andrewducker: (obey)
andrewducker ([personal profile] andrewducker) wrote2012-02-20 08:32 am

How to write a novel

How to Write a Novel.

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

Via [tumblr.com profile] neil-gaiman, who got it from Nic Alderton, who also explains How to write a Great Novel

[identity profile] undeadbydawn.livejournal.com 2012-02-20 08:37 am (UTC)(link)
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: A black and white scan of an illustration of an old Jewish man from Kurdistan looking a bit grizzled (Default)

[personal profile] yalovetz 2012-02-20 08:38 am (UTC)(link)
I fall at the first hurdle every time!

[identity profile] helen-keeble.livejournal.com 2012-02-20 08:43 am (UTC)(link)
That is frighteningly accurate!

[identity profile] zornhau.livejournal.com 2012-02-20 08:57 am (UTC)(link)
5. Trying to write the story the way an inkjet printer creates a picture, perfect line by line the first time.

[identity profile] del-c.livejournal.com 2012-02-20 09:33 am (UTC)(link)
What recently-published novels are only eighty thousand words?

[identity profile] helen-keeble.livejournal.com 2012-02-20 02:03 pm (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] andrewhickey.livejournal.com 2012-02-21 01:03 am (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/ 2012-02-20 10:44 am (UTC)(link)
Very true (and yes, it does indeed apply to PhDs, too).

[identity profile] marrog.livejournal.com 2012-02-20 12:40 pm (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] marrog.livejournal.com 2012-02-20 12:45 pm (UTC)(link)
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...

[identity profile] fyrie.livejournal.com 2012-02-20 05:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Hello, number 4. We still on for tonight? Good stuff :)

[identity profile] thaxor.livejournal.com 2012-02-20 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
5. If you can read this, see 4. above.

[identity profile] andrewhickey.livejournal.com 2012-02-21 01:06 am (UTC)(link)
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.)