book lengths

[zmunkz]

I agree with the chorus: shut up and write!! Momentum is everything, and so much can be cleaned up later.

Draft 2 is when you can really into this stuff.

Although, in the interest of expanding the discussion a little, I'll add one thing. Cutting on revision is unavoidable, but if you are massively overshooting your expected word count, the job of cutting might kill your story (e.g., if you have to cut 50%, your story would be left in pieces!).

I still wouldn't recommend you worry about it too much at this stage, but if you feel your chapters are meandering, you could take a little preemptive action and make sure to have a good idea of the chapter arc in advance. This way you know you are spending these words on good movement and not just filler.

A lot of this will also depend on your genre. Personally I enjoy writing (and reading) epic fantasy style, and chapters are commonly 3,500-5,500 (and sometimes even 10K). Hell, the prologue to Way of Kings was 6,100 words. If this is your playground I really wouldn't spare even a passing thought to chapter length right now. Other genres, however, will aim for much shorter... often 1,500-2,500... so reader expectations will be a factor if you are looking to publish. If you know you need to get to 2,500 words, then writing 10K will obviously need to get broken up. Maybe in that case, you should think a bit about it on the first pass. But just a bit.

 

[Cory Swanson]

I have the opposite problem. I have brought my characters to the second phase of the book which is where I envisioned them at the end of the book. I am only 40k in and each little vignette is only about 1k. I need to come up with secondary conflicts for both story lines. The stuff comes out of me like word vomit, and I even have a tendency to get flowery, but I tend to exhaust the idea and have a lot of room left in the book.

So revel in your verbosity. It is a gift. I will sit here and edit my old book and let my thought thoughts germinate for a while.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

The length of your chapters shouldn't be an issue now. In your next draft you may start moving some things around, or discover a natural dividing place within some of the longer chapters, and the problem (if it is a problem) will take care of itself. For instance, if your chapter is ten thousand words because it is all one long, long scene, then there may be some padding there. Or not. Maybe you've included too much info-dumpy background information that would be better if given in smaller bites in other chapters. How will you know where there might be better opportunities for sharing that information in other chapters until you write them? Or maybe the scene really works best at that length. On the other hand if the chapter includes two or three related scenes, then dividing it, if you decide you need to do so, should be easy enough.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I have the opposite problem. I have brought my characters to the second phase of the book which is where I envisioned them at the end of the book. I am only 40k in and each little vignette is only about 1k. I need to come up with secondary conflicts for both story lines. The stuff comes out of me like word vomit, and I even have a tendency to get flowery, but I tend to exhaust the idea and have a lot of room left in the book.

So revel in your verbosity. It is a gift. I will sit here and edit my old book and let my thought thoughts germinate for a while.

Don't panic! The novella is coming back.

On another note, I'm a lean writer. My editor(s) have no truck with such shenanigans. It will come all good in the end.

 

[Phyrebrat]

||: Edit cause, you know what? None of this stuff makes sense. Write. Edit more. Discover a better middle, edit more.
Be brave, be daring, put it up for critique thinking it's the best thing you've ever written. Mope around for a month or two cause, you know what? None of this stuff makes sense.
Edit. Cause... I'll show you. :||

You're a musician, I can tell

Anyway, to OP: I feel your concerns simply because when I started I could not write stories that fit into neat categories for business, my shorts were too long to be shorts, and too short to be novellas. I was happy writing Novellinas until I started making a concerted effort to write a full wip.

Also, I suspect my exposure to the advice and training here at Chrons also had something to do with it.

pH

 

[Ronald T.]

As the others have said, get it written first. You can do all the cutting and editing you feel is appropriate, later on. But for now, just spill your writerly guts on the page.

If, after doing all you can during the editing process, it still seems too long for one book, split it into two books, or three, if necessary.

But keep writing, and be very thankful you're one of those writers with a vivid imagination and a lot to say. It's far better than sitting at your computer with no idea of what to write next. To my mind, that would be a living hell.

Concerning this issue, I'm much like you, Eric. I always have so much more to share with my readers than I can possibly allow -- too much -- if I want my pacing to stay strong. While writing, all I have to do in my chore as the narrator, is to turn my head in a different direction if I want to create a more detailed scene. All I have to do is let my characters experience, and then react to, their surroundings in order to come up with any necessary details needed for upcoming action or interior dialogue. All I have to do is bring in a new character who nettles the emotions of one of my main characters if I want to add more conflict.

All that matters is that the new portion is necessary to the plot and the overall story. It must be an addition that helps build the story, not something that brings it to a stop.

The best of luck to you, my friend.