Belly Flop Fridays

Playing on iTunes: "Longfellow Serenade" by Neil Diamond (Oh yeah...I broke him out. What?)

"I just called...to say...I love you." Hahahaha.....I just wanted to get that song stuck in your head. I needed to know someone else was in my boat.

Onto the post!! I spend the first hour of my day...everyday...catching up on blogs. Needless to say, I run across some pretty hilarious stuff that I really really really want to share. So, I am instituting Belly Flop Fridays (b/c Belly Flops are funny). The way I figure it, we should all end our weeks on a happy note. So, even if you don't read what I write (which you should be...so shame on you) you should at least check in on Fridays for some hardy laughs.

Knowing myself as well as I do (about as well as I know math, actually) I will be posting a lot on Fridays. :)

For my first post of the day, An Octopus Love Story:

Chapter Length

Playing on iTunes right now: "Knights of Cydonia" by Muse

As I write this book, I am trying to figure out what the ideal chapter length is. I understand that not all young adults are bibliofiles, so most get a little ancy in their pantsy wondering when the next chapter will start. Right now, my chapter's are running about 10-12 pages long. I have them broken up into scenes which are about 4 to 5 pages long. That wouldn't seem so bad, except when you make each scene an individual chapter, I am already on Chapter 14. I still have a lot to say!! And that count means that the book will be about 40-50 chapters long. Even I know that is a bit much. I was hoping for around 25. *sigh* I hate math. I will eventually figure it out. I think I am aiming for a page count of about 300. I am on page 67 right now. If I keep on with my chapters the way I am, I am going to have a 21 chapter book.

Wait....that's not bad. Oh good! My math was, apparently, slightly off. I guess I just needed to have it in writing. See the wonders of "the word"? It makes sense of everything, even arithmetic. :)

Right, I am on to Chapter 7: Scene 1 tomorrow night. I think I need to start setting an entire day aside for editing. I only have one chapter fully edited (not counting the final thousand edits before it is sent to the agency), so it seems I have a lot to do. On that note, I better get to work...or sleep, I haven't decided yet. Wish me luck on both!!