Playing with my fonts again.

Trying to figure out the best font to an ebook.

Everyone assures me that the consumer will decide, but I know some consumers will simply default to what is offered.  Consumers like me.

I like Cambria, but couldn't find anyone else who recommended it.  Prints out to 266 pages.

Ariel doesn't look right. 272 pages.

Courier looks like a typewritten manuscript.  327 pages.

In the end, I decided I can't go too wrong with Times New Roman.  256 pages.

This font is very familiar, like what a lot of books use, and I decided that I would try as best as possible to mimic other books. 

I can always tell when a self-published book comes in the door.  It just feels wrong.  Wrong design, wrong font, wrong paper.

Ebooks aren't quite the same, but I think the same standard of trying to look professional applies.

Still trying these things out. 

Also trying various sizes of text.  Have decided on 12 for main text, 16 for CHAPTER and 14 for titles of chapter.  20 on main title, 16 on subtitle.

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Back to writing:

Just when I thought I was finished, I realized that I needed two new chapters.

Once I decided that I needed to flesh out the motivations of characters other than the narrator, then that required that I flesh out the characters themselves.  Once I did that, I needed to add chapters later in the book where I play out their story arcs and hopefully come to a satisfyingly emotional resolution.

The process has added about 25% more words to the book -- but without identifying with the characters I don't have a book, just ideas and plot.

I'm much more pleased with the book now.

Once again, I'm hoping I've satisfied the structural demands of the book -- but as I keep saying, I'm learning to never say finished. 

If nothing else, by now I really have put the work and thought into this effort.  I've tried my best and if it doesn't work, it isn't from being lazy or impatient.

This has been a long slow process of falling back into being a writer.  I can't just dish it out.  It requires all kinds of commitment of time and attention, and I've just had to be dragged into that realization.   As I've said, it was never a mistake that I quit writing 25 years ago -- I was well aware of what it required and what I could commit.

But I'm also glad to be back doing it.