Holy moly it’s May. With everything going on in the world,
time has been wonky for me. Today is the official last day of school for my
kids, although finals for the two that had them were last week so they had
nothing to do these last three days. I’m glad to be done with the digital
learning. I know they are as well. This
is the third Wednesday of the month, so new #Authortoolbox blog hop.
As I’m attempting to write my first full length novel in a
while, I knew what I wanted to post about today. My last three book releases
have been novellas. All three are books that are 20k or less in word count. There
was a time I didn’t think I could write a book that short. My first attempt at
a novella ended up being a short end, yet still full length novel ending at
like 57k.
I’m wordy.
Want to know how much? My first book…200k+ the second 100k+…yes
you are seeing those numbers right and no they aren’t epic fantasies.
But I needed to learn how to tighten the story. Hence the
much shorter one but was still longer than expected at 57k. Then came the
Carina Dirty Bits line. I’d not started a book wanting a to write a specific
trope, I didn’t think about the stories that way. But that line gave a list of
what they wanted to see AND (this is the most important part) a word count
limit! The stories couldn’t be more than 25k and since I was writing this
during the time I was on the query train I had to stick to the guidelines.
It was hard folks!
And let me just say that writing short doesn’t mean writing
faster, at least not for me. But what I
learned from writing that first novella—Being Neighborly—was I had to…
Keep it simple.
Which is where the post title comes in. Just the facts ma’am.
I couldn’t give extra back stories, and side plots. The angst is super low if
there is any at all. Figuring out how to make these people well round instead
of cardboard cut outs with no depth took some gymnastics. Giving them friends,
family, hobbies, but making sure I didn’t make it into an info dump. Wanting to
let their personalities shine through individually while also building their
relationship, I had to choose the most dynamic parts to share.
Need just the meat of
the story.
Writing the novella meant I had to narrow down all of the
stuff that bloated my first two stories. Not that those stories didn’t require
a ton of words, but I probably could have cut some, especially from my debut
novel. There couldn’t be long drawn out descriptions of things that probably
didn’t matter. I didn’t need to share that childhood memory of how she got the
scar on her knee that the love interest seems to take interest in. It had to be
A and B get together. Flirt, have some sex, maybe have some small issue to deal
with, and get to the believable and satisfying HEA or HFN ending.
The pace needs to be
faster.
I’m not a fan of insta-love, but at the very least we need
insta-lust. There isn’t room for long wooing to take place. I write romance, so
the characters have to meet, have that attraction, and act on it much sooner. No
slow burns here. Which was something that was hard for me. I liked taking the
reader step by step so see the whole process of them falling in love. It takes
time. But with a limited word count, that couldn’t happen. I had to figure out
that chemistry sooner and rely it in a way that felt real and not rushed so
that the reader wasn’t missing anything.
But the biggest thing I learned from writing a novella, is
that I COULD write one. I seriously had doubts in my ability to craft an
interesting story in such a short word count. Remember, I’m wordy. But somehow
I did. Now as I attempt to write a full again, I’m applying some of these
lessons to that project. How well that turns out is yet to be determined, but I
do know it won’t be another epic novel at over 100k. I don’t set limits and I’ll
wait to see how many words the story needs (#pantser) but I’m hoping with the
new lessons I’ve learned it will top out at the “norm” for contemporary romance
60-80k.
That’s it for me. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of
the moth.
Until next time
~Meka
No matter the length, we all need to learn to cut to the chase and get to the meat.
ReplyDeleteMy full length novels clock in rather short, but I was challenge when I had to write a story that was only fifteen hundred words. I was a couple hundred over and it took several weeks to get it down.
I agree. The stories should give just what's needed. A lesson I've learned now. It is hard still, but I'm a work in progress. I'm not sure if I could do a short story like that. Maybe that should be my next challenge.
Deletethanks for stopping by
Learning it's possible is the best part. One suggestion for a slow-burn: if you write a series; a slow burn could lead to the next book. Hook 'em, Dano.
ReplyDeleteAnna from elements of emaginette
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