posted
This is my predicament. My unfinished novel is currently at about 37,000 words. I'm just getting back to it after years of procrastinating and doing other things to take my mind off of completing a project...the way I'm getting myself back into the story is by going page by page and editing it. Of course, I'm finding a lot of flaws and places I need to elaborate more etc. Right now though, I don't even know my current ending spot in the novel because I'm editing on page 60 of 120 completed pages, and the fact that I haven't worked on it in a very long time means I don't remember what I've written. So I guess, what it boils down to is this:
1) Is my editing method of trying to get back into my story going to work?
2) Is there another method that might work better?
3) How can I get it to a publishable length without adding extraneous padding?
Of course, the answer to question three depends upon whether or not I have enough of a story to carry it through that length, so that depends upon necessary scenes and motivated characters.
posted
You have to recraft your plot. I did the same thing with a novel. It came out to 67,000 pages and I needed 30,000 more.
What you can do is sketch out all of your scenes. It can be done on a spreadsheet. A sentence or two describes each scene. Put a scene on each line. That way you can insert rows for new scenes or delete ones where there is a dead end that keeps your story line truncated.
Then read it with the intent on either extending it internally or putting more at the beginning and more at the end or any combination. Think of enfolding your current story with more content. Doing it scene by scene will give you a general outline that you can follow.
You might find that you need a subplot (or more than one) to interleave with your current one. You might need more characters to do that, but that might be your only way to write it without extraneous padding. Keeping it to a few sentences per scene can make that manageable. The idea is to re-cast the big picture.
Trying to write your way out of it is too big a task if you try to do it page by page and don't have a kind of roadmap to follow. You'll get hopelessly lost.
It will take some creativity, but that's what writing is all about, isn't it?
[This message has been edited by Owasm (edited October 17, 2010).]
posted
OSC said that the main difference between writing a short story and a novel is the speed at which you tell it. In a novel you have more time to develop and explore characters, ideas and relationships. This can create some great subplots to help fill out your word count. But just adding interesting details can help with that too.
I agree that re-crafting your plot is probably necessary. Ask yourself, if you were trying to write this idea from scratch, how would you do it now? How would your approach differ and what angles would you add that you maybe didn't see before. At every turn, ask yourself, What if... and if it wants to go in a different direction because you get a great new idea, let it.
posted
Thanks. Those are some good suggestions. I read somewhere online yesterday that however long you think it's going to take, multiply that figure by five and you'll see how long it really will take. I think that's turning out to be true, at least for me.
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posted
I would suggest give it a reread first. You will know from there if the story is complete or what needs to be done. If it is complete then you have a 37,000 word story. It is what it is. If not, meaning story arc, plot, character arc and such could be developed further and the make for a better story, then by all means add.
I think you will find it you have good concept in the story you will be drawn right back in. Just yesterday I picked up my first short story ever, and realized what was missing. And that was nearly 4 years ago.
posted
In my upcoming novel, I prepared two additional subplots in case the length of the text is too short. I think of it as additional features of a computer game or a director's cut of a movie. The whole story can work without these scenes but it adds a few experiences to better understand the surroundings and/or characters.
[This message has been edited by MartinV (edited October 17, 2010).]
posted
Not to derail this thread, but this brings to my mind a newbie question. I often see people saying they are targeting a certain number of words for their novel. I never understood why exactly.
Why do people target a precise number of words rather than just write the novel out and whatever the word count is, the word count is. Is it something expected by agents or publishers?
posted
There are expectations of word count for various genres of fiction. The younger the audience, the shorter the expectation. You can sell a 60,000 work MG fiction, but that won't work for epic fanstasy where 100,000 is more the minimum.
A 37,000 word adult fiction book of speculative genre won't sell unless it is very unusual.
posted
I have a target length for the novel I'm starting. It's loose - 75,000 give or take 10,000 words. But yes, my target is taking into consideration marketability.
The story is a planet-side sf adventure in the far future. If this goes over 100,000 words from a first-time author, it's going to be a hard sell. Also, I just don't think the story needs to be that long. It's not an epic.
I've also heard that 50,000 words is a bit short from a first-timer because they may wonder if you got the chops for 'full-length'; even though 50,000 words is technically a novel.
So I'm aiming right in the middle. If I felt the story had to be longer or shorter, I would do it. I will always respect the integrity of the story first. But there's a pretty broad range and if I simply keep it in mind as I write I can choose to add or subtract stuff as I go to help keep me in that range.
Mind you, there are different word count expectations for different genres. You should find out what those are for your specific piece.
posted
There is almost a black hole in the market for 7500 to 50000 word stories - they just don't have much of a market to sell to. They are too short for a novel and too long for a short story. It is one of the reasons that WOTF get so many in the 7500 to 16000 bracket, because writers know they are unlikely to sell elsewhere.
I am expecting that the internet, online stories, and e-books will start to break this barrier down, but it is a barrier of expectation. How will they price a novella, for instance? People haven't been thinking in terms of reading that size.
quote: This is my predicament. My unfinished novel is currently at about 37,000 words. I'm just getting back to it after years of procrastinating and doing other things to take my mind off of completing a project...the way I'm getting myself back into the story is by going page by page and editing it. Of course, I'm finding a lot of flaws and places I need to elaborate more etc. Right now though, I don't even know my current ending spot in the novel because I'm editing on page 60 of 120 completed pages, and the fact that I haven't worked on it in a very long time means I don't remember what I've written. So I guess, what it boils down to is this:
I haven't read every response so I'm not sure if my suggestions have been covered or not. Most of the ones I read sounded good but none dealt with a couple of ideas. One is how much danger is your MC in? That is how many times? You probably know this already and you may have even done it but your MC should have all kinds of danger. Scenes that could kill him or disable him. Depending on what type of adventure maybe even have someone he knows die. That can not only have him show angst and grief but shows the readers the dangers are real. He might even have to race to rescue someone, again depending on what type of adventure and how many friends he has.
