Allyson, word count is always less important then good writing. And you've got the latter, so screw the former. (Plus, as Deb said, non-fiction = different.)

It's a daunting thing, but I think my biggest problem is no ideas of what to write. All that's in my brain recently has been fandom stuff, and I'm not writing a Firefly or SG-1 novel. For one thing, I couldn't carry it off, and for second, if I'm going to write a book, I'm going to write something that's mine.

Must ponder.

I've never found any hard and fast rules on non-fiction aside from how to query with it.

ION, Kristen did a redesign and formatted my sample, so I'm all spiffy, and terribly nervous.

xpost with Natter

[link]

Looks great, Allyson.

thanks! all credit due to Kristen.

That's extremely clear and easy on the eye.

Allyson, honestly? I don't know if there even are any hard and fast rules about non-fiction.

I've always understood that NaNoWriMo is actually more of disciplinary tool or a jump start for people wanting to write but having trouble getting their butts in the chair and completing something.

That's my understanding WRT NaNoWriMo as well. I'd like to be in the right place in the creative process to try it one of these years just to see if I'm capable of that pace. Not that I'd want to write that fast all the time--I think there's something to be said for a measured pace. The first draft I just finished took 8 months. I'd like to cut that to something closer to 4-5 over the next few books, so that I could ultimately turn out a complete book every 6-9 months, including research and editing time.

I'm of the school that believes a book should take whatever length of time the book wants to take. If it isn't getting finished because the writer's wandered off to grow dental floss rather than sit down and write, that's one thing. But for me, I'd neither rush a book without a gun to my head nor deliberately try to fit the time into a particular pacing schedule.

And yes, the deadline on Cruel Sister was in fact a gun to the head of sorts. But I wouldn't have agreed to the deadline if I hadn't been damned sure I could get it done. Whether I got it done and it was any good, mind you now, that's a whole different issue.

Back to work.

Well, I found that having weekly goals and an overall target for when I hoped to finish helped me write the second book a lot more quickly than the first. And since it's also a much better book, I don't think I lost anything by pushing myself a bit.

Nope (edit: nope as in, not losing anything by pushing yourself). That's exactly my point: whatever works for the individual writer. One writer I know won't write anything without doing double and triple outlines first; I'd rather eat ground rat intestines than outline, because the rigidity that works so well for her would kill anything I tried to do. Same thing with structure and timing. One writer's NaNoWriMo is another writer's tenth level of hell, and so on.

twitches

I just sent e-mail to Neil Gaiman, letting him know about the new Gothic Charm School website. Yes, when I saw him at the Seattle signing two weeks ago, he asked me what happened to the Gothic Miss Manners site. Yes, he did say he wanted me to let him know when the new site was up. But *still*. I just e-mailed one of my top literary idols, about something slightly self-promotional. I feel funny.

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