Writing Matters: Hitting The 50,000 Word Wall
Today's post was inspired by Jennifer Lewis Oliver a member of my WANA class of last year, she posted that she felt stuck in her latest work, that she didn't know what to do next. And when I participated in a fast draft with other writers, someone mentioned getting stuck at the 50,000 word mark. When I wrote the latest version of my novel, I was also stumped when hitting that number count.
Reblogging because I like the image.
I ponder this, though. I've been reading a lot of writer's posts lately, where they have set themselves targets or say they are stuck at the 50K mark. I guess that level - 50,000 - has been handed down to us by NaNoWriMo and other writing marathons.
For me, writing in a genre that expects 80-130K novels, 50K is only mid-point (in which case, I can perfectly understand getting stuck there). Though lately I have set the 50K as a self-enforced target simply for entering NaNo Camp in June, and possibly I will have to do the same if I wish to blurt out a part novel in November's NaNoWriMo, just for the sake of the self-reward in "winning".
In my mind, though, I know that a novel at that length just isn't going to cut it, nor is it at all near completion. So, I try not to avoid thinking at that 50K level.
