How to write a novel

[andrewducker]

I am led to believe that this process also applies to PhDs

Via neil-gaiman, who got it from Nic Alderton, who also explains How to write a Great Novel

Comments

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

overwhelmingly guilty of pitfalls 3 and 4

the story is still as fresh in my head as it was 5 years ago. If not considerably bigger and fresher.

[yalovetz]

I fall at the first hurdle every time!

[helen-keeble.livejournal.com]

That is frighteningly accurate!

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

5. Trying to write the story the way an inkjet printer creates a picture, perfect line by line the first time.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

What recently-published novels are only eighty thousand words?

[andrewducker]

A quick google tells me that 250 words per page is about average. So that would be 320 pages.

I'm currently reading The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - 317 pages. Last book I read was Halting State - 334 pages.

We'd have to ask Charlie how many words there were in his book though, unless someone fancies doing a quick word count.

[helen-keeble.livejournal.com]

This suggests Stross's latest works are averaging 100k. Interesting insight into novel length, too.

[andrewducker]

I wonder if the length of novels will be less prized once they're all bought as downloads.

[helen-keeble.livejournal.com]

Almost everything outside of the SF/F Kitten-Killing Volumes, I think. From what I've heard from editors and agents, 80k is pretty standard for non-SF/F genre (romance, mystery etc) and YA.

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

I recently talked with a publisher of a multi-author SF series, and they want 80,000 as a maximum length for their novels.

A lot of self-publishing people who are doing ebook-only stuff are going for shorter novels, too. Looking at the books Amanda Hocking has put on Smashwords (which gives word counts - I chose Hocking because she is inordinately popular), one is about 55,000 words, one is 62,000, and five range from 79,000 to 98,000. So 80,000 seems about reasonable.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Very true (and yes, it does indeed apply to PhDs, too).

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Erin and I do 3 over and over and over again. We get about 75k in and just go "Oh, we know how it ends now" and don't bother to actually write it. Hence our... I would say about eight nearly-complete novels? There are way more projects than that but most are only about halfway in.

[andrewducker]

I used to do the same with short stories, back when I wrote them.

And I think it's why so many campaigns I've played have petered out 3/4 of the way through, once we're into the endgame.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

I was going to say that I would feel obliged to finish those if I was the storyteller, but of course one of those campaigns you refer to was my one and only game. That being said, I seem to remember that being because I'd just broken up with one of the PCs and was a little distracted...

[andrewducker]

Things were a little...tricky then, tis true - I wasn't including your campaign in there because of the other factors :->

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

Hello, number 4. We still on for tonight? Good stuff :)

[thaxor.livejournal.com]

5. If you can read this, see 4. above.

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

5 - Writing the story down in about 3,000 words instead.

(Seriously, every single time I get a great plot idea, it turns into a short story. Even the longest piece of fiction I ever wrote, which was about 12,000 words long, felt unnecessarily padded.)