Daily Archives: February 6, 2014

Feb 6 2014

What Kind of Female Character I like

 

I’m sure by now people are noticing that most of my female characters kick ass and are tough as nails. Why is that? I don’t know really; maybe it’s because I find myself bored with the guy saves the day shit. Or perhaps it’s because I’d love to have a tough girlfriend. Either way, it doesn’t matter because that’s the type of character I like.

One of the things that makes me decide whether or not I like an anime is whether or not it is a ‘girl’s with guns’ or the girls are tough as shit. I love Coyote Ragtime Show and it’s not because of a protagonist. Honestly, I love April and watched the entire series just to see her parts. For some reason I found her far more entertaining.

In Canaan, Alphard is the far more interesting person. Not because she’s unabashedly evil, but because she’s not afraid to kick ass and do the things the guy is normally written to do. I can eat this up all day.

Thus, I end up writing or having characters that are similar appear. Athol is the outlier for me, because I’ve never met or ended up writing about a character that is so sociopathic and evil. The girl just doesn’t care if what she does is wrong. She likes to kill and that’s all it is to it.

Talia, while she can be kind, still carries an air of being sinister under her ‘honor and commitment’ exterior.

Maybe it just boils down to me wanting to have a girlfriend who is tough like that. I don’t know. It’s something I’ll keep thinking on.

Feb 6 2014

Does Anyone Really Give A Damn About How Many Words You Write In A Day?

 

I love the threads about how many words a person can write in a day. They really tickle me to death. Does is really matter whether it’s 1k or 6k in a day? To me it sounds like the old ‘my dick is bigger than yours’ that boys have so much.

Now, a person can sit back and write 1k of solid, publishable work compared to another’s 6k of shit? Who’s doing better? The more important thing to consider is this: are you writing something that is of high quality? Now I don’t mean lacking typos, because that’s going to happen even if you type slowly. Do your sentences make sense? Are the simple and clear? Did you use a ten dollar word when a fifty cent word would’ve worked better?

There are so many things to consider when discussing how many words in a day one can write. When sufficiently motivated, I can crank out anywhere from 2.5-4k when in the ‘creative’ phase of the book. After that I end up having to do at least 2-3 edits to get it to what might be considered publishable quality.

Like today: I’ve done a final read through/edit of my Talia novel to the tune of 4-6k, I have also written almost 3-4k in my Athol novel, but I can guarantee you the Athol work is nowhere near publishable quality, so what have I gained? Not much. Although, I will admit that when I’m in the creative phase (when I’m actually putting the idea to paper) I tend to write far more in a day then when I’m rewriting/editing. This is because I just want to get the story down while I have it in my head. After that its edit, edit, edit, edit and edit some more.

In a nutshell, don’t compare yourself against others when it comes to how many words you write in a day. Just make sure they’re the best amount of words you can write. Shoot for quality over quantity.