Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A Am I Breaking Too Many Rules?

It's great that you're going to have 250K words to start from. Note that I said "start from." Keep writing, make your way all the way to the end of the story, and don't worry at all about the len...

posted 5y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:14:21Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42658
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Chris Sunami‭ · 2019-12-08T06:14:21Z (almost 5 years ago)
 **It's great that you're going to have 250K words to start from**. Note that I said "start from." Keep writing, make your way all the way to the end of the story, and don't worry at all about the length, or any other publishing concerns --yet.

**Once that's all done, it's time to get _ruthless._** Get out your sharpest knife, and carve out a single tight, perfectly structured, 75K novel with a beginning, middle and end, and without a single ounce of fat on it. It might all come from the beginning of your narrative. It might all come from the end. It might all come from the middle. Or it might be pieces from all across the scope of your narrative. It doesn't matter which one, as long as it works for your book. (It _especially_ doesn't matter if it actually does line up with your college radio drama or not.) Remember, it's OK that approximately 3/4 of your writing will be left on the cutting room floor.

**After that's done** , if you have enough meat left to carve out a second great novel --or a third one, after the second one is done --do it. If not, start in on a new 250K words.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-02-26T15:54:01Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 1