FINISH LINE

“Hi, my name is Kimila and I’m a word-aholic.”

I absolutely love words! I grew up in a family of storytellers and some of my crazy clan may have made up their own words occasionally. For instance, warshcloth for washcloth, tempature for temperature and yellow for hello. You get the idea, right?

Now part of the reason for these created words could be because my relatives moved to Oregon from Oklahoma before I was born. And all y’all no what a strong southern accent can do to the English language.

When I entered the working world one of my first jobs was a secretarial position at a bank. I’d always thought of myself as a great speller, but my mean supervisor soon taught me that was not the case. Imagine you’re typing a letter on a manual typewriter, and you’ve read the piece believing the missive is error free. Then … your supervisor hands it back with red ink markings showing your misspelled words and errors.

I became a better writer, editor, and speller thanks to Mean Mary. And the invention of computers and software has helped immensely. I love that Word tells me what’s wrong with a hint of blue or cute red squiggly lines.

My very first WIP in 2004, “Murder in Margaritaville” (no Jimmy Buffet would not let me use the name) was a labor of love created on a desktop using a keyboard. I pounded out all 125,000 words over the course of three months. Worked hard on editing, printed the pages, and clipped them into a three-ring binder. Then I had my mom, of course, and a few friends read my masterpiece.

Oh, the life of a novice writer. I attended my first Willamette Writer’s conference that year and fell for the line, “I’d love to represent you and your novel, but first we’ll need to have it professionally edited by our team of awesome editors. For a small fee (fortune).”

Of course, I forked over the money for the editing service and learned some valuable tools I still use today. Such as, the correct way to use the word “like”, which I had used incorrectly 30,000 times in my 125,000 word bemouth. One of the editors and I became friends after she sent me a sticker with the word “Like” in the middle of circle, then crossed out.

The most important lesson I learned, though, was do not pay someone who’s dangling the dream of helping you land a book deal. After paying for the editing, the agent, who’d lured me into her web of deceit, told me my masterpiece wasn’t a good fit for her firm.

She gave me a few reasons, but the one that stuck and haunts me still was, “As a novice writer, you should stick to 70-75,000 words in your books.”

I decided not to perseverate about this unpleasant experience and moved forward with my fledgling career. To hone my skills, I wrote short essays published by the “Cup of Comfort” anthology series. You learn how to be an efficient wordsmith when the count is 2,000 words. How to tell an interesting, compelling story without the excess baggage of unneeded words. That being a ruthless editor of your own work serves to make your story stronger.

Now that I’ve let go of the “book deal” dream, I’ve embraced creating interesting characters and writing the fabulous stories swirling in my mind. With three novels, a novella, and a handful of short stories in my collection of work, I feel good about my writing skills. A few glowing reviews for these books has also encouraged me to continue weaving my beloved words into dark and twisty tales.

Still, every now and then, I hear those long ago words echoing in my mind. As a novice writer, you should stick to 70-75,000 words in your books. And worry I’m being too wordy, adding unnecessary blather that will bog down my story and cause a reader to set the book aside.

Each novel I have written over the past six years has grown in wordcount. I find myself watching the count with a bit of trepidation as the number draws close to 70,000. But then I ask myself, is the story good? Can it be better? Have the character’s completed their journey within the tale? Are the loose ends wrapped up for the reader? Have I created a sense of anticipation for the next book?

At this point, I smile and keep writing until the story has reached the finish line. I don’t think of myself as a novice writer anymore, but instead as a writer who loves words and plans to let them determine when the tale is told no matter the word count!

Happy New Year, Ladies of Mystery! And happy writing!