Today has been a pretty hectic day. I felt stressed and
overwhelmed. But when I took some time to just calm down and deal with things,
it struck me. Why Murees, are you stressing yourself out over a word count when
clearly there is a lot of other crap you should rather be worrying about? The
personal crap aside, I realized that I was putting pressure on myself to stick
to a word count to make editing cheaper, and so that I didn’t have too big a
book. But the truth is, this story is bigger. There’s more going on and it just
won’t come in under 100 000 words as I’d hoped. It might even be closer to 110 000.
I’m the one in control of production (creation of my books),
and I should give myself more freedom to write the book I want, even if it is
bigger than what traditional publishing standards allow. This is my book and I
can make it as long as I need to tell the story. Besides, I’m sure my readers
won’t mind a bigger book. The stress and expectations were coming from myself, and
nobody else. I was messing with my own head. So, I shifted focus once more and
now my attention is on the story solely for now. That is why I loved writing
and reading in the first place. The story is the most important thing for me. I’d
forgotten that.
I had made myself a promise, that I would do things my own
way. So why would that not apply to the length of my books as well? Why can’t I
do this my way too? I have found that making mistakes, and taking risks is the
only way I learn. Simply doing as others do or say is great for others, but it
had only ever steered me wrong. So, yes, I will be going with a longer book and
doing it my way, as Frank Sinatra had once sang. I have to trust my gut and
follow the story.
So, do you always trust your gut and do your own thing, or
do you go with the tried and trusted method? What is new with you?
