(no subject)

[mad_tea_party]

Yesterday was a good day, overall. I spent it out with my parents. We went out and about in celebration of Dad’s birthday which was Friday. We went to Steak N’ Shake, Michael’s (that one was for Mom), Books-A-Million (that one was for me), and Wal-mart. I know that doesn’t seem too significant to you guys, but the truth is, I’ve been feeling a bit clingy to my Dad lately. I guess that’s understandable given the recent events.

This had also led me to nearly canceling my vacation to Maryland, but Mom has since convinced me that I should go, and stay for a week or more to do some NaNo stuff with my Maryland writers. By then, I should have my new new laptop. And I’ll be anxious to test it out for NaNoWriMo.

We were supposed to go out for the Ravens football game today, but Dad spiked a fever last night. So that leaves me with the time I need before gaming at Golden Corral to edit (first round) my first draft of my Capstone story. I made some pretty hard cuts, and some pretty easy ones. I took out some stuff that can easily be added into the full novel in a completely non-restrictive way.

I had this conversation with my friend Aubrie recently where I realized the real reason I hate writing short stories is that I feel it’s too confining, especially when it’s for a specific assignment or submission. With a novel, unless you’re going for a specific market or publishing, it’s pretty much the longer the better.

Being a self-published author, I get to say how long my manuscripts are. I do try to keep to the publishing industry standards though.

Anyway, gonna get off here and work on said project so I don’t waste time. This site really can suck time away from me if I let it… lol.

Comments

[lockedgroove]

I totally get you feel your genre is novels over short stories, but I think it's also kind of unfair to say that with the novel that generally it's "the longer the better," even outside certain publishing niches. While certain genres will typically push toward a longer word count (like sci-fi or fantasy), it's really about the length that the story needs. There is such a thing as too much and a story going on for far too long.

For example, Marlon James, who has won international awards for his books cut (and did not replace) 30,000 words out of his new fantasy novel's draft.

Length is also a matter of craft.