ZOMBIE NOVEL: 80,000 Words And Counting
Another major push forward on my Zombie Novel tonight, to the 80,000 word mark! I was up all night, furiously pounding away at the keyboard. I now realize the "epic" first draft is going to be more like 100-125,000 words than 90k. Well, dem's da breaks, as they say in showbiz. But this is a good thing, despite the extra time it's going to take to complete it. Anything worth doing is worth doing right...
It's always better, in my opinion, to overwrite than underwrite; I'd hate to have to go back in and try to pad it out with crap if I couldn't meet my 90k target, but happily, it seems that won't be the case with my first novel.
Ha! Padding... Reminds me of some jerks trying to pad out their movies run time with 10 minutes worth of credits, LOL. Not that I haven't been guilty of that myself, mind you, but I always hate doing it. Unfortunately, the industry (and audiences) have certain expectations of how long a film should be (85-90 minutes minimum).
The great artiste in me says a film (or a book) should be not one frame (or word) longer than it needs to be in order to tell its story effectively.
The businessman in me realizes the reality that something too short won't sell--either at all, or not nearly in the same numbers. So, certain compromises must be made.
On the other hand, 9 times out of 10, you don't want your masterpiece to be too long, either. In most cases, there's no reason for it to be, except to be pretentious and to justify charging extra. Really, what many of these spawling "sagas" need is a good editor to start chopping them down to a more manageable size (but not anymore than is needed for them to be "perfect")... unless they are one of the truly great ones that demand the extra run time or pages (Dawn of the Dead, A Game of Thrones, etc.). Something so freakin' spectacular you never want it to end!
I think I've got something pretty special in my first novel, but I'm not gonna kid myself and say everything I write is golden, just like when I direct a film I'm never happy with every shot. It's all in the editing... Speaking of editing, I'm gonna need an impartial pair of eyes (in other words, an editor) for my novel, LOL. I suspect the first draft will be done in just a few more weeks.
It's always better, in my opinion, to overwrite than underwrite; I'd hate to have to go back in and try to pad it out with crap if I couldn't meet my 90k target, but happily, it seems that won't be the case with my first novel.
Ha! Padding... Reminds me of some jerks trying to pad out their movies run time with 10 minutes worth of credits, LOL. Not that I haven't been guilty of that myself, mind you, but I always hate doing it. Unfortunately, the industry (and audiences) have certain expectations of how long a film should be (85-90 minutes minimum).
The great artiste in me says a film (or a book) should be not one frame (or word) longer than it needs to be in order to tell its story effectively.
The businessman in me realizes the reality that something too short won't sell--either at all, or not nearly in the same numbers. So, certain compromises must be made.
On the other hand, 9 times out of 10, you don't want your masterpiece to be too long, either. In most cases, there's no reason for it to be, except to be pretentious and to justify charging extra. Really, what many of these spawling "sagas" need is a good editor to start chopping them down to a more manageable size (but not anymore than is needed for them to be "perfect")... unless they are one of the truly great ones that demand the extra run time or pages (Dawn of the Dead, A Game of Thrones, etc.). Something so freakin' spectacular you never want it to end!
I think I've got something pretty special in my first novel, but I'm not gonna kid myself and say everything I write is golden, just like when I direct a film I'm never happy with every shot. It's all in the editing... Speaking of editing, I'm gonna need an impartial pair of eyes (in other words, an editor) for my novel, LOL. I suspect the first draft will be done in just a few more weeks.
posted by Todd Tjersland at 7:45 AM
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