Another way to add to the word count is to add sensory descriptions. I mean the five senses. It's hard to come with taste a lot of the times but does he feel the wind or hears a slight disturbance in the force, oops that last wouldn't be just five senses.
Does he have any time for personal reflection? Does he doubt himself or the evidence? Perhaps, no matter what his friends-boss-coworkers-the media, say he knows who is the bad guy or where the bad guy he is hiding. Does he think "Woa is me" or "How in the hell did I get into this situation?" Or "why am I the only one that can stop the five dozen, twin headed, five inch high, orange tabby cats from hades, I'm allergic to cat dandruff?"
Is there time for romance or friend to friend bonding? Do you put in anything about his past life? One UF series has the fairly young MC thinking about her mother every so many chapters. Actually, I think there's two of them that do that. Another UF has the MC think about his elderly neighbors a couple of times a book, even taking time to shovel the sidewalk so they won't slip, before he goes off to save the day.
I hope some of this is a help and hasn't been repeated.
And I hope it can help me, I have the same problem with one book. It's not done but what I have in my mind won't bring it up to even 75,000 words.
posted
Some years ago I did nanowrimo with a goal to hit a certain wordcount. I had a scene plan, with a certain number of scenes (say, 50) and basically just worked out how many words per scene would be required to hit my (arbitrary) nanowrimo wordcount goal. While I don't think this is the ideal way to write a novel by any stretch of the imagination, it was one way to ensure I was hitting a total wordcount target.
In planning my current wip, I am taking another approach. Once again in my preplanning I'm laying out scenes, but this time (due to the nature of the story) I want more scenes, rather than just wordcount. So in each scene I'm looking at the story problem(s) and asking (1) how can I make it more complicated for this pov character, and (2) how can I upset the story for some other pov character? (ie, so plot threads complicate each other). In general then I'm getting more bang for my buck - tension rises in the current scene but also rises in the story as a whole because the reader knows that there's now a problem for other characters - and I'm getting more scenes generated out of the whole process.
Keeping track of the whole project is a lot more complicated than my strictly linear nanowrimo story though
So without knowing the details of your story I would just throw some derivative advice into the mix (which may not apply - so it's just a general approach). Take what you've written and call it a very detailed character- and world-building exercise. Break it down into a scene-by-scene plan, and see if you can make things more complicated. Look at your theme and ask yourself how you can further dramatise it through additional plot threads. Look at how well built your character's internal and external arcs are, and if one is underdeveloped, find ways to make it shine.
While it all sounds like hard work, at 37K you're in a good position - you know your characters and setting very well. If you can find new problems for your characters that bring them alive even more, then a rewrite may not be quite so painful as the first draft was (well, my first drafts are painful, anyway...).
posted
Hey, thanks again to all who've contributed to this thread. You've given me much to consider and work with that has been very helpful.
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posted
Definitely go through one reread first and try not to do much editing. Make notes on things you want to change or add but try not to touch the text or else you can get bogged down with it and by the time you get to the end you'll have no idea of the flow. The flow of the story is what will determine where you have to explain more and where you need extra scenes. You might also get a better idea where you want to end up. Sketch out how many scenes it will take you to get there so you will know around how many words you might end up at.
You might insert a few scenes where your main character encounters conflict with a secondary character. That could give you more character development of not only the main character but others in the world too. I think subplots are a good way to add substance without incorporating padding. You don't want too many subplots of course, but at your current word level I don't think you've got too many going now.
posted
It truely depends on your plot and characters themselves. Getting back into a project after so long won't be a walk in the park.
I suggest maybe recreating your plot, perhaps include new strange characters that stand out, and give them a purpose inside the plot so that your novel can expand in length.
Sometimes, it works to combine two unlike ideas. Doing so, will then lengthen your story, and make it more interesting at the same time.
I learned that with a novella I wrote that was 18,000 words, and I ended up getting it up to about 80,000 words, and now it's my personal editor's, also best friend's, favorite book.
Anyway, you also don't want to spend so much time editing, because that also counts a little as procrastinating, at least until you finish the project in question.
I hope you finish it. The longer you put off a project, as you know, the harder it is to get back into it. Sometimes, we just have to force ourselves back into a project and have confidence in our writing. No matter what our inner voice says. Our inner voice isn't always right.
posted
More great ideas. Thanks a bunch. Actually even if editing is procrastinating the actual writing part--well I've been adding some additional bits as I edit, so it's not all bad--and at least it's getting me doing something. I'm going to print it out though and read through it as several of you have suggested. I am procrastinating that though, as my printer is showing nearly out of ink and I don't want to change the ink cartridges. The ink always gets all over my hands and I look like a bank robber who got some cash with one of those paint bombs in it.
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posted
Something else you can do instead of editing would be to start writing the story over again from scratch without looking at any of the earlier drafts.
Use what you've learned since you wrote the original and create a bigger, better story. It will have a better chance of being fresh and new than something you've edited after all this time.
posted
When coming back to half done work I just read from the beginning to get back into it; by the time I hit where I left off I'm ready to go.
Length issues are interesting to me; ebooks have no length requirement. The market will change as a consequence of this - when a million people pay a buck each to download a 30-40,000 word work all of a rush (shockingly) you will be able to sell them.
Having said that, there are ways to deal with length issues. One is to add a character and a problem; something which will divert the protagonist from his important goal, something he doesn't want to deal with but feels he must, then link the results back into the main thread. Bingo, more length, more exploration of your theme etc. Just a though.
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