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Posts Tagged ‘Novels’

My 12,000 Word Rule

May 17, 2012 Mathias Leave a comment

I tend to find that when I am working on a novel project it generally takes about 50 pages or 12,000 words before the real basis of the story itself is charted.  Usually by about page 50, about three quarters of what I had originally mapped out as the course of the story has gone into the scrap heap.  Or at least that stuff is stashed away for a possible future story.  Under the Darkened Moon followed this rule which I did not even consider a rule when I started writing it as it was my first project.  However over time the law seems to be holding true.  I have at least 50 pages completed in several other novels and each of them have resulted in 75% of the planned course being discarded or seriously revised.  Be it The Half-Orc Princess, Cry of the Golden Wyvern or Her Lovely Blood, the 12,000 word rule has been a nemesis to the finest laid plans for each of them.  Even a project I just started today as a sort of test story, The Arrow, completely went off in another direction by the 1,500 word mark and is, honestly, better than what I had sketched for it.

I attribute this to the fact that I seem to work better when actually writing than postulating and sketching things out.  I just cannot see how everything fits together until I start actually writing the actual text.  Maybe some other writers can.  But I cannot.  So I am just accepting this and embracing.

Categories: "Dark Moon", "Her Lovely Blood", "The Half-Orc Princess", "The Yoke", "Wyvern Lord", Novels, Projects, The Writing Process Tags: Arrow, Darkened Moon, Nemesis, Novel Project, Novels, Postulating, Princess, Scrap Heap, Test Story, Three Quarters, Word Mark, Wyvern

New Project Opened – The StoneFlesh Curse

March 23, 2012 Mathias Leave a comment

At the risk of putting too many irons in the fire, I am opening another new project with the working title of “The StoneFlesh Curse”. The premise behind this story comes from a simple story prompt that I wrote a few days ago into my list:

“What if Medusa were not evil?”

I wrote a one chapter opening to the story already. Don’t know how long it will be when done but for now it will be listed under my novels section of this site.

Categories: "The StoneFlesh Curse", Projects Tags: Curse, Few Days, Irons In The Fire, Medusa, Novels, Premise, Risk

Going In For The (Over)Kill

February 16, 2012 Mathias Leave a comment

Something I have noticed in a couple of the novels I have been reading lately is that there is a lot of, what I consider, overkill in certain passages. Especially when it comes to descriptions of things and events in the story.

These passages turn me off because they seem to drone on and on describing what seems to be mundane items or events in exorbitant detail. Even when the item or event is important to the story, I find myself flipping forward and scurrying past the repetitive words. Especially when I feel the author has already sufficiently described what is happening. Sometimes brevity is best I feel, and I certainly do not mind the occasional embellishment to add emphasis. But when it seems to happen over and over, I find myself and my mind starting to wander away from the story and having to refocus.

I am sure some people like this sort of writing. Apparently I am not one of them however. I just unnerves me that a good story gets sidetracked by an over use of over zealous descriptions. I wonder if they are just used in such an overkill fashion to add girth to a story.

I already have gone through my novel Under the Darkened Moon and ripped out huge swatches of these sorts of descriptions because they annoyed me so much. Maybe by doing so it makes the story too simplistic. But to me it makes the story better.

Categories: Form and Style Tags: Brevity, Darkened Moon, Drone, Embellishment, Fashion, Girth, Novel, Novels, Passages, Repetitive Words, Sorts, Swatches
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