What are you working on right now?

My story focuses on the formation and rise of a futuristic political dynasty starting in the near future circa 2018 that ends up controlling everything by the year 3000. They are like the rockefellers of our generation and are primarily African American mixed with some Japanese later in the future. It's an anthology series that will interconnect between generations and time periods. The sub plots focus on technology, geopolitics and the bond between two main characters as they try to figure out a mystery. A larger all encompassing arc that connects each story together is more about the interlinking of the spiritual and technological concepts that I believe will indefinitely begin to happen. As humanity realizes technology's true power.

I am almost done writing chapter 2 and it clocks in at over 10,000 words!
 
springs said:
A 10,000 word chapter. Not an easy sell....

I'm working on short stuff and waiting on edits.
Click to expand...

I think you misread. I am almost done chapter 2. So it's 5000 words per chapter. I'm going to work on making them a little shorter
 
Cli-Fi said:
I think you misread. I am almost done chapter 2. So it's 5000 words per chapter. I'm going to work on making them a little shorter
Click to expand...
Ooops, apologies (although the pedant in me is itching to point out the it indicates the chapter length, as the subject of the sentence, rather than total length and a misread ;))

5000 is still long for chapters with current trends to a little shorter, but, then again, Terry Pratchett has no chapter breaks so it's all academic. :)
 
springs said:
Ooops, apologies (although the pedant in me is itching to point out the it indicates the chapter length, as the subject of the sentence, rather than total length and a misread ;))

5000 is still long for chapters with current trends to a little shorter, but, then again, Terry Pratchett has no chapter breaks so it's all academic. :)
Click to expand...

Yeah I realize that all my ideas might not fit into the book if I continue with the 5000 lengths so I will gradually make them shorter. Especially since I am aiming for the 75-85K range.
 
Cli-Fi said:
Yeah I realize that all my ideas might not fit into the book if I continue with the 5000 lengths so I will gradually make them shorter. Especially since I am aiming for the 75-85K range.
Click to expand...

Fab. So, from the length for genre - is it young adult? It didn't sound like it from the description but could be very cool if it was. :)
 
springs said:
Fab. So, from the length for genre - is it young adult? It didn't sound like it from the description but could be very cool if it was. :)
Click to expand...

No. Not at all. I don't even know how it could be. Though I did consider it for a minute. I was led to be believe that that range would be ideal for publishing regardless of genre and that YA actually should be shorter. 65K max. Although, I know scifi definitely could be longer. I do not want to write a long book that would throw off agents.
 
Cli-Fi said:
No. Not at all. I don't even know how it could be. Though I did consider it for a minute. I was led to be believe that that range would be ideal for publishing regardless of genre and that YA actually should be shorter. 65K max. Although, I know scifi definitely could be longer. I do not want to write a long book that would throw off agents.
Click to expand...

I think, maybe, if I were you I'd research that a little further. 75k is close to the sweet spot for YA genre (you can get away with shorter but rarely for epic fantasy or space opera, which yours sounds like it is?) My (agented) YA sf comes in at c80 k. Genre usually has higher word counts than the general guidance given and for adult books min. 80k is the norm, and up to 100k wouldn't be blinked at by agents and publishers - I would never hit under 80k for an adult genre work unless for very good reason. (Indeed both epic and space opera would rarely be much below 100k in my understanding although urban fantasy etc might easily be.)

Edit - ps write to the story length, not the market length. Agents will turn away something truncated or padded quicker than something well written and outside the norm. Look at Patrick Rothfuss.... ;)
 
springs said:
I think, maybe, if I were you I'd research that a little further. 75k is close to the sweet spot for YA genre (you can get away with shorter but rarely for epic fantasy or space opera, which yours sounds like it is?) My (agented) YA sf comes in at c80 k. Genre usually has higher word counts than the general guidance given and for adult books min. 80k is the norm, and up to 100k wouldn't be blinked at by agents and publishers - I would never hit under 80k for an adult genre work unless for very good reason. (Indeed both epic and space opera would rarely be much below 100k in my understanding although urban fantasy etc might easily be.)
Click to expand...


