For the past 2 months I have been brainstorming and writing pilot pieces to a story I want to write. My first goal is to finish it and the second is to publish it. The story is about a CEO of one of the largest technological cooperation resigning his position. He invites a journalist who has been withdrawing himself from telling the truth to the public to please the mass media. The CEO hires him to tell his side of the story and to publish his story with no strings attached. The CEO tells a series of stories relating to a stack of black folders on his desk that have not been seen by the public eye except for the hierarchy of the company. The folders contain information and reports to why certain pieces of technology were to never been seen in the public again and how these ideas accelerated and influenced the corruption of the corporation. The CEO tells the stories based upon the actions and questions the reporter makes. Here is my problem that I am facing. When I write my stories I found I elaborate too much. To fix this I have been writing straight forward and in the revisions, elaborated on sections of the story that are necessary. However, I am afraid of the length of the entire story. Each story is on average 20 pages. I am only giving one story a maximum of 50 pages because of the significance between the CEO and his son. In total I have 8 stories that have made the cut out of 20. I am willing to knock it down to 5 stories. I think my concerns here are about page limit and keeping the reader interested in the story. My other concern is that should the stories stand on it's own. From that I feel that it could potentially be a series of short stories about this futuristic society. How should I go about this? (I understand that when I type sometimes readers get lost so here is a break down) A. 1 Novel: 5-8 short stories with dialogue in between each story. Short stories with maximum of 20 pages except for one with maximum of 50 or B. 1 Compilation: Each short story stands on its own.
you have to see what fits best for your story. I really can't tell you what will have the greater dramatic impact what will sell best or what will look completely stupid. it's up to you. you know the story, you should know what format is the best. in a worst case scenario, stop thinking about this and simply write. finish your story and you'll see how it comes out.
I wouldn't worry too much about length especially during the first draft - get it all out. It's the editing that's going to be the worst - but the bonus is , sometimes I find myself easily swapping scenes - ditching something and replacing it with a scene from another spot. You're idea, by the way, sounds cool! I read a novel like this called City by Clifford D Simak - the stories were told from futuristic , intelligent dogs around a campfire. And if I remember correctly had a robot as an anchoring character from story to story that covered centuries. Awesome book.
Hey there, I really like the sound of this story! Make sure you share pieces in the workshop if you're concerned about excessive details; remember, some of the most popular authors in the world didn't chop off the six hundred extra pages of descriptive text that would have condensed the story, and you shouldn't feel that pressure unless the length exceeds your publisher's preference, and as mentioned before, that's when editing matters most. What I would recommend on premise alone is that each story remain part of a consistent novel and you simply have preamble and follow up from each of the characters outside the stories(CEO and Journalist) that has them react to what has been said. I'm sure you have a similar such mechanism, but those briding sections will give the characters life outside the flashback stories and will make the audience sympathise with them rather than trreating them like filler for the meat sandwich of the core novel. That's my only real advice on this; this willl be a style choice and I think it dounds like you want a long epic tale of smaller cogs, so the novel idea seems best. Hope that helps! Regards, Torian
do NOT 'share' large chunks of any ms you hope to see published someday, anywhere on the internet... post only brief excerpts and not too many of those, or paying publishing houses won't take it on...
