Making Your Story Longer
Z asks (paraphrased): “How do you extend a story? My novel is, so far, 50,000 words and I thought I had 20,000 left in me max to finish. Dialog takes up more space then prose and is easier to write, so maybe I'll just include more dialog.”Dear Z, you’re right. 70,000 words probably aren’t enough. Most science fiction/fantasy novels today are about 100,000 words. Only a few decades ago it was okay to publish a 60,000-word novel. Perhaps it’s the perception that you’re getting more for your money with a bigger book. Or perhaps people want to settle down with a nice long story.
I’m not saying a 60K word novel is bad. I’m not saying a 300K word novel is better, either. The issue is that a starting novelist doesn’t want to try and sell something less than 80K words. (You should consult the WRITER’S MARKET and see what minimum lengths individual publishers want).
(All bets are off, though, if you write the next STARSHIP TROOPERS or NEUROMANCER and it’s 60,000 words. I don’t know a single editor who wouldn’t snap that up!)
But back to your question. How to lengthen a story if you come up short?
Don’t simply add more dialogue. Good dialog needs underlying tension and emotional context. Adding extra just to boost word count and you risk making that dialog less interesting...perhaps even boring (the cardinal sin in writing).
To property lengthen a novel, you’ll need more conflict and tension—in short you’ll need more story.
For starters you can go back and insert some complication or sub-plot or maybe even a new character earlier in your story. Whatever it is, make sure it is just as exciting and emotionally charged as the rest.
Don’t skimp. Don’t pad.
I don’t have this particular problem (although, trust me I have plenty of other witting issues of my own) because I work out the length when I’m creating my outline. After ten years I know how long each chapter is going to be, and can estimate within 5% the final word count.
Another reason I don’t have this problem, is because these days I’m making my stories more epic—with bigger issues, more characters—a wider canvas to paint upon. Which is why they’re growing to 200,000 words or more. Maybe even a series of 200,000+ word novels.
Good luck!
posted by Eric Nylund at 8:29 AM
20 Comments:
Ah, that's one of the problems I (thank heaven) never encountered.
Whenever you reach a word block, you know that your story has some issues. I never had this problem because I tend to outline each chapter in accordance to the story itself.
BUT if your story is fully outlined and your word count is still problematic, just add some new stuff. Like a cliffhanger, additional chapters to describe your characters better, add some new action scenes which could serve as prequels to future scenes. The possibilities are endless.
Just my 2 cents here.
Oh, and I just started re-reading First Strike, Eric. And I can't let it out of my hands. I wish I could just read it all the time if it weren't for other things I have to do - like my own writing for instance. Damn good book!
Hey, good advice.
Yes, much good advice! Us aspiring writer-types are very grateful!
Well, I am anyways.
Thanks!
I am also extremely grateful. I also find it funny that while other blog post has gotten a ton of comments, this one has hardly received any. I'm just sort of curious as to why.
I currently have 10K+ words for my work. Prologue, 1 and 2 chapter. And I'm planning 20+ chapters. I wonder how many words will that make.
But is there really an international standard stating that a novel should have a certain number of words or does the content of those words count more?
I read something in some how to write book...I don't remember which book it was...Anyway, it said that for your first novel you don't want to make it too long because the longer it is the more it costs to print and publishers don't want to waste money on something that isn't a sure bet yet. It went on to cite how it should be noted that the first few books of now famous authors are short. Another book I read said there should be enough words to properly tell your story and that could be a ton or a few.
The one thing I get confused on is pacing. I have no idea why. I just can't wrap my head around the assorted definitions of it. My husband says that I still do it without realizing that I do it, but I sure would like to be able to see it. It seems, you know, important. *laughs* I can't remember if you've posted anything about pacing yet, but if you haven't, I sure would appreciate it.
I also worry about pacing. Either I feel that everything is going way too slow or everything is going way too fast and I'm just rushing through things while I should be taking my time. I just can't get my head around that either.
