Meandering On Monday with Janet Lane Walters

Meander 1 _ Touched a bit on this last week but I'll do a bit more about novellas and the rushed ends. I'm of the theory that a  book should be as long as it needs to be. I'm guilty of rushing the ending of a story since I want it to fit into a shorter length. I've read many that really need more and I've felt let down when the end rolls around and the end doesn't seen to fit the pace of the rest of the book or there are things that should have been explored that were skimmed over. Spoke about this to some of my writing buddies and they agreed. Sometimes the publisher draws a line and says this is the length a novella should be. They also mentioned coming to the end and having to capsulate the action. Others have set themselves a word goal. That's what I've tried to do. Sometimes this works and other times it doesn't and though the story is there, there are places where the story could have been expanded. I'm working on a story now that was planned as a novella but it's going to be longer than the 25,000 to 35,000 words my publisher says is a novella length. But at least I'll be allowed to write the story and the words won't count against me. This is one novella that may be a short novel and hopefully I'll be happy with the end.

Meander 2 - What do you do when life gets in the way? For me it's to live life in double time and try to do both jobs as best as I can. Though being a bit impatient sometimes I get rather tense and want to scream. I'm playing nurse to my husband who is feeling his age and his physical problems. I'm giving up my study so he can move to the first floor. The writing may suffer a bit but I will accomplish all I'm trying to do.

Meander 3 - My WIP is going well and I've finally reached the point where I can sketch out the last third or half of the book so I know where I'm going. Called Divided Dreams and part of the Moon Child series. He's a doctor who doesn't like the choice he made on many levels. He's always wanted to be a writer and now he has a three book contract. She's returning home after twelve years and thinks he's not around. She is one of the choices he made under duress. She hasn't been able to forget. A car accident where his sister dies and he ends up with the baby and some other problems along the line. She's a Pediatric nurse practitioner. The thing facing them is the past. While they can handle the today, can they think about a tomorrow?