Oh Wow! That gives me much more to work with! Thank you. I thought because people usually quoted the 100K last the agents might not like 100K as much. I had no idea that's what they were looking for. In my life if there are rules like that I usually try to stay in the middle. I don't consider my novel a space opera though it has some elements of it, it doesn't really take place in space per se. Space is discussed at length because space is an outside element. I think the space opera is over done to be honest and wanted something more grounded, until it blows your mind at the end :)
 
Trying to put together a new Sir Edric plot, with added conspiracy, woe, subtlety and someone whose job title is 'chafe-wax'.
 
Hello. New(ish) poster here. Just turned up looking for inspiration/advice etc on the whole writing/publishing/selling lark (*shudder*).

I just released my first novel. It's only been out a couple of weeks, but I'm having fun watching its (slow) progress so far.

I'll be starting my next book, a fantasy/dark superhero story about a couple of young girls who get involved with a long-retired superhero when a presumed-dead villain rocks up. My working title for it has been "Only a Steel Man" but as it's predominantly about girls and hard women, I now think that title sets the wrong impression.

Anyway. HELLO.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hello mattwaldram, welcome to Chrons, although you've been a member on here far longer than me. Congratulations on your release and good luck with it.

I am toiling away at my main WIP with renewed enthusiasm but this re-write, which was intended to tighten and condense the story, has reached almost 40k since early November. At the same part of the story in earlier drafts the word count weighed in at around 20-25k so not looking good on the condensation front. :confused:
 
Hello Mattwaldram - congrats

I'm back to doing a novel and loving it. First draft is a bit messy but is almost complete, coming in at around 30K I am a bit concerned because the next draft will me much, much longer. It's set in a seaside resort and involves a teen who goes to live with his wizard grandfather. I have had to edit out a lot of similarities to Harry Potter no idea why as whilst I like the books I'm not the biggest fan and its been ages since I read them.
 
Hi, Kerry/Anya.

Thanks for the support :)

Yes, I registered here some time ago, but have never really made much use of that membership... think I mostly just joined to have a discussion with someone about David Gemmell, then I forgot all about this place. Someone mentioned to me that it has a nice writers' forum aspect to it, so... well, here I am.

Great that you're both working on something at the moment. I know aaaaaaaaall about long manuscripts though. The novel I just published came in at 185k words after the first draft. By the time I'd revised it and been through it with a few editors, the final version is about 159k.

Ouch.

Anya - as far as I'm aware, the Wizard theme is still very popular, so I think you're definitely writing in a strong genre. How do you feel about your work so far on it?

Have either of you published stuff before?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well, I think to have a couple of things published when you only started 9 months ago is really good - well done!

Key thing is, there's no 'race' as such (unless you're working towards a publisher's deadline, of course) so you just work at the pace that's right for you.

All the best with the WiP. Looking forward to hearing how it goes.
 
I'm working to resurrect a draft of a novel that I workshopped 15+ years ago. It's a fugitive-on-the-run story with lots of magical creatures and stuff. The ending fell apart and I put it aside. Since then, my skills have developed and my world-building is more established. I used to have a dreadful dream sequence where the hero and the poorly developed villain did virtual battle. Ugh. Now, the dream sequence is forcing the hero to relive that one tragic night and new clues are revealed. I'm having a lot of fun.
 
working yesterday on The Master's Talent. (first 1498 of 1st draft in critiques). Getting enthusiastic. I'm going to go out on a limb with some crazy stuff ...
 
Mostly on Kingdom Asunder, but I do have an outline for Sir Edric's next outing. Haven't really started it, though. And I need to check and send off the Eclipse story, after ensuring it flows smoothly, works well, and a sufficient quantity of goat sacrifice has occurred.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
D Reworking my second characters introduction Critiques 10
BcRedneck Another piece of the book I've been working on Critiques 6
U I have two stories and two MC's I'm working on, but they are too similar. I need advice on how to make them different Writing Discussion 7
Dragonlady 15th century working class wedding dress History 36
CTRandall Working on style--543 words of near-future scifi Critiques 13

Similar threads


Back
Top