Pacing...that's an interesting subject Nikoda. I never pay attention to pacing while I'm writing, which hasn't actually been a problem for me. It's just something to clean up in editing.
If anything, the problem I've found with pacing is that if I'm writing something and stop halfway through the action for any reason, be it mental block or lunch break, I'm not in the same place as before. But I knew what I was going to write, it's just that I won't write it exactly the same way as before, and the main difference tends to be the pace (sometimes the style as well).
But with editing, that gets cleared up pretty easily, so long as you are looking for it. Occasionally I'll look over something I've written and say to myself "wow, this doesn't match at all. Overly sarcastic here and remarkably serious there." Problematic, yes. But easily fixed.
Thanks everyone for the comments and discussion.
Arthur – The Science Fiction Writers of America define novel length for their Nebula Award as greater than 40,000 words. Your standard should really be whatever the publisher is willing to take (again check individual publisher minimums in the Market guide). Content usually counts for more than page count.
Nikoda – there is a valid issue about length. Past a certain point the printer has to re-tool to a more expensive process to bind a larger book. It depends on the font and layout, but that point for a paperback has been around 160K (although this various greatly). Publisher might shy away from a long book by an unproven author because they might have to bump up the price of that book by a dollar or two to cover the extra manufacturing expense. All other factors being equal, people tend to buy fewer more expensive books.
Again, write a dynamite book, and this issue becomes moot.
Re: pacing. I’ll try and post something, but it’s a complicated subject worthy of a few classes worth of material to cover it all. I’ll see if I can boil it down to a few overly generalized bullet points, though.
My first draft of my first novel was only about 75k words. I'm light on detail/setting sometimes, and the submitted version was 92k. My editor wanted some extra scenes and it grew to just about 100k.
My second novel contract called for 120k words. I turned in 100k. I got hit for major revisions, and turned in the final draft at 124k.
Happy Mother's Day to Syne! I hope you guys got her something good. ;o)
Hey, I know this is completely off topic, but I was just wondering if Mortal Coils was going to be published in hardcover at all or if it was going to go straight to paperback like the Halo books.
Mike—Thanks for sharing those details. Major revisions—no kidding—you added an extra quarter to the length!
Nikoda–thanks. We all had a great day here.
Dangerusdave—details on MORTAL COILS format and pub date still getting finalized. I’ll post as soon as I know for sure.
Is it a good idea to add alternate endings to a novel? Well, not just to lengthen it but also to really provide an alternate ending so that readers who don't like your primary ending would still have the other.
I'd avoid alternate endings. After reading a novel I want one great finish. Adding alternative endings would feel like the author couldn’t decide and it would drain the emotional impact of a single finale.
How do you feel about endings that end the story but aren't particularly satisfying? Examples include:
No Country For Old Men, which had an ending that wasn't satisfying the first time around but inspired debate and was great the second time.
A History of Violence, which had an ending like NCfOM's, but not nearly as satisfying, and
Stephen King's Cell, which had an ending that made sense and fit into the context of the book, leaving a great sense of ambiguity, but it was still sort of a letdown.
Do you try and wrap everything up nice for your readers, or do you just kind of end the story when it needs to end, even if it leaves some questions unanswered?
I kind of want to do both. But those questions left unanswered will not be something they will be chasing after senselessly. The more they chase it, the more they learn about themselves, and questions of that type are hard to find, in my opinion.
I guess that is the hard part of a good story, an author really has to decide for an ending even if he/she feels the other ending is also good, and seems like a waste if it is not included.
Oh and also, If you know Elie Wiesel, he wrote a book that has about i think 112 or 107 pages or so?? Either way the book is good. No need to have THAT many words. If you think the storys good, keep it short then. Go with your feelings Z
I saw that your Halo books are now available on Audible.com (read by Todd McLaren) in audio format.
Do they ask the author or is the decision to release an audio version entirely up to the publisher?
Do you get the same revenue from an audio version selling as from the paper version? I hope that is not too personal a question, I am very curious about how the audio side of publishing works.
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