McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Wordcount!
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Murphy's Stunt Double on May 02, 2007, 04:05:45 PM ---Thanks, Cyclone and King. Your answers are very helpful. I was worried about the whole 2k a day being mush thing, but I suppose mush on the table beats War and Peace in the brain anyday.
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If it works for you, fine. There are people for whom writing down the Wrong Thing stops them ever being able to find the Right Thing. Both valid ways to be writers, but it's a good idea to know which is true for you.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Murphy's Stunt Double on May 02, 2007, 05:11:37 PM ---I do that quite a bit myself, only since I'm working on a non-fiction book, the story is already pretty much laid out. It's just a matter of delivering it in an interesting and readable way.
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I very rarely do things out of order, and if so, not very, because my characters almost always find some way of surprising me in the middle of every scene, even if only a small one, which would mess later things up if I had already written them.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: RMatthewWare on May 02, 2007, 10:28:53 PM ---From what I've read, 80,000 words is typical for a normal novel, but sci-fi and fantasy gets more slack because you're creating a world. 120,000 seems to be the cap for an introductory spec fic piece, though there are always exceptions.
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It's worth noting that up to about 2000 or so, there was a perception that fat fantasy novels in particular sold better than thin fantasy novels. At some point around then Borders basically imposed a cap on how much they were willing to sell a genre hardback for, which meant that a fair number of what were written as 120kword novels have been split in two for since - I know this is true of the last voume of Peter Watts' Rifters trilogy, and of Stross' Merchant Princes books, the first two of which are more a single book with two additional superfluous bits of cardboard than almost anything else I have ever read.
RMatthewWare:
--- Quote from: neurovore on May 04, 2007, 10:51:54 PM ---It's worth noting that up to about 2000 or so, there was a perception that fat fantasy novels in particular sold better than thin fantasy novels. At some point around then Borders basically imposed a cap on how much they were willing to sell a genre hardback for, which meant that a fair number of what were written as 120kword novels have been split in two for since - I know this is true of the last voume of Peter Watts' Rifters trilogy, and of Stross' Merchant Princes books, the first two of which are more a single book with two additional superfluous bits of cardboard than almost anything else I have ever read.
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I think that's retarded. A book written at 120,000 words is meant to be 120,000 words. If you split it up, I think you're jerking around the reader. No one wants to read half a book. Hasn't Harry Potter shown us that long books are fine, if they're good enough?
But, you know, it's Barnes and Nobles and Borders (and maybe Amazon) that decide most of what is getting published. If they don't sell it, then publishers aren't going to want to publish it.
Matt
Murphy's Stunt Double:
--- Quote from: neurovore on May 04, 2007, 10:44:48 PM ---If it works for you, fine. There are people for whom writing down the Wrong Thing stops them ever being able to find the Right Thing. Both valid ways to be writers, but it's a good idea to know which is true for you.
--- End quote ---
I can see your point. AND... Friday, with giving myself permission to write 2000 words after tying my inner critic up in a dark closet, I was able to actually get 2012 words on screen that weren't there before. Of course, the little booger kept screaming in the distance, "that sucks, you hack!" but I don't care. I have new words!
Next time though, I'll remember the duct tape for his nasty little butt. I mean mouth.
In unrelated news.... I spent 10 hours Saturday standing in line to audition for Deal or No Deal.
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