Novel Frustrations
Share Your Hints & Tips

All things are difficult before they are easy. 
—Dr. Thomas Fuller (1654 - 1734), Gnomologia, 1732

I have some questions for all those who have written novels and novellas. I just started on my first attempt, I think it'll end up fairly short. Which leads me to my questions. Do you plan your book to fit a certain length? Do you know in advance who you plan to market it to?

Right now, I have a general outline that I can fill in as I get to know my characters. Does anyone have any special tricks they use to help keep them on track? Is there a good resource I can use?  —Carmen

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From Maura Martin
When I arrived at ERWA I couldn't write a story shorter that 15,000 words. Unfortunately I couldn't write one longer than that either. I'm a literal person and a factual one. I like road maps, so yes I plan my novels very thoroughly. As a matter of fact I synopsized the entire series. Always it's nine books to the series and I can't seem to shake that. Anyway...

I went from not having a clue to a finished novel, one under edit, and the third underway through to very good sources. The first is a book by Evan Marshall: The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing, Writers Digest Books ©1998, ISBN 0898798485

Marshall's tome showed me that novels had structure and elucidated good writing behaviors, the analytic structure of fiction, and what the reader wants, consciously and unconsciously, to have present in a novel. I liked it so much I actually purchased the accompanying workbook.

The second issued from the web and I've lost the link. Fortunately I downloaded the text and rearranged it in an order that suited me. These are from a series of how tos from Canadian novelist Crawford Kilian. These illustrated the more daily mundane tasks of creating characters, specific methods of forming plots, and subsequently synopsizing it for pitches, some points of style in both narrative and dialog, constructing scenes, symbolism, and drafts management.

Between these two sources of information about structure I was emboldened to attempt my first novel for NaNoWriMo 2003. I became so engrossed in the project I forgot to report my success. Oh well. This first effort grew into a 120k word, five viewpoints novel set in the near future. It's scifi/fantasy/alternative history with erotic elements.

Anyway, if you find yourself overwhelmed with the mechanics of how to go about writing a novel I think these could help. Best of luck with your endeavor.

From Kathleen Bradean
My best advice is this - just write it. Tell the story you want to tell. When you're done you're going to rewrite it, and that's the time to tighten it up or expand. I throw a lot down that doesn't end up in the final version, but it helps me to define my characters and work out their interactions.

As for chapter length - each chapter is a short story. When you're done with that story, the chapter is complete, regardless of length. Ali Leibgott's The Beautifully Worthless, which is part prose and part poetry, has chapters that are a single sentence. That works for her style. Every writer finds her own style. You need to do what works for you.

From Lynne Connolly
Yes, but it took me a while to get there. I can sell to a couple of publishers on proposal these days. I know what market I'm going for because my publisher told me. Otherwise, I'd still be writing the books I enjoy and hoping someone likes them. I will not write to the market, but some writers do, and they do very well at it. Unless you're writing category romance (and the lines are getting hotter all the time) you don't need to worry overmuch. If you send your work to an agent, and it's good, the agent will sort you out.

My books tend to turn out at around the 80k mark. When I started, they were longer, but that largely depends on the plot and subplot. Don't try to cram too much in (unless we're talking sex, of course!) Go for it and see where it takes you! Learn the techniques, and what publishers are looking for, but don't let them rule you. Above everything else, agents and publishers are looking for voice, and you can kill that if you try too hard to write to please other people.

From Amanda Young
I always do a brief outline before I begin and then I pretty much let the characters lead me along after that. Sometimes they go where I'm trying to lead them and sometimes the veer off in directions I hadn't foreseen. Not a very organised way to do things, but it works for me.

As for setting up and keeping to a certain amount of words: I can't. My first book was supposed to be a novella and shot all out of control once I got into the meat of the story. My advise it just to write what feels right and worry about the length later.

From Pat Brown
I don't plan the length, I just write it. I'm always well over the limit, my last novel ended up at 120,000. Since I know it will go through 3-4 rewrites and each one gives me a chance to cut, I never worry about how it will turn out.

If the novel will be too short - which I would define as 65-70,000, though I've heard others say as low at 50,000 - you could consider another sub plot to boost the length. But you also have to consider that the first draft of your first novel has a long way to go. I would say finish it first, then worry about things like length.

From Brenna Lyons
Personally, I write the book that is then sell it to someone whose line it fits. That is how I ended up with multiple publishers. I have, at times, written something for a call, but that is rare for me. And, even when I do that, I can turn it around to someone else, if it fails. I don't concern myself with a particular publisher when I write. I concern myself with the characters and world. If I start writing to a call and find it no longer fits, I keep writing as I was and sell it elsewhere.

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