My love for me now / Ain't hard to explain / The Hero of Canton / The man they call...ME.

Jayne ,'Jaynestown'


The Great Write Way, Act Three: Where's the gun?

A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.


Typo Boy - Jun 25, 2010 9:20:08 pm PDT #3431 of 6693
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

Instead of cutting into two pieces? I really don't think it makes sense to make cuts you know will hurt the story when you don't have a publisher or agent. And who knows, once you get a publisher or agent maybe they can find a way to help you avoid the cuts. Or find a way to make cuts that don't hurt the story. Why put extra effort into making your story worse? Do you really think lowering the quality to reduce your word count will improve your chances of getting an agent?


Deena - Jun 26, 2010 7:49:59 am PDT #3432 of 6693
How are you me? You need to stop that. Only I can be me. ~Kara

I'm with Typo. I'd rather publish a brilliant story at 120k than a good one at 100k.


Gudanov - Jun 28, 2010 7:21:54 am PDT #3433 of 6693
Coding and Sleeping

I've gotten the impression from multiple sources that there really isn't a market for a first-time author over about that size. The choice sounds like a story getting rejected without a look at 140k or getting a look at 120k.

I'll lose some scenes I think contribute to things, but I'm trying to take out the weakest contributors first.

I could inflate it to about 160k to have two 80k stories, but the first one wouldn't really be standalone, and I think inflating would be worse than shrinking. Right now it seems like the ideal size would be about 135k (I started cutting at 153k and I'm down to 140k so far), but that's still too much. I'll still have the parts to put back in if I find a place that's open to larger works.


Typo Boy - Jun 28, 2010 11:23:29 am PDT #3434 of 6693
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

So how an 80 with 60 K of the second done. If it is accepted then you could add 20 K of short stories maps, legends, history, descriptions of goverment -some sort of end matter that does not ruin the story to the second one. But only do that if hte first is accepted. You point is you have an 80 thousand word first volume of a two parter, and 60K words of the core of second, with 20 K to be writeen of the second. No compromise of quality. Of if you indist you could write the 20 K of supplemental matter before submisison, but not stretching out the work - just supplmental matter that does not compromise the story telling. No quality compromise, but still commercial.


Gudanov - Jun 28, 2010 12:25:18 pm PDT #3435 of 6693
Coding and Sleeping

Definitely a thought, though trying to insert a standalone ending at that point would be difficult.

I think I'll end up with something I'll be happy with in a single novel. There'll be some scenes I'll wish I could stick back in, and details I wish I could add, but I think I'll end up with a pretty decent book.

Length issues aside, I'm starting to feel pretty good about it. I'm making plenty of good cuts, tightening things up, making adjustments based on feedback, and I feel like I'm homing in on a finishing line.

I'm about 1/2 way through this hacking revision right now, then it'll be one more round of tightening and clean-up.


Tom Scola - Jul 06, 2010 8:07:17 am PDT #3436 of 6693
Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.

"In the spirit of discovering new talent as well as supporting established authors and the bookstores who support them, Tin House Books will accept unsolicited manuscripts dated between August 1 and November 30, 2010, as long as each submission is accompanied by a receipt for a book from a bookstore."


Gudanov - Jul 06, 2010 10:00:28 am PDT #3437 of 6693
Coding and Sleeping

Lots of publication-ma to you Typo.


Gudanov - Jul 12, 2010 7:20:16 am PDT #3438 of 6693
Coding and Sleeping

I've now taken 18,000 words out, putting me at 135k. I have a big cut coming up of around 5,000 words. This is one where I think it does hurt a bit, but not too bad. Cutting out any scene at this point hurts because I had a reason for putting them in there, but a least I'm getting rid of the ones with the weakest reasons.

When I'm done I'm only going to have scenes where pulling one out is going to make something else unravel. It should make for a fairly tight story. Still a lengthy plot, but all of it pretty focused.


Seska (the Watcher-in-Training) - Jul 13, 2010 12:06:02 am PDT #3439 of 6693
"We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?"

This week I am *actually* going to work on my article and send it off to the journal I'm hoping will publish it. I've been putting it off for months because part of me thinks it's not good enough, but that's rubbish and I'm trying to ignore it. I need a publication, so I'm just going to go for it. The journal in question has a 'student perspectives' section that I'm more likely to get published in than anywhere else, so it's by no means impossible. I thought writing my intention down here might help with moving the project from theoretical to actual!


Gudanov - Jul 13, 2010 4:40:35 am PDT #3440 of 6693
Coding and Sleeping

Go team Seska!