Young Writers Society

Well, it's happened.

My novel, Honor, has reached it's 50,000 word mark! After several months of writing, I can now say I'm penning a novel. I've never been a particularly fast writer - usually novels take four or five (maybe more) months for me to finish - and that's probably why a lot of them fall off the side of the map.

To get to this point in Honor, it's taken me four months.

I wish I could write these things faster. But it seems that so many other things have to be balanced and stable in order for me to write at all. School, work, friends, chores, church, curfews. Then again, I don't know if I have the stamina to write more than two thousand words in a day. I usually average 500 words a day. Which isn't much, I know.

But it's gotten me this far.

I absolutely adore this novel. It's about a member of a chinese Tong (the chinese-american version of the mafia) who begins having second thoughts about his membership. Throughout the course of the story, the MC finds out about a terrorist plot his Tong is participating in to gas a Los Angelean airport with a genetically engineered version of the black plague. And he becomes uniquely entwined in the whole mess. There are probably many holes in the piece's realism - things that can probably be fixed with a bit of research after the fact - but it's still irresistible to me. I've got a good feeling about this thing. I'm gonna finish this one.

I feel like as soon as I finish this novel, a barrier will have been broken. Novels will flow easier. It's like a state-of-mind Mecca that I need to find and capture. I don't think I've finished a real novel before this one, much less one I've been proud of, so this will be a milestone on my life's road the size of the statue of liberty.

Anyway, I'm going to post progress here until I finish - sometime, I project, in early spring. Wish me luck!

PS: The first eight chapters of the novel can be found here on YWS.

-Kylan

Hurrah, congrats!

Congratulations!

Try working on a novel for three years and not finishing. XD I'm not the only one. Sam says sh's been working on Hourglass for uh.. six years? And Snoink? A lot longer then six years, so I gather. Point it, don't stress. You're in the same boat, and probably many others on this board.

The concept of your piece sounds really neat. I'd like to read it sometime. Keep plugging away, and eventually you'll see the white light...

Well done, and good luck.

I've been away for a week, but I'll make sure to keep critiquing your chapters...

So I'm pretty sure I'll be able to finish this baby off by the end of February. I just spent a week writing a short story and it's back to the drawing board. The story is approaching it's climax. When Booker discovers who really kidnapped his family and Mark is abandoned in the airport and when te execution occurs. Fun stuff. I'm especially looking forward to the execution.

Anyway, I project Honor has thirty pages or so left. When all is said and done it'll be 110. A short novel, but a novel none the less.

So does anyone have any advice on ending? How much falling action is acceptable in your mind? I have the feeling I'll be compelled to rush through the ending. Do you think I should take my time, or just get it out of the way and come back to it later when I'm making a second draft. "The End" makes me nervous.

Smorg, don't read:

[spoiler]Also, I'm leaning towards killing off my main character. When you read a novel, do you like the MCs to survive, or do you not care,as long as it's well written? Then again, killing off the main character doesn't leave room for sequels...[/spoiler]

Wow. I've been working on mine for two years and it's not even close to finished. Congratualtions! Make sure you edit, and tighten everything up - it'll do wonders for your novel.

DON'T RUSH THE ENDING!!! The ending is the climax everyone has been waiting for; the conclusion that explains WHY you even bothered to write the book. So, I repeat...DO...NOT...RUSH. Try using lots of description and dialogue to paint the picture of the climax. Use strong verbs and words that give you specific sounds in your mind. That'll help.

~Sunny

That's awesome, Kylan Good luck!

So I'm approaching the climax. But It feels more like approaching a speeding passenger train with my arms spread wide. It's coming up fast and it's not stopping for anyone and I've got this nagging feeling I'm missing something. Sure, I'll be doing some hardcore editing on it once I'm finished, but I don't know if it'll ever be ready for that lofty realm of publishing...

Publishing, you ask? You want to get published? Well, sure. Who doesn't? Last Christmas my parents got me a copy of the Novel and Short story Writer's Market, and let me tell you, that thing has gotten better mileage than a good Toyota. If you ever take any advice from me, take this: get one of those babies. They've got lists of publishers, lists of magazines, lists of agency companies. It'll also give you publishing how-tos and tips.

So yeah. Eventually, I wanna take Honor to the very top. But I know it's going to need some work. For instance, a large part of it - including a shoot-out in a hospital - is just plain unrealistic. These are a few areas I want to doctor up:

-- Include flashbacks. Two characters who are essential to the story line are introduced in the beginning and don't show up again until the very end. Flashbacks will help give the reader more insight into there personalities without interrupting the storyline.

-- Change terrorist's motive. So I'm sitting there writing the execution scene, where the head terrorist murders forty people in the middle of the airport using Al-Queda techniques such as filming, etc. And then I think, this guy's doing this just for the money? No one can be that greedy. He has to have some other motive, something else to make him obsessed and psychotic. It's going to be hard, I know, but I'm going to have to rewrite the story so that the motives of the Tong members are both idealistic and lucrative.

-- Change location of the bio-bomb. For the entire novel the bomb has been in the vents, hooked up to the sprinkler system so that the bacteria can be mass distributed. But then I realized, bacteria can't be pressurized! It can't be condensed or shoved through a sprinkler system. So I'm thinking I'm going to have twenty or so smaller bombs planted throughout the airport instead.

So yeah. Those are just a few suffering areas. As you can see, this'll require some major editing. But Honor is still pressing on. 65,000 words and counting.

Unfortunately, I can't write anything today. Sick. I hate getting sick...

-Kylan

FINISHED!!!!!

-Kylan

Congrats Kylan!!!!! I know the feeling, just finished mine a few weeks ago and it is a feeling unlike any other. Is Honor posted on here anywhere?

Woah! That's loads of words per day! O am lucky to get 250 down each day! Well done on passing 50k, that might not happen to me for months.