Ya'all know me better than that. You know my work isn't finished until it's published. LOL. I'm over here bragging about how I have completed Chapter Four of the Highlander book, and really all I've done is type it out and give it more flesh than it had sitting over there on the side of my computer as part of an outline that reads "Chapter Four: Aria's birth and more". Yep, that was the outline. I used my wit, charm, thesaurus, and keyboard to fluff and stuff it a bit before I add it to the meager collective that will be about say ... 5000 x 30 = 150,000 words, which will be far more than it's supposed to be. Then, after I have the 150,000 words I have to go through them and delete some of the fluff and stuff and put in the boring bones that will somehow have to suffice. Right now I'm thinking what I have is a bunch of bones, but then I go back and read it and I giggle because I can't help myself. I'm a fluffer.
If I choose to use the thesaurus on that last line, I would also be a "linter" and an "eiderdowner" to boot. Yeah, that's why I will always use my thesaurus! It adds so much more color than my tiny brain can muster. (or in terms of using the thesaurus, "it calculates scads in volume than my wee thought-matter can service") See what I did there? That's what I do when I go back over the manuscript. I find a few too many incidents where I used the same word and I change it a few times. I add to it, I change the entire direction of it, I make it stand out, I often hide it, I'm just out there eiderdowning....as I think people should be doing from time to time.
Chapter Four is all about the birth of Aria, the main character, and her rejected beginnings. She was in fact rejected by her birthmother, and given to an unsuspecting but religious woman to be reared. She then becomes an orphan for the second time under the age of three, to be handed over to a friend of the family who overlooks Aria's strange behavior and offers not to correct her but to allow her to be the free spirit that she is. This could end up being a really good book folks. Not kidding you. I really like writing it. I found myself going over the Scots words for use when villagers speak to one another, so in the front of the book itself, I'll have to have a legend to explain some of the words that appear to be language to most but are either misspelled or seemingly misspelled. They are not. For example, the word "vera" means "very" and the word "ae'" means "all". There will be a legend.
During the writing of the chapter my daughter was live streaming and she was doing both karaoke and using her A.I. voice. It (She) became such a distraction for me that I had to put on a pair of noise-canceling headsets in order to type in peace. It took me about an hour and a half to write the five pages for the chapter which will be fleshed into about 10. There are about 300 words per page of a book the size that I want this book to be produced. The font will be size 12, not 11, and believe me that makes a difference. There will be about 300 pages and which means about 90,000 words. Right now I have about 3000 words per chapter, and there are four chapters. That's 12,000 words. I'll have to pick and choose soon, and that's real fun, let me tell you. It's more fun to flesh out and retrace your tracing than it is to create the trace. It's more fun to go through it and tweak it than it is to simply write and throw up matter onto an invisible framework using an outline.
The dang outline is a full 10 pages. The first outline, mind you, was only a couple of pages, as it was just the front and back of a sheet of paper with numbers and a brief synopsis of what should chronologically take place. We all know that books don't always take that shape, so then the next outline was me moving those lines around and fleshing them out...I've used flesh too often, let me see what the thesaurus would recommend..."figuring" or "body"...nope, we'll go with fleshing it out. That can happen too. I get to a word that I don't prefer and I'm stuck with it. I love the words "copse" for a group of trees. Just saying. Once the outlines have been fleshed and made full enough to work with, I begin the typing of each chapter, again without much body or information, just the necessary needness of what has to be told in that chapter. That right now is averaging 2500-3500 words per chapter. I need the book to be right at 90,000 words to fit into the size my mind wants it to be. I know there are 30 chapters today, but by the time I get to the end, there could be 33. (33 x 4000 is too many words for the book)
I suppose I could always write a sequel if I have too many words for this book, but I think this book is a one-off. I may write other Highlander historical romance novels, but this story is going to be told and that's it. There could be a spin-off...Antoin and Kirsten could have a book, Michael and Jedelle could have a book - - wait? Who? Michael and Jedelle? You don't know them? Oh, well, you will. They are a fantastically interesting Irish couple who come through the kingdom of Scotland to put on grand and stately plays such as never has been seen in the citizenships and denizens of Great Britain; daring and intellectual performances which will leave the audience breathless! Michael Givens is a personal friend of mine, and I simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to add him to this rugged and sensual manuscript; especially since it is he who I will ask to be the director of the film adaptation of the book! (Jedelle, his gorgeously chiseled wife will not only be a stage performer, but perhaps she will dabble in the arts of mystics as well.) Michael and Jedelle will be introduced soon, I can't wait to add color and grace to that chapter!
Jedelle Givens (Princess and Stage Actress)
Photo Credit: Jedelle Givens
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