Novel Anatomy

4/22/24 - Today's Stats

Words Written - 162. Hours Spent - 0.5 And bonus: words written 4/21/24 - 0. Hours spent 1. Total words: 30362. Hours spent writing - 174 (estimated, I'm assuming I wrote at 150 words per hour for the first 22000 words).

Writing in the Storm

People who know me a little sometimes describe me as calm. As a physician, I've worked in some intense settings, including the emergency room and the intensive care unit. Places where appearing calm and methodical is essential. People who know me well laugh whenever the word calm is

Today's Stats - 4/20/24

Novel - Space Necromancer (working title), also considering Of Asteroids and Undead Owls. Total words written: 30,220 Total hours spent writing (estimated): 95 Total words written today: 150 Total hours spent writing today: 1.5 I've discovered that it's very hard to estimate how long

The Ghosts of Novels Past

Here is a cartoon by Tom Gauld which I love. It's a play on the story of Bluebeard, but instead of wives trapped in his basement, it is the ghosts of unfinished works. I think every author has a file filled with books they've started but

What Does Novel Anatomy Mean?

Novel Anatomy is a bit of a play on words. It could mean "novel" as in "unusual" anatomy. I am a physician who wants to be a novelist, and perhaps some of my books will include a bit of unusual anatomy. But the other meaning of

Happiness

This is a blog about writing, not about happiness. But I think happiness matters a lot, for most of what we do. Happiness creates room for creativity, for joy, for insight. I believe that habits make for happiness. The habits we do every day define who we are. Who we

Doubt

How do you write a novel when the world's problems are so large, and at least as far as I can tell, they don't seem to be caused by a novel-shaped hole? Poorly. The answer so far is poorly. I love books. I love the way

Mental Health in the South Asian Community - An Interview with Dr. Jyothsna Bhat

Why should you need to do research if you're writing a novel? Especially if it's a fantasy novel, aren't you making everything up anyways? These are great questions (that I just made up, shhhh!). The fact is that in order to draw your reader

Focus

There are so many things competing for my focus. I have my day job, my hobbies, my friends, my family, my cat (Loki), that all deserve my time and attention. Plus, there is the news cycle, which has been pretty dark and depressing this year. And the cold weather doesn&

Let It Flow

Just a quick thought for today: I write best when I'm in a flow state. Words and ideas are just coming to me and I'm putting them down on the page. It doesn't happen often. Usually, I have to struggle to think of each

Why I Want to Write a Bad Novel

It's not all that complicated. I love books and I want to write one. I'm also a perfectionist and I have excellent taste in books (#modesty), so it's hard for me not to get frustrated with what I write. Unfortunately, if I stop and

Keep Going

When I was a little kid, I used to go hiking with my dad. Being not very patient, I would often ask, "How much further until we get there? How far until the top?" My dad never got frustrated with me (amazingly), instead, he would just tell me,

The Hardest Thing About Writing a Novel

For me, the hardest thing about writing is having faith that I will be able to finish my novel. It's a big undertaking. Writing 100,000 words. And they can't be random words, they actually have to be carefully planned. One has to go after another

How to be a Lazy Writer with Math

I'm lazy. I actually thought about calling this blog Nap vs. Write originally, because I am very fond of naps, which are more fun than actually writing. Shhhh! Don't tell anyone. Writing is sometimes hard. But you know what's worse than writing? Researching. Researching

How to Write About the Near Future

One of my favorite writers, Charles Stross, writes science fiction that takes place in the near future. It's a weird, alternate future, but it still involves places and events that will be happening in the next one or two years. This is a strange challenge, because no one

Today's Update

Stats: Time spent writing today: 60 minutes Words written today: 177 Time spent writing so far: 58 hours Number of words: 5860 Writing is slow. I've done a lot of backtracking, and I am not totally sure where I am going in this book. There are so many

My Solution to Writer's Block

Yesterday, I wrote a post about my book problem. Actually, I just posted it today, because procrastination. Here is my book problem. I have too many different interlocking stories and too many different ideas, and I have no idea how to make the ideas work together. Here is my solution:

Problems

Writing is hard. Also, I think I naturally try to make it harder. Here are my current problems: I am trying to figure out how to organize my book. To have this make sense, you'll probably need to know something about the book, so here is my elevator

Stuck

Stats: Time spent writing today: 23 minutes Words written today: 354 Time spent writing so far: 54.6 hours Number of words: 26171 Today, I had a lot of trouble getting started with writing. I haven't written anything for nearly a week. I am feeling confused about the

Writing the Depressed Character

My main character struggles with depression and anxiety. I want to make him interesting, while also being honest about the challenges he deals with. Here is the problem. Conflict is key to storytelling, but most conflicts are dramatic. These are conflicts like fighting against an evil foe, or going on

Daily Update

Stats: Time spent writing today: 86 minutes Words written today: 594 Time spent writing so far: 54.2 hours Number of words: 25817 Writing today was difficult. I think my plot has gotten too complicated and tangled, and I don't know how to unravel it. If time travel

Today's Update

Stats: Time spent writing today: 80 minutes Words written today: 259 Time spent writing so far: 52.8 hours Number of words: 25223 It was hard to get any writing done over the holidays. I'm guessing that probably doesn't surprise anyone. So it's been

Daily Update

I've decided to switch formats. From now on, I'm going to post quick daily updates on my writing progress. I'll then plan to post longer articles regularly, but not daily. I might shoot for three times a week. Update for today: Stats: Time spent

Feeling Sad

Stats: Time spent writing today: 90 minutes Words written today: 690 Time spent writing so far: 49.7 hours Number of words: 24141 One of the reasons I decided to write this book, a fantasy novel about a man who struggles with anxiety and depression, is that this is something

My Goal for this Blog

Stats: Time spent writing today: 60 minutes Words written today: 397 Time spent writing so far: 48.2 hours Number of words: 23451 My goal for this blog: I want the blog to show people my writing process, the anatomy of the novel that I'm writing. I'