Novel Writing.
In March, I added 5848 words to Branded, a science-fiction, young adult novel, so I improved on February’s 4841 words. I averaged 188 words per day in March compared to 173 words per day for February and 155 words per day in January.
The novel is now just under 70,000 words. It has five parts, and I am probably just over halfway into the fourth part. It looks like the novel will be about 100,000 words, at least the first draft.
I am still very much enjoying writing it. The dysfunctional group of characters are barely getting on at the moment, but one of the causes is about to be removed.
Non-Fiction Writing.
I wrote one article for Divine in March. It was about a lack of actors with disabilities playing characters with disabilities, especially in Australian movies and television. I contacted a few people in the industry for the article, and about half of them got back to me. I learned much about the issue from those who did, like Australian actress Kate Hood. She had the unique perspective of being an in-demand actress before she developed a disability, and she is involved in an Actor’s Equity disability committee.
A lot has been written about actors without disabilities “cripping up” to play characters with disabilities. My article attempts to provide some factual information from people and organisations directly involved in the industry, such as actors, casting agencies, and unions (note that the producers and directors did not get back to me).
The article, Actors with Disabilities, was published on Divine last Thursday.
I also started researching my next article on disability parking. It concerns people without disabilities who feel they are entitled to park in disability parking spots.
Blog Writing.
I have four posts for the month. I missed a week while researching a post on ebook piracy, which I found to be very common. Every author I checked had pirated versions of their ebooks available on the web.
Reading.
I read two books for the month and enjoyed them both. No Limit, by Australian/New Zealander Holly Childs. It is a hip novella full of hip people doing hip things while they worry about the world ending. And The Method, by Juli Zeh, which is a dystopian science-fiction thriller in the tradition of 1984 and Brave New World.
Critiquing.
I still have not critiqued anything this year.
So far this year, I have written on every day.
Health permitting, I hope to greatly improve on my novel writing efforts and critique something, anything, in April.
One Response
Nice and proactive mate. Well done.I think you'll struggle to find a publisher willing to publish a 100K YA – you could always split it in two? I guess the work has to be whatever it wants to be. Look forward to reading it, no matter who publishes it.