"I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead." –Mark Twain.
This morning I experienced what Mark Twain was talking about. I was trying to write a short synopsis, 500 words, they said. Hum. I had written three pages. Well, there you have it, begin editing.
But then there is the other end of the spectrum when writing a book, and you are trying to get your word count up to the sweet spot publishers like or require.
In the past, I heard 92,000 words was the sweet spot for a novel. Now I see many Publishers will take 50,000. A novella is 30,000 to 40,000.
Yet writing gurus say, "Write until it ends."
That's the not-fun part of writing. And probably what Michelangelo meant when he said writing is making me poor. Yet, and this shocked me, Michelangelo amassed a fortune in his lifetime that, by today's standards, would be 42 million dollars. There goes the myth of the starving artist.
(I think Van Gogh brought that myth into vogue. Yet, look where his work went.)
People write, paint, sing, dance, and begin businesses, not to inflate their ego (well, sometimes) but to put them in the zone. That's the reason I write-- to be in the flow. The flow is that no-time zone when you are working. It's like a child playing for fun, not to become great or physically fit—those are after effects.
No, be creative because it feeds your soul.
And get paid for it.
