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Tag: writing fiction

Posted
April 4, 2015
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It’s A Sad, Sad World

Last night I attended my school’s annual film festival. On this night, we (the audience) got to watch all of the short films from students in our district. There were about ten of them, ranging anywhere between 30 seconds and 30 minutes. The acting was awesome, the camera angles were creative and unique…but, all of the storylines ran the same depressing path. Maybe it was a fluke. But, what if it’s not? What if this is what teenagers are into right now?

Now, I’m always up for a good cry. I just read “If I Stay” by Gayle Forman and I loved it. I loved the relationships, the intensity of losing someone you love, and I loved that it made me cry. But last night was different.

Last night’s movies were all about suicide and feeling alone, about the pressures of being in high school, not having friends, and trying to figure out how you blend into the world you’re creating. I wonder if this is the future for storytelling.

Posted
February 17, 2015
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Are Word Counts a Blessing or a Curse?

Word counts seem to be one of those things that very few writers understand. They look at the Twilight books and the Harry Potter series and think that a 2-3 inch book is acceptable. Well, the Twilight book was a huge exception to the rule, but the first Harry Potter book was right around 80k–it was, I promise!
Here’s the thing, though. You can’t count on being the next exception. It’s a risk for any publisher to take on a book that is too costly to produce. As a new author, don’t you want the best possible chances? Of course you do! So, here are the acceptable ranges for different genres:

Adult novels: commercial and literary–80-90,000 is a safe range. Give or take 10,000 words on either end is probably okay, but more than that is risky.
*Chick lit can go as low as 70,000

Sci-fi and Fantasy–100-115,000 is good for this genre.

Middle grade: 20-55,000

Young Adult: 55-70,000.You can go a little higher if you are writing sci-fi or fantasy, but be careful not to go too high.

Again, all of these word counts are guidelines and there are always exceptions to the rules. Some agents say not to pay attention to word count and to focus on your story and pacing. But most get so many queries a day, they are looking for reasons to dismiss your manuscript. Your goal is to not give them any.

This information is readily available all over the web. You could find it on the different literary agent blogs too. So, why do so many people struggle with keeping their words within range?
When I first started writing, I struggled to keep my words within a certain range. At one point, my WIP bloomed well past 100k, which is way too high for a debut young adult novel. If you go to any of the writing forums, you’ll find that so many writers ignore the basic guidelines too. I often see numbers skyrocketing at a 150k. I’ve even beta read for a few of these bloated manuscripts. And what do I see?
Word vomit. Huge word vomit. Overused adverbs, weak verbs, lots of purple prose. Get rid of it people. You don’t need it. And your readers don’t want it either.

Posted
January 14, 2013
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Revise Day 1…The Plan

I’ve spent the last few weeks tweaking my query. Alas, I think I have it! But, in working on said query I now know that I have holes in my plot–as in, I completely forgot about it and got carried into the “B story.”

So, today will be my first day of Revising. I thought I’d let you all know the process I go through in doing this.

1. The first thing I did was import my file back into Scrivener. It’s been in Word the last couple of months to do basic edits. Scrivener is easier for me when I want to make global changes to a manuscript.

2. The next thing I did is separate the manuscript into sections according to my Save the Cat beat sheet.

3. This week I will focus solely on Section 1–roughly 7 chapters. During a quick read, I decided my MC needed a bit of a hobby. I’ve already made another one of my characters have a photography hobby, but since it served no real purpose, I am switching that hobby over to the MC where it will serve a better purpose. Also, my MC’s best friend needs to have more page time to really emphasize the connection between them–I am adding a scene later that will be stronger if this connection is made more clear.