Had my first hiccup in years with the site this week. At some point the entire thing became, well, unusable. Initially I suspected the cause was due to an upgrade of some of the underlying software on the server; being on a shared box, maintenance schedules are completely beyond any one occupant’s reaches. So I upgraded the WordPress install and the databases to the latest versions. That got me closer.

Yet the content remained unavailable and attempts to access anything threw up ugly errors.

On a whim I started deactivating some of the plug-ins that add functionality to WordPress. After squelching the Markdown plug-in, everything was lovely. Essentially the server upgrade was the catalyst, but the actual problem stemmed from how the new software interacted with a single pre-existing file that functioned incident-free for more than three years. Maybe I do have some tech chops still. Years of maintenance programming served me well.

While I’m doing some personal accounting, I’d like to explain why things quieted down so much on the site. Things are happening, but there’s been very little evidence of movement this summer.

Here’s the short version:

1) As a result of a reorg at work, I went from four bosses to one. Two of the four are, ahem, “exploring other opportunities.” Boy, I sure do wish them well.

2) My new boss kicks ass. And their new boss is even cooler.

3) The new bosses increased my responsibilities and compensation.

Essentially I’ve been attending more to my professional side, which left less time for recreation. I’ve also been taking a long hard look at the finances. Now that every dollar earned after taxes is mine to keep and not subject to division, I’d like to keep as many as possible. That led to some adjustments in savings and investments plans, as well as allocations.

Before I continue on with the previous entry, an email came in from a good friend about word count. In brief his question: how many words does it take to make a novel? While there is no hard and fast answer for this–it’s a subjective matter–there are some general guidelines:

Short stories: A few hundred to 15,000 words.

Novellas: 15,000 to 40,000 words

Young Adult Novels: 40,000 to 50,000

Novels: 60,000 and up.

Keep in mind, there is a lot of room within those guidelines. There’s also plenty of exceptions. Rather than arguing whether a manuscript is a novella instead of a novella, I think what’s more important than how long or short a piece of writing is, is whether the words on the page work. If the writer feels what’s on the page serves the story, and they’ve left nothing on the table, then the manuscript is the right length.

Certainly, history offers up several examples that prove this, great manuscripts in the 20,000 words range. Jonathon Livinston Seagull, for instance. Tuesdays with Morrie is another.

And brevity might be ultimately less of a problem than unwieldiness. Without naming names, there’s definitely books that are unmanageabe, verging on endless. To me, if it takes laying sideways in bed to keep from cramping my hands up while reading it because the goddamn thing weighs so much . . . anyway, I leave it at sometimes less is more.