Seventeen chapters, still unfinished. Then the computer ate some of it. That's ok though. It just forces me to sharpen some points. As long as the story is continuing to flow well, who cares? Look at the Twilight series and Harry Potter. Now THOSE books are massive!!! Edit, now note that length, does not nessesarily mean good or quality writing...
Alright see, when I write, I tend to write very laconically, ie describing only the most necessary parts and moving on. Then, when I re read it the next day, I wish I'd elaborate some more and say more things. Things which don't come no matter how hard I think. I really don't get how authors like Clive Barker write a whopping 1000+ pages of a novel, eg Imajica. I've found though, that the more I write the more I elaborate, but it still isn't enough. Any advice?
Keep writing. I know this may not be what you want to hear, but it's true. Just keep writing. I've had the same thought go through my head time after time when reading back on my own work -- how concise and restricted my paragraphs seemed. But practicing now for weeks, I've realized how much more detail I do put into my writing. And that's all it took: practice.
I'd do a writing exercise, say daily, where you select an object e.g. a coat, a lamp, a bowl and for ten minutes describe the object in as much detail as possible. Or select a character, either an existing one or a new one, and put them in a situation e.g. getting the bus, shopping, gardening, and write as much detail as possible about this - how they feel, what they're thinking, how they go about doing these things and so on. You could also try writing a simple sentence like 'The dog ran across the park' and then on every next line you elaborate more on it such as the next line could be 'The black dog ran across the park' and then 'The black dog ran across the muddy park towards another dog' etc.
I haven't read Clive Barker, but some of the writers with 1000+ page novels tend to put in a lot of boring filler which doesn't add to the story, so it's not necessarily something to take after, IMHO. It became easier for me to write descriptions when I realised they should be filled with meaning: they should tell the reader something important about the plot, the fictional world or the character. For example, descriptions of a character's clothing can be very boring, unless they tell the reader something about his/her character which they can relate to. For example, the clothes are tattered because the character is poor. Or the character dresses like a goth, which ties in with their attitude towards authorities. Or their clothes are very neat, because today they're on their way to a job interview, and they really, really need that job. So, by asking myself questions like "What would my character dress like?" or "What would people eat in my fictional world?", and keeping the answers at the back of my mind, the descriptions start flowing naturally from the world and characters. Of course people use bone knives in the imaginary country of Espinudo; they don't know mining, and most of their food comes from fishing and whaling, so it only makes sense to make use of the bones. And of course the blades of the bone knives have notches close to the shaft - how else would they keep away the angry spirits of the animals they kill? That's the whole point of appeasing them with their traditional dance every full moon, isn't it? And of course they keep their knives in fish leather sheaths - what else would they make them of? And of course the knives are curved, since they're made from seal ribs. And so on.
I have the same problem, but as Tayleea said, it has gotten better by practise. I tend to write very short and concise texts, and sometimes the details come to me when i re-read it, over and over, or sometimes they come when putting the piece aside for a while and then looking at it again. then I come up with ideas how to elaborate the things more specifically and describe things that you didnt put much emphasis on before. Dont worry, i think too that it is something that can be improved with practise and experience.
The way I see it, you need to find more things that feels necessary. Say, you need to take the step from viewing the scene as. "The necessary stuff if that this information is exchanged in the dialog." to: "The necessary stuff if that this information is exchanged in the dialog AND that it come across that these people dont like each other very much." to: "The necessary stuff if that this information is exchanged in the dialog and that it come across that these people dont like each other very much. Plus that the reader is given a chance to suspect that A is morally torn. " You shouldn't add more description for descriptions sake. You should try to give the scene more levels and meaningful content hinted through what is conveyed.
I agree with Tayleea - what draft is this ? My first draft is always light on words and description. Also over time I have been able to work on this. I recently rewrote my first novel - it was originally completed at 50K - it is now at 80K. I rewrote a chapter of a novella I wrote at christmas and 700 words has become nearly 3K and that was with me cutting parts of the story.
