Becoming the writer I want to be

I'm glad. I'd also like your advice on something regarding haikus.

 

Ask away!

 

I'm supposed to be taking a break but I'm still thinking about the end of book 2. Looking at the chapters I have left to write I see that I have 12. Of those, only one is what I would personally label a "long" chapter (I judge this by saying a long chapter is a chapter 20 pages or longer) with the majority being average length and a few quite short. My goal was to finish the book's first draft by the summer but realistically this wont be possible without sticking to a schedule that conflicts with other things I want to do. During autumn or winter I dont mind sitting indoors on a morning writing for hours but when it gets warmer I want to be spending more time outside. With this in mind I foresee a change in schedule where when I get back to writing I will start writing in the afternoon, after spending the morning being more active. I can't see this slowing my progress by too much. Either way, very excited to be reaching the final third of this book.

 

Finished the rewrite/edit of the second half yesterday.

Today I corrected or dismissed the remaining suggestions in the second half.

My wife read the first 50 pages of the second half for me today. I need a break so she is making notes in the book that I will need to correct later. I've asked her to keep an eye on a couple of plot issues. Her feedback might lead to some minor rewrites, but it's getting closer.

 

So I've written over a hundred haikus at this point and I'm not sure if I should begin organizing a book together now or if I should continue writing them until the end of the year and then begin forming a book in early 2022. What's your opinion on it and what do you think I should do?

 

I'm not sure how many haikus haiku books usually have. You should probably aim to have a similar amount to those. 100 seems like a good start though.

 

I read somewhere that it was around 70 poems needed for a book. There's not a definitive answer online from what I can find. I think I'll probably just write until the end of the year and I should have more than enough to form the basis of a book. I don't want too little, but not too many you know?

 

Is that how many traditional poems are the average? Or haikus specifically?

 

Not entirely sure. Some haiku books have like over 800 but I think that's a bit of a stretch for me. I think I'm gonna aim to have around 100 haikus, but depending on what happens, there may be more or less.

 

One thing you will need to consider is how to structure the haikus on each page. It may be worth looking into more experimental or interesting formats as opposed to just listing them. When looking on Amazon I have seem some more unique text alignments.

 

Keep up the good work, tango boi. You know you'll feel good when you get dat page quota in.

 

Well I dont really have a page quota but thanks anyway lol.

 

I gotchu.

 

Birdsong and blossoms,
cool breeze flutters through the trees.
A peaceful respite.

 

Gonna take another week off from actual writing but I might take the time later in the week to get some planning done. I will be writing next week for sure.

 

And what are they like?

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0140444...olid=1OGDGBH4WBRDZ&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it Take a look at this, the poems are structured in a unique way.

 

You could ask a question on Quora.

 

I mean what do I've got to lose?

I'll take a look at this now and get back to you tomorrow.

 

Finished the beta read with my wife tonight. It was fun and it met the goal of something we would enjoy reading together.

I have some notes of suggestions she left in the text from an evening reading without me when I needed a break from writing.

Then it's on to a final edit which is mostly for formatting. I might be deleting lots of tabs this week lol.

It's been a cool project. I'm stoked it has met my vision before I started writing. I had doubts I'd get it where I wanted it the entire time. It was fun to see my wife laughing and enjoying it in all the places I hoped she would.

I'm looking forward to wrapping it up and seeing if there is a market for it. If not, I'll write some bonus chapters for a Valentine's gift to let my wife see the romances happen I dragged out for future books lol.