day. Hell with the time travelers, I'm taking some aspirin and going to bed to read something someone else wrote.

7 comments:

Aaron Polson said...

Ah...time travel. How I never want to try and write about thee. I hope your headache evaporates soon.

K.C. Shaw said...

This is the third time travel story I've ever attempted (that I can remember) and it's also probably the worst. Bleah.

Jameson T. Caine said...

My recent time travel story took me 14 years before I figured out how to end it. Time travel? More like time wasted, in my case. If only I could travel back to 1995 and tell Past Me to just drop it. ;)

Cate Gardner said...

I had what I considered a fabulous idea for a time travel story (novel) about two months ago - I haven't worked on it yet, but I already see how it is going to trip me up in a million and one ways.

K.C. Shaw said...

Jameson--There's a story idea right there!

Cate--I don't think I've ever even read a time travel story/novel where I didn't at some point think, "Wait a minute, that didn't make sense." Why do we persist in writing them?

Jamie Eyberg said...

One of the first stories I wrote when I got back into the writing groove was a time travel piece. It sucked but was published.

K.C. Shaw said...

My second published story was a time travel one. I still have a fondness for it, but it's not very good.