Novel or novella?

The dictionary definition of the word 'novel' explains it as a "fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity, portraying characters and usually presenting a sequential organisation of action and scenes". Hmm. "Considerable length". Not what I'm writing at the moment, then.

There's another definition of it as an adjective that goes "of a new kind; different from anything seen or known before". Sort of what I'm writing, I hope.

In a weird sort of plot twist of real life, under the first definition of 'novel' as a noun is this:

"(formerly) novella". Which, as it happens, is what I'm apparently writing. I've learned to kind of accept that. I don't know why I was so opposed to this before. I suppose a novel just has more social standing in the world. When I hear the word novella, I just picture a little book that will maybe one day grow big enough to be called a novel. Like a kid who wants to go to big school and puts on his older brother's blazer that doesn't in anyway fit, though is still absolutely adorable.

What I'm trying to say here is that...

Actually, I have no idea. Scrap everything.

Something like a panic attack

If there's one thing I know about myself, it's that I have a tendency to get pretty hysterical over minor things. I'll freak out and worry obsessively about trivial things like what if I'm not ten minutes early to meet my friend? but big things I tend to breeze through without a care because, as per my motto, "it's only life."

With this in mind, I had a complete breakdown of trust in my self earlier this week where I panicked about the standard of my WIP. I began to worry that at just over 24k words, it wouldn't be long enough to be a novel in four chapters when it ended and I'd be left in the gutter of life, bemoaning my pitiful planning abilities. Really, why did I ever think thirteen chapters would be long enough for a novel??

One of my main points of concern (okay, one of the reasons I started mentally shooting myself in the head) was that I don't actually have a proper ending to my story yet. I kept meaning to figure one out but I couldn't think of a definitive scene and decided that it would be fine when I got there, because I would understand the story more and know where it should conclude. Yeah, so not the case. My head was a MESS trying to work out how I hadn't thought up a wicked cool ending yet.

After about seventeen minutes of pure, blind panic and unending self doubt where I considered packing it all up and becoming an elephant breeder instead, I turned to the internet. I found that yes, the way I was heading was a little short off the mark but that was okay. Ladies and gentlemen, I was reminded that what I'm writing is not a novel - it's just a first draft. And it only took ten tabs to reassure myself things would be okay for me.

Meet the team

As a result of not having a better idea of what to write about in today's post (plus I'm lazy), I've decided to do something a little bit different than usual. A picture speaks a thousand words and writers should show, not tell. With those two bite-sized pieces of theory in mind, I give you the main characters for my WIP, Venture Crew:

From l-r: Gilad , Farren , Philadonna 'Pip',
Kaden , Solara and Mathus.

My drawing skills aren't half bad, are they? Ignore the dark smudges on the left side, my scanning skills leave much to be desired. Just  be thankful the image is straight. Ish.

Here's a fun fact about me! Whenever I'm working on a multi-chapter story, I like to draw the main characters. Sometimes I sketch their image repeatedly, trying to get the feel of what their face looks like. Farren has been completely changed about six times in my sketchbook, earning the title of most changes I've given to a character - ever. First she was male, with straight hair, brown eyes and was quite skinny. Then he grew taller, gained some muscles and his hair got messier, but still straight. Farren progressed until he was short, slightly muscular with red eyes and curly hair. And a woman. She and Mathus switched genders at some point during my planning process. Mathus used to be Madi.

Talk about an identity crisis.

Please, be serious now

Earlier this week, I reached the halfway point in my WIP. That's right: halfway. Get the balloons out people, it's time to celebrate!

Since I'm at the halfway milestone, I decided it would be a good place to take a breather and look back at what I've written. Normally after every chapter I get someone to go over it and correct typos and such, but I haven't with this story. The people who I used to turn to for advice on my writing have (gasp!) outgrown their desire to write and have gone on to pursue completely different things. Like jobs, other interests, boyfriends. A life.

Because I was looking at my writing seriously for the first time since my "One day a girl went to the shops and didn't end up at the shops instead she..." days, I've noticed a few things about my writing. Bad things. Like, my sentences don't always make sense because I'm trying too hard to make a unique metaphor. And I overuse the word "but". And the narrator's voice is all over the place.

But However, all of this is easily fixable (I hope). It won't be long until I've completely finished the first draft and then we'll see how my writing fares from there. My sensei Sharena recently posted about making deadlines and (more or less) sticking to them. Which got me to thinking: shouldn't I make myself a deadline?