Update on Rhodar, the Barbarian

Yesterday I passed the 50,000 word mark with my new novel about Rhodar, the Barbarian. I don't have a title yet. That won't happen until I'm finished with the novel. Things are moving along fine. I have a skeleton of an outline, but that changes with the progress of the story.  As I write, the ideas come to me and the story takes on more substance. I try to write every day, as times allows. Sometimes I may write only a couple of paragraphs, other days I write a few pages. And that's okay. As long as I stay with the story so I don't have to waste too much time re-reading what I wrote. There are quite a number of characters in the story. New ones introduce themselves as the story develops, but there are only a few main characters and the story is written with multiple POVs. Some of the less important characters may appear only once, others show up more times during the story. I have a sheet listing all the characters and they all have some kind of background, which may not be mentioned in the story itself. As I introduce a new character, he/she gets added to the list. It's the only way to keep them organized, especially with all the names I have to invent.
Writing a sword & sorcery story is different from writing science fiction or a modern crime story. The people talk differently and act differently from characters in a crime story for instance. Science fiction is different again. It is a challenge but I'm enjoying it.

When I used to read (so many years ago, no time now!), I read a slew of sword & sorcery books. My favorite authors were Robert E. Howard, featuring Conan ( I read them all, more than once); Lin Carter with Thongor; Michael Moorcock with his Elric of Melnibone. And, of course, Edgar Rice Borroughs with John Carter of Mars and Carson Napier on Venus (I read all of them). There were other authors, like John Brunner and Roger Zelazny, and more. I have a library full of books and I read each book. Oh, I miss those wonderful worlds they created and to read about them. I wish I had time to read them all over again and live again in those worlds. Now I just write, creating my own worlds. There are only so many hours in a day and so many other things I want to do.

To get back to Rhodar, I don't know how long the story will be, but I'm aiming for about 90,000 words. Shouldn't be a problem. Too much longer and it will be too long for e-publishing. Can't have that. Many of my books turned out too long and I divided them into 2 or 3 books, but I don't want to do that anymore. I don't think readers like that. Most prefer when the story ends in one book. A series is fine, but each book has to have an ending. Anyway, that's what I want to do for my future books.