OGIS stands for OldGuyInStanton (California), which is where I live with my lovely wife (and two cats). I'm a retired accountant and an avid science fiction reader. Way back in 2014 we came up with a story concept, as my wife wanted to write a story that touched on the issue of pets, particularly pets stolen from their native environments, such as budgies and parrots. This is our first joint effort, though I have myself written several short SF stories, some vampire poetry and fiction, and started a Stargate novel. Sadly, nothing published, or even submitted. Anyway, the story we started together seems to be coming about naturally and "organically" - the concepts seem to jump into our minds, and the story line is plotted out for at least several books. We are up to 78,000 words now, and it looks like the first book (this will actually be at least a trilogy) will top out at 160,000 words. We are writing it for a younger audience, and our FK is running around from 5.6 to 11.1, with an average of 8.8. I'm here to learn some specific things, mainly how to submit and get published. I'm also interested in the mechanics of the novel. For example, widows and orphans - how to deal with them. As a somewhat anal ex-accountant, I have been simply avoiding widows and orphans by making sure that my paragraphs fit nicely on the page. This sometimes means I have to add (pad) text, and this upsets my wife because she thinks that this might detract from the story. Questions: What do editors think of widows and orphans? Am I screwing up by padding to make the paragraphs fit? All for now; fighting the flu and it is bedtime.
Welcome to the forum, OGIS! It's nice to see that you've come so far with your novel, and that the words are still flowing. I think it's a good idea if you bring your two questions to a separate thread in a more specific sub-forum (e.g. Publishing). That way people can more specifically talk about a single aspect, instead of there being multiple discussions in the same thread. For more information about the various sub-forums we have, please see the New Member Quick Start (which also contains information about e.g. the rules). Now, as a quick answer to your questions: I wouldn't care about it, for two reasons. 1) You will most likely go back and do a lot of editing, adding and removing, in the novel throughout the writing process. This will most likely create new widows and orphans, thus rendering your previous padding useless. 2) If the book gets accepted for publishing (by a traditional publisher), the editor and publishing house will format the book as they please (possibly changing font(size), margins, page size, etc.). This would also create new widows and orphans, again making padding useless. Regards, Komposten
Thank you for the above. You're right, of course, about the publisher changing everything in font, etc. My silly worry is that I want the manuscript to look nice, with a eye-pleasing layout, when it is submitted. Am I just being anal about that? I know nothing about the likes and dislikes of editors, but it seems to me (from my business experience) that a well-laid-out text makes the reader more likely to read the damned thing. Maybe my wife is right and the padding can actually work against us, since they are "unnecessary" words? And yes, I will bring up the points in the other forums.
Hello! I hope you feel better! Widows in orphans as characters? They should be okay as long as they fit in the story. Padding words aren't a good thing, as readers like the text to be to the point. Anyhow, all of these things might be changed by an editor in a publisher's production process. Good luck!