We belong to the light, we belong to the thunder
Monday, February 14th, 2011 06:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniSo, the other day I had occasion to count on behalf of a Sekrit Project. And my counting revealed to me — and I revealed to Steve — that we have thus far in our careers committed (rounding only slightly up) 323,000 words of Liaden Universe® short stories. (This number includes the not-quite-yet-published “Skyblaze” and the author-written fanfic “King of the Cats,” but does not include “Intelligent Design,” which is still in process.)
We’ve also written almost a million and a half words of Liaden Universe® novels. Add in the rest and we’re at a cool 2mil.
All of which sounds, yanno, like A Lot, until you start putting perspective into the picture. That’s only 34 stories, and 14-or-21 novels. Which suddenly doesn’t sound so impressive, after all, but does bring me to my point.
Why yes, there was a point to this, besides the public display of an unhealthy fascination with numbers.
I was once stopped, nicely, correctly* by a young writer at a convention. They were working on their first novel and had a couple of specific questions. Clearly, they had put some thought into what they were doing and were not just haring off in all directions at once (which I admire; being a hare of long standing), and we had a very pleasant talk. They spoke of their hopes for their story and the characters living inside it, but, suddenly confessed, with a sort of half-glance under the lashes, that they were afraid that the manuscript was getting a bit. . .long, and there was still a lot of story left.
How long was it? I asked. Words, not pages.
Gratifyingly, they knew this (really, this was a very serious and thoughtful writer; I want to read them somebody, and I think I will). “Thirty-five thousand words.”
“Oh,” I said, “you’ve got plenty of room!”
“I do?”
“Sure — at least seventy thousand more words. Try not to go more than one hundred fifty thousand, total, though.”
“I had no idea novels were so. . .long,” they said, which seems funny from someone who (as this writer was) had read reasonably widely in the field, but which also seems true of nearly everyone. No one has any idea how long novels are, except novelists. And editors, of course.
So, that’s the point — novels are long. Not only that, but it takes a significant chunk of time to write a 100,000 words, not to mention revising, polishing, so forth &c.
Because novels are long and take so much time and effort to produce, it’s important to chose a project that you’re excited about; that you can live with, day in, day out, morning-noon-night, for four months to a year. It’s important that your characters are interesting to you, and are people with whom you have empathy. I can’t imagine anything much worse than having someone I loathe living in my head for a year.
If you want to write a book, try to have fun. I know, I know; it’s Serious and Important Work, and we’re taught that Serious and Important Work ought to be dealt with, well. . .seriously. Soberly. It’s this mindset that for many years contributed to my referring to my writing as play, as in: “I’m going to go play now.”
. . .and so I shall.
————-
*They came up to me as I was leaning against the wall — waiting for Steve, as it happened — introduced themselves, explained that they were writing a novel, realized that, as Guest of Honor I was of course very busy, but wondered if I would have perhaps ten minutes over the weekend to talk to them; they were writing a novel and had some questions. Polite and respectful. Well done.
Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 11:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 02:06 am (UTC)Lorna
no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 02:14 am (UTC)One question about chapbooks -- the Yule edition was delayed until what was planned to be early February. Is that still the date? Should I be on the lookout for a joy-containing envelope in my mailbox now or put off the watch for a while? I know you've both had other concerns of late (and health and well-being rightly takes precedence!), so please take it as a point of curiosity only.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 02:22 am (UTC)Not quite yet. We had underestimated how much the whole implant/recuperate/Sharon does all the heavy lifting thing would disrupt Bidness as Usual. The chapbook is at printer as we speak and we're waiting for a proof copy. Once the proof is okayed, the printer will take as long as the printer takes to produce the print run, and then we'll start shipping.
Skyblaze
Date: 2011-02-15 02:44 am (UTC)Be well. Both of you. Barb in Bandon
no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 03:10 am (UTC)If ever we are at the same convention, dare I approach? I promise to be respectful.
Although, you know? When I start writing something, I don't decide it is able to be a novel until it's reached 30,000 words, and I know I've only started to tell the story.
So much needs to be said, to tell a story completely.
Inside the writing of a novel
Date: 2011-02-15 07:28 am (UTC)Very glad to hear that Skyblaze progresses.
C.
Pictures of You
Date: 2011-02-15 07:33 am (UTC)C.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 11:04 am (UTC)Why not? It's the folks who think that "the Guests of Honor are accessible to the members of the convention" means "the Guests of Honor belong to the members of the convention," who sometimes earn a sharp lesson in manners. Happily most people fall into respectful-of-others.
I don't decide it is able to be a novel until it's reached 30,000 words, and I know I've only started to tell the story.
I do sometimes guess wrong -- we referred to Conflict of Honors as "the short story" far beyond the 30 grand marker -- but mostly I know if a work is going to be short-form or long before I start writing. This may be an artifact of writing so much under contract...
Skyblaze
Date: 2011-02-15 03:27 pm (UTC)Sam
Re: Skyblaze
Date: 2011-02-15 09:18 pm (UTC)short stories
Date: 2011-02-16 01:08 am (UTC)Rose, of the very snowy Syracuse, NY
Re: Skyblaze
Date: 2011-02-16 01:27 am (UTC)Sam
Re: short stories
Date: 2011-02-16 02:45 am (UTC)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liaden_universe#Short_stories
Home from the Hospital
Date: 2011-02-16 07:12 pm (UTC)Missed your blog wasn't able to get on at the hospital.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-16 10:18 pm (UTC)Lauretta@ConstellationBooks
Re: Home from the Hospital
Date: 2011-02-16 10:46 pm (UTC)The hospital wifi systems (of which I now have more experience than I wanted, ever, to have) vary amazingly. At Inland, Steve could stream Pandora, get on Facebook and Live Journal and basically do what he could do from his machine at home. At EMMC, they had a curated system that allowed me to sign into facebook, but not into Live Journal (say what?). Happily, the inn was on a different system, and I could update the blog from there.
Fact, or convention?
Date: 2011-02-17 04:47 am (UTC)As I glance at the shelf above me, I see any number of novels that don't have anything like 100,000 words in them. Good novels, like Panshin's _Star Well_ and Chesterton's _The Man Who Was Thursday_ and Bellairs's _The Face in the Frost_. You couldn't possibly sell those books today. Some editor would want you to expand them "to novel length", and I don't think readers benefit in the least from a notion of how long a novel should be that is driven by price points and shelf-inches, or by having a just-so story padded to make a count.
Or am I grossly misunderstanding how The Publishing Biz works?
Re: Fact, or convention?
Date: 2011-02-17 02:24 pm (UTC)I have, on the other hand, seen Countless Numbers of "novel manuscripts" that scarcely hit 8,000 words -- the length of a longish short story. Now, it may well be that in some of those cases, the story needed to be 8,000 words long, no more, no less, and well done! to the author, if so. The error is insisting that something which is 32 double-spaced pages long is "a novel."
Which is why aspiring writers need to learn to count words and pay attention to how many words equals short story/novella/novelette/novel/stuns-a-standard-sized-poodle in the current marketplace.
Re: Fact, or convention?
Date: 2011-02-17 04:06 pm (UTC)general, those guys ran waaaaaay long.
Lauretta
no subject
Date: 2011-02-20 02:03 am (UTC)Rose, syracuse