Yeah, I know, it’s late in the day, but it’s hard to do my Wednesday updates when I’m here at work. So let’s see what’s going on.
For my current WIP, the garden gnome horror story, I’m still behind on word count. It’s because I’m not writing every day. I’m having a little trouble with it right now. For starters, it’s going in a direction I didn’t really originally intend. I’m going to let one of my beta readers take a look at it early and see if it’s so bizarre that it’s falling apart or if it works. If I go in this direction, I’m going to have to go back and add a few things to make this all make more sense. But I think I can make it work. Also, I originally intended for this to be a novel, not a novella. In horror stories, especially the slasher kind, things move pretty fast. But I think I moved this one a little too fast. I wanted to get at least 50K words out of it so it could really be classified as a novel. Right now, I’ve written about 35K words, and I’ll be lucky if it makes it to 40K. So it’s right on the cusp of being a novel. Most of my novellas have run between 25K and 26K. So I’m not sure what to do with this. I know it needs a little more fleshing out, which will be done in the second edit, but I don’t know if it will be enough. I refuse to pad it just for word count.
Things are going well on the Christian romance I’m writing. I’m not setting a particular word count goal on this one because I never know when I’ll be going out for lunch instead of staying in and writing. I’m sort of shooting for at least 500 words for each lunchtime writing session. So far, the word counts have been 579, 908, and 926. I still don’t know whether to use my real name or another pen name. I wanted to use my real name so the people at church that read Christian romances would know it was me. But now I’m thinking I can use a different pen name and just TELL them it’s me. That way I won’t have to worry about stalkers and such. Because some authors actually get them.
Don’t even ask about my exercise progress….
On watching TV (yeah, I know this isn’t a goal) – I’ve watched lots of episodes of Dark Shadows. I’m LOVING this. It’s so much fun to revisit the show that started my love for vampires (and other paranormal beings) as a kid.
lauralynnelliott.com 
I didn’t know you were writing a Christian romance! That sounds great. When do you plan to have it finished?
You must have missed my post where I talked about it. I don’t have an estimated release date. I’m kind of doing this on the side right now. LOL
I must be the only person who didn’t like Dark Shadows. I tried, but it just wasn’t for me. Maybe I didn’t see the right episode?
Andrew, you have to get past the cheesiness. But that’s part of why I think it’s fun.
Personally, I’d stay with your established name. You can always create a separate tab here on the blog/website. Just think of all the time you’ve spent building this site…
Anyway, sounds like great progress. Hope you have a wonderful week.
Hi Raelyn. The whole reason for me to write these Christian romances is so some of the people who can’t know about this pen name can read what I write. Using the same name would defeat my whole purpose. I have friends who wouldn’t understand about the paranormal stuff I write. Of course I also want to prove to myself I can write other things.
I enjoy reading about your process here. I have written some of my work under a pseudonym (since I mostly write memoir) and there are certain things I just can’t share using my name, primarily for my family members who might be hurt by what I share. I tweak a detail or two and the world is served by my words and I feel better as well…. although once my ex-husband figured me out. Oh, well.
Glad progress is being made…even if it is watching TV!
Thanks, Julie! It’s really each person’s choice as to whether or not to use a real name or a pen name. In your case, it makes perfect sense to use a pseudonym. Right now I feel like my real life is so separate from my writing life, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Although it drives my mother crazy because she wants to tell everyone about her daughter. LOL
I wish I didn’t love to watch TV and movies so much….
I’ve been considering writing something under an assumed name, as well, just because it’s so far and away different than my YA stuff. Have you every done it before?
Good job on that lunchtime writing!!! That’s a lot to be proud of this week. 🙂
I’ve never written anything under another name besides my Lauralynn Elliott pen name. But I’m going to have to do it for this project. I just can’t decide whether to use my real name or another pen name.