Eyeballing my outline for Light Switch and the disproportionate number of unfinished chapters vs finished, I have a feeling this book is going to be long. Like...really long. Too long. Of course, in theory, I could trim the fat while I edit. The only problem with that is I tend to write some chapters lean and some chapters...well...not. Which means, by the time I'm done adding here and pruning there during the editing process, the entire book gains or loses maybe 1,000 words.
If it ends up over 125,000, I'll just have no choice but to systematically execute darlings and eviscerate chapters until it's down to a manageable size. Scarlett managed to whittle a 148,000 word manuscript down to the mid-80s, so it's certainly doable. Can't say I'm looking forward to that particular bloodbath, but if it's gotta be done, it's gotta be done. It goes without saying, of course, that the story comes first. If it needs to be doorstop-sized, then so be it...but if I can, ideally I'd like to rein it back to something that won't make an editor's heart stop. I drive my editors crazy enough as it is without saying "I have a 1,879,900 word novel..."
On the bright side, even though the word count is starting to get a bit daunting, at least the words are coming now. It's only the 18th and I've already topped my word count for the entire abysmal month of March, and I'm only a few thousand behind my total for all of February. It's good to finally be back in a groove.
Speaking of word counts and such, I've noticed a trend with my recent manuscripts. There was a time when I wrote chapters that usually stayed under about 2,500 words. Now that seems to be the minimum length for my chapters. My books are getting longer, my chapters are getting longer, my characters- *cough* Sorry. Anyway, I don't know exactly why this is, but my books are definitely getting longer. Ironic, since the divine Miss Scarlett is going the other direction, shifting from 100,000+ novels to novellas (her latest novella is teh shiznit, BTW. Srsly). This growth (so to speak) isn't a good or bad thing, it's just an observation. And something I can't quite explain.
Sort of like how I can't quite explain why Gerard Butler looks so good without a shirt.
Wait. No. That's pretty easy to explain. Gerard Butler = Hot. End of.My expanding, mutant chapters, on the other hand? They may forever remain a mystery...
Posts
Not the appropriate place to post this, but had to tell you that "Beyond Brothers" is still by "go to" remedy for awful erotica, which I had another dose of last night.
ReplyDeleteAnd Gerard Butler looking good without a t-shirt? He does. He just does.
J./SFLP