After this thread I started to wonder, so one morning when I was up after 4 hours of sleep and feeling sick, I decided to do a little exercise and write a scene. I went into it with little more planning than thinking about a guy with a wife dying of cancer and he's sitting in her hospital room. (and yes, the scene bored me to tears too, lol, it was just an exercise, though). The result was pretty highly polished, and I was a little surprised. I don't usually start writing something without a ton of think-drafting, but it seems even when I put myself on the spot and crap something out, all the lessons and training and studying seems to come into play and the draft is pretty high quality. Whodathunkit.
So, I've had an idea, I've outlined, I've got key plot points, I've written as much as I can...and now I'm stuck. I'm about two 3rds in to my first draft and I know what should happen next, but I now feel like I'm writing it to stretch it to make it a publishable word count. All I want to do is wrap it up and begin my conclusion/ending. But can a book that is one 3rd shorter on its word count be publishable? Heeeeeeeeeeelllllpppp!!!!!
Er-hem... Just write! If you're word count is "low", so what? If the story is finished, then the story is finished. Do not add filler to meet a word count. This goes double for a first draft. It certianly will not be your last draft, so anything that crosses your mind in rewriting can be put in later. Again: write, write, write!
If it feels like a filler then what you're writing is a filler. Rather stretch your mind to come up with something that feels significant, scenes that enhance and feel instrumental to your newly evolving plot. I don't believe that once a story is written it's done and shouldn't be added to. If you wrote it, you can change it. You can turn it into an 80k novel. You just need a little imagination. Any length of story is publishable. A story has the greatest chance of being published as a novel if it falls between 80k-100k for most genres (YA not included). And yes the length of a novel is something to consider, and should not be overrun by the "don't add to a story that's said everything it has to say" argument. What a story has to say is what you had to say. Now try to think of more to say.
Write. Like don't type it, write it. You won't know how many words you've done. Then as you transfer over your first draft the computer you'll add more and see where your word count it.
I'm not sure I can add anything to what has already been said. Just write and continue on with the story. Though I would like to offer just a small suggestion. While I enjoy creative writing, I am not published (and probably never will be). Whenever I sit down to type, I am never worried about a word count, or what is publishable. I find that the material that I don't intend to show anyone usually comes out better then the material that I know someone will read. So I wouldn't worry so much about publishing. Just write what comes to you, and worry about a publisher later on.
I have to add my agreement to what everyone else has said, and I also find I have this problem. When I sit down to write something with the idea that someday it will be published and read, I start censoring myself. I find I don’t write what I need to because I second guess whether readers will like it or what they will think of it. I’ve dismissed a lot of good passages of text from my writing this way, and as a result the story is not as long as it would have been or else not as complete as it should have been.
It's already been said, but just keep writing the story the way you hear it, and finish it on your terms. Filler will read like filler. You might find out that it took more words to finish than you thought it would. You might get to the end and find that you need more development of a subplot, or you're got another loose end to tie up. Or you might get to the end, averything is the way you want it and you're short of your word count. I wouldn't worry about it. If your story is over, it's over. No use forcing it to stretch out just so that you can have a slightly heavier paperback. How long is animal farm? Stuart Little? Kim? Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the book that Bladerunner was based on? Even Dune began as a nouvella, later expanded upon.
I found your problem. No offense, or anything, but I'm pretty sure you aren't to the stage of needing to worry about this sort of thing. It's kind of a catch-22, as you're ready to worry about publishable lengths when you're establish enough you don't have to worry about it (as you either have the experience to just make things work, or nobody cares what length your manuscripts are). My advice, pull that cart back and hitch the horse back up, because it seems you're counting chickens when you've learned to crack a few eggs making omelets (and there's no use hatching more chickens when you can't cook the eggs or have your cart so far ahead of the horse you're busy pushing the cart to market).
Thanks! Sometimes you just need a bit of clarity. I should justwrite and add character development etc come 2nd draft. Maybe I was just putting of starting the end because I have grown attached? haha I do write with pen & paper, so the word count is totally estimated, going by words per page times number of pages. It currently stands at 50k, I think the end will bring it in at 65-70k.
If you think it's finished, you should write the conclusion. If you think something needs to be added, you can go back later and add it. But worrying about the word count isn't good, because it usually means you add filler and things that aren't essential to the story.
I pretty much agree with what others have said, don't add filler to reach some predetermined idea of proper length. Besides, 65,000 to 70,000 words is plenty long enough for most full-length novels. I will say that I have exactly the opposite problem. For a finished novel of 70,000 words, my first draft would need to be in the range of 100,000+ words to allow for rewrites and editing, but that's because of the way I write. My work process during the first draft is to write everything down and not worry too much about quality.
Hey guys, just wondering if you keep old drafts of pieces you are working on, in case you want to put something back that you took out. Does that ever happen to you? Is it worth keeping old drafts, or do you just save over the file? Thanks
It depends on the corrections I made to the draft I've always found it easier to save a draft that has undergone a major plot change. If, for example, I decide to kill a major character instead of letting him live, I will keep the draft because it might contain text I can use in a different project. If on the other hand the only thing I did was run a spell check, then I save over it. I like to think of an old draft as I would a junk car I can cannibalize parts from if I ever need to. Plus, since I 'm not dealing with old fashioned paper anymore, saving a draft is just a few clicks away. Make sense?
yes, i've saved my earliest notes, as well as both print drafts with editing notes and computer drafts... doing so is the best proof you can have that you wrote a piece of work, in case its authorship is ever challenged...
I've got all my paper notes from my planning stage and I still add to them if I have a fleeting idea. Now I'm working on the laptop I try to keep a clean manuscript by deleting anything I'm not liking at that particular moment. I have a seperate document (in Microsoft One Note) where I copy and paste the current version of the section before deleting anything just in case I rethink and want to go back. I did start by tracking changes in Microsoft Word but it started getting so messy I changed to this system.
I have saved each draft in MS Word and the hard copy drafts. They don't take up much space (real or electronic) and so I like having them to reference if needed.
Always save your old drafts. Especially if you're a radical editor. You never know when an overzealous bout of editing might result in a scene being excised that might actually have a role in later drafts.
I save everything. Word has a versioning function (which is buggy, so use at your own risk) and, whenever I make a draft or major revision, I save a new version. I say it's to protect myself because, in case the work is stolen, it would be easier to plead my case if I can show the work's progression, but it's more out of my own curiosity: I like to read old drafts to see how far I've come as a writer. To this end, I save two copies of my stuff, one with all the versions, and one with only the most current version, which takes up much less space for times I want to work on the road (not so much of a concern what with memory being so cheap now) or for computers that load slowly. If I get rid of a scene or one isn't working out, I have a file I call my deleted scenes where I store them all. You never know when they'll become useful and, if they never are, well... no harm in keeping them anyway.
I tend to regard everything I write as some kind of gold, even if it isn't. I know when it's crap that nobody else would ever want to read (unless they need a good laugh), but I still keep it all because it's gold to me. I remember the work I had to do, the effort it took, to get those lousy pages out, and I'm damned if I'm going to lose them. Everybody loves beautiful children, but maybe only their parents love ugly children. My early drafts are my ugly children, and I still love them even if nobody else does.
Keep the old drafts. So when you finish the new one, you can compare it to the old and see if you improved it.
I wasn't aware of the issue with authorship, so I'll be doubly sure to keep old drafts now. Thanks everyone!
