3,444 more words.

Last week I wrote that my goal would be to write 3,000 words a week until my novel was done.  I actually wrote 3,444 words.  Not bad consider we were dealing with a roach problem at the time.  Who wants to hear more about my roach problem?

Okay, never mind.

I’m now on page 90 of my 143-page script.  This translates to 45,361 words.  In a novel, everything is measured by word count.  But it’s actually hard to predict how many words my novel will end up having.  Some script scenes take more words to describe than others.  And there’s also the fact that in a novel you can get into a character’s head, their thoughts and feelings.  You can’t really do that in a script unless it’s through dialog.

I had a four-page scene that was mostly dialog that took about a thousand words to novelize.  Then this week, I had half a page that took about 750 words.  After a big fight with the bad guys, my heroes are running off a train before it’s destroyed.  In the script, it’s just a few lines about everybody running.  But in the novel, I describe things in detail.  The order in which everyone is running.  The hurdles they faced.  The impending doom.  And most importantly, my heroine’s feelings of terror and her guilt about her best friend being injured.  What was a simple action scene in the script, became an emotionally complex scene in the novel.

But that’s the difference between a script and a novel.  A script is a blueprint from which hundreds of people, each with their own specialties, are going to put together an end product for a viewing audience.  A novel is an end product for the reader.

In case your wondering, cleaning off and rebuilding the Star Destroyer is still a work in progress.  The roaches got in the way.

Dennis Amador Cherry

18th article completed.

First Steampunk novel:  45,361 words.

If you’re not horridly repulsed by roaches, you should check out the movie, “Joe’s Apartment.”