Great posts! Reading the answers of the feed-backers I now see the question has TWO levels: 1. What level is important for the story to go forward? [Thanks, Islander, btw] 2. If a detail is needed, you need to be able to flesh it out. This requires some writing skills and I like the suggestion of in particular Eunoia to sharpen your tools. Generically, I think #1 is the most difficult to decide upon. Too little is equally killing as too much. I am goal-oriented and have the same problem as the OP -- I tend to stick to the main point and forget these details that describe the atmosphere. Thanks to all - this helped me a lot.
Something to bear in mind is that people have different styles. Sometimes concise writing is very good. But I agree with the advice to keep on writing and worry about editing later. My first full would-be novel years back was only around 75,000 words long. Lots of re-writing, cutting & editing followed to end up making it a 'respectable' length. I found it much harder than I anticipated, but with perserverance I got there. Good luck.
You could always explore the whys. What is the character thinking that causes him to react in that way? Why does he decide to do something? In one conversation I wrote, one character is urging another to connect the dots as to why X works and Y doesn't. I regretted not writing down the reason behind the epiphany immediately because it stopped making sense to me the next day. I included my reconstruction of the reasonings. Another conversation had a similar vein. Though it was more apparent, I decided to take the reader through the character's head instead of just saying "he took a moment to catch up with her hop-scotching thoughts."
Yeah, I forgot to mention in my reply that concise writing can be very good. It lets the reader do a lot of the work. I agree with the above suggestion of what to read, but also try some Raymond Carver.
This. Hemmingway is one of the best known and most commonly read people in the English world. He's known as one of the greats. And he writes in a stark descriptionless fashion. But he is the master after all.
First time I write a scene I'll only focus on dialogue and maybe facial expressions or emotions. Then when I go back to edit I'll try to focus on details of the surrounding area or atmosphere. It also helps to have other people look at your work too,because they may interpret things differently than you intended.
Hello all. I would like to thank all of you who replied to my thread 'Getting through a chapter' because you all helped me a lot. I've actually started writing now. Hooray! But I was wondering how many words you guys usually write in one day? Because I've just started and I've done about 594 words in an hour and a half. Is this good, bad? How many do you do?
Bad days, I do a couple sentences. Good days, a couple thousand words. When I'm on fire, 5k to 10k. Try not to put too much stock in how you compare to other people as far as word count. You are writing, and most people don't even get that far.
It is a good amount I know published writers that do less in an hour- mine varies on brain power, kids noise levels, stage of book etc. When i am working with internet on and distractions I write about 1200 - without 2850 words is possible in an hour when I am in the middle of a first draft. When i am just starting out it is less, and I find I struggle at about 25-30K words that tends to go slower than the rest of the novel. 2-3 hours writing gives me about 5-7K words.
In a first draft, don't you think it's better to get everything out, without censorship, then later decide what can stay and what should go? This is a common strategy, it seems.
Depends on how you approach your drafts surely ? Some people put thought into each word, sentence and punctuation mark on the way through - naturally they place quality before quantity. For me on a first draft quanity trumps quality - once I have that draft then quality becomes more important but then later drafts go quicker because I have already written the story. Ultimately it is the quality of the completed manuscript that trumps all else. Every writer gets there at their own speed in their own manner.
How many words are in a paragraph? How many words are in a sentence? Keep writing until the chapter is done, and then move on to a new chapter. Tip: try to make each chapter a single thought, topic, or scene. Alternately, you can go the Dan Brown route and have every other page be a new chapter
my best advice is to not even count at all! just concentrate on quality, not quantity... writing fast isn't a good thing unless you can write both fast and brilliantly... and very few writers can do that... writing isn't a contest to see who can write fastest... speed only comes into play if you're on a deadline for a contracted piece of work...
I can usually write about 2000 words in an hour if I'm on a roll. I've noticed the first 15 minutes are the hardest, then it goes faster when you're into it. I agree that quantity beats quality for a first draft. I just recently discovered write or die online, which forces you to write fast. I decided what scene to write, and wrote it as fast as I could in the span of an hour. Then spent 30 min cleaning it up in open office, and it turned out surprisingly good. I think I'll be doing that from now on.
