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As an admirer of Charles Dickens, I wrote a Christmas story recently.
At about 30,000 words, Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, with his iconic Ebenezer Scrooge (Bah! Humbug!), in six weeks, quite an accomplishment if you know how difficult writing well is.
With this in mind, I managed 27,000 word in six weeks. Not bad if I do say so myself.
Having written three books with Amish characters, my character is an elderly Old Order Amish woman who must face why she led an unkind life of playing the banjo. Just kidding about the banjo part. General knowledge says Old Order Amish don't play musical instruments.
So, I ended up with a story called The Forgiveness Quilt: An Amish Christmas Carol, and as of today, four days after I published it, it broke the top 100 bestseller list for Amish and Mennonite fiction on Amazon.
No, I'm not rolling in cash. For the most part, writing for me is a labor of love.
Here's the link from Amazon. Thanks for peeking, and merry Christmas to the non-humbugs. :)
amazon.com/gp/product/B0BNVQDKD1
James, it's great that you are being creative and enjoying your writing.
As I'm sure you are aware Dickens was a busy parliamentary sketch writer and career journalist as well as a novelist. As a result he was a professional writer habitually acquainted with writing to deadline. That writing context sharpens the ability to quickly structure one's writing. When a creative mind is shaped by necessity to think in terms of 'framework' and purpose that person has the structure to more readily facilitate a required word-count. We see this in Dickens' with his remarkable ability to serialise. His novels were in many instances written under intense time-pressure for part-work publication in Victorian magazines. That via this method, with it's inherent sub-text need for paced suspense, and without opportunity for long rewriting and final editing he was able to create enduring classics with powerful social relevance and humour is really extraordinary craft. His breadth of vision and style means that there's something for everyone in Dickens, but whether a modern reader has found their way to that relationship or not, he was undeniably a powerhouse among writers.
Edited by - quartertoner on 12/06/2022 02:19:31
Exactly right, Mike.
I admit to not having read anything but A Christmas Carol, but I've watched many movies adapted from his work.
I also know his work critiqued English society at the time, such as how he used Little Dorrit to remark on debtor's prisons, likely due to his father spending time in one.
During my career, I interacted with Amish communities throughout the midwest. They mostly manufactured furniture and cabinetry. I sold them their coating systems and worked in their shops as a consultant, color matcher, and laborer when they needed me.
My relationship with the Old Order Amish became close over the years and I was welcomed to their wedding and funeral services. Though I have been retired for 9 years and moved to Colorado where there are few, if any, Amish ... when I travel back through my old territory I stop and visit with them. Some have taken the train on vacation to my neck of the woods and we see each other then, too.
Congratulations on authoring a pleasant read. It touches me.
It's off onto a tangent, but the first half of this 7+ minute video offers up a [somewhat] interesting/entertaining/?? look at some trials and tribulations of writing:
[I tried to embed (?) a live link, but apparently not enough stars are in alignment.... yer on yer own.]
Edited by - Owen on 12/07/2022 14:06:46
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