I received an email recently from a follower of Literary Rebel asking for advice on word counts, mastering the craft of writing, and completing his magnum opus. I copied the email and my response here because I feel like it could really benefit struggling authors.
Tony writes:
I enjoyed reading the first book in your Jake Noble series and look forward to reading the other two soon. I also enjoyed reading the articles you posted on your Literary Rebel website and have benefited from them.
I don’t consider myself a writer (yet), and I don’t have a degree in writing. However, I’ve enjoyed writing fiction in my free time. Over the last few years, I’ve written a 2-part story, each being about 45,000 words.
[Side Note: You don’t need a degree or published works to be a writer. If you write, then YOU ARE a writer! ~William Miller]
If I understand right, novels are usually twice that size. My concern is I won’t be able to add to my word count without adding fluff. I appreciate your articles that mentioned plotting/outlining before we write. Perhaps I could plot out more scenes. You also recommend that we write stories sequentially. The problem is if I were to go back, I’d be sticking scenes here and there, and I worry about ruining the continuity of my stories.
One thing you noted is we need about 10,000 hours to hone our skill, and you also advised that we start by writing a few books that we would never intend to publish (thus allowing time to develop our skill). I’m nowhere close to 10,000 hours yet.
My first question: Would you recommend that I take a break from my “magnum opus” and write another story or two to improve my skill? Do you think that after a year or two of consistent practice, I could come back to my books and add better substance?
Second, what other advice could you provide to help me add to my word counts? I tend to be succinct (which you’d never guess from my lengthy email).
My response:
Thanks for reaching out. These are all great points.
I’ll try to answer in order. As to word count, Traditional publishing standards place the cut off for a novel at 60k words. 40k words would be considered a novella, which is just a fancy word for short novel. Lord of the Flies by Golding is a novella. But those are traditional publishing standards. With the advent of self publishing, the lines that separate novel from short shorty, have been blurred, if not completely obliterated. There are a host of authors who publish 100 to 150 page books on Amazon and do quite well.
And hey, if you put two 45k word stories together you’ve got a 90k word novel. That’s a pretty good size book. So don’t be too hard on yourself. I would caution against going back and trying to add scenes for the sole purpose of beefing up your word count. Anything you add in will feel forced and probably not move the plot along. In short, it will feel like filler to the reader.
As to the 10k hours, remember that you don’t have to master a skill to make money from it. I don’t consider myself as having “mastered” my craft yet, probably never will, but I’m making my living writing. A woodworker doesn’t wait until he’s mastered the craft before he starts making cabinets. He works at it until he can make a solid table and then starts selling his wares. As long as he can make a better chest of drawers than the average yokel, he’ll do all right in his chosen profession. You’ve already written two good sized stories and put in some valuable practice, so you are no longer a beginner. In fact, you are probably a lot further along the road than most. Few people who sit down to write a novel ever finish. Most never even get more than a few thousand words in. You’ve actually put in the time and effort to write complete stories (assuming they are complete). You aren’t required to wait for the writing gods to come down from mount Olympus and bestow upon you the title of master before you start publishing stories. And by the way, that will never happen anyway. You’ll always feel like you have more to learn. I certainly do.
Would I recommend you take a break from your magnum opus? If it has grown to that size in your mind, then YES. You need some distance from it. Take a breather, work on something else for a while. It doesn’t have to be years. Take six months and crank out a horror story, or something in a completely different genre. Write something you can have fun with and have no intention of selling. It will take the pressure off and once you’ve gotten some distance, you’ll be able to come back and judge that magnum opus with an unbiased eye. It might give you a whole new insight to the story and give you ideas on how to improve it. Or you might find you no longer have any interest in it. Heck, you might find it’s pretty good as is, and it’s ready to publish. But you won’t know until you’ve had time to clear your head a little and come back with a fresh set of eyes.
On to your second question: my advice for beefing up your word counts is, don’t do it. Remember what the whore told the bashful sailer, “It ain’t how much you got, it’s how you use it.” A crude allusion, to be sure, but a useful one. If word counts made great writers, then Edward Rutherford would be the greatest novelist of all time. I outsell Rutherford any day of the week, not because my novels are longer (in fact they are a fraction of the size) but because my novels keep readers entertained. My plots hum along like a chainsaw revved up to full-tilt boogie. I’ll let future historians determine which of us is the better writer. I’ve got the rent paid and food in the cupboards. (Take that 3rd grade Grammar teacher who said I’d never amount to anything!)
Word counts, like I said above, are incredibly subjective. I love Robert B. Parker. He’s one of my favorite authors. He wrote in a very stripped down, spare style that works for him. Read a few of his Jesse Stone novels if you haven’t already. His books are great. I can read through one in a few hours, but they stick with me for days and even weeks. I wish I could write like him. I doubt if he ever wrote a book over three hundred pages, but his books have been turned into movies and television shows. If naturally sparse storytelling is your style, run with it. It worked for Parker.
Don’t try to be an author you are not. I tried really hard to write like Parker for several years. I forced myself to use a very minimalist style. Everything I produced when I was trying to be Parker was crap. I mean, really bad. I also tried to be Larry McMurtry and James Clavell with equally disastrous results. Then I just started being me, and guess what? It all fell into place. That’s not to say you shouldn’t take inspiration and even instruction from other writers, but you can’t force a square peg in a round hole. Know what I mean?
