What's the secret to writing short?

Sunday, July 05, 2009


Yes. I'm whining.

About the werewolf novella.

I've been poking around in it the last few hours. Just got to the point where the hero sees the heroine for the first time (in this new version). As it stands I've got 4 new scenes totally 4,145 words. Not bad. The next few scenes will (hopefully) flesh out their romance more. I all ready had a scene that fleshed out the background of the world building more, but there'll probably more bits and pieces I'll be able to tuck in here and there.

The thing I'm whiny about is, other folks seem to do the world-building/relationship just fine in a short word count. Sure you might want a few things explained/fleshed out more, but for the most part you're good.

This damn novella was already clocking in at 42K (plus the extra 4K so far in new scenes). I wonder if I'm going all the new writing is going to hit the mark, or if I'll end up with 60K and still fall short.

*pouting, scowling, bitching*
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2 comments:

the author said...

Alison has a good post on writing novellas over on Genreality today.

One space-saving thing I tend to do when I'm writing a novella is to simply tag places where I want the backstory (i.e. "mention Reever's childhood here" or "explain how/why Juliana got the black cameo tat.") Then when I'm done writing the story, I'll go back in fill in where I think I need it.

vanessa jaye said...

Lynn, I love the backstory tags idea!

Just checked Alison's tips, one thing I'm doing right now with the revisions is her tip #2-- I'm changing the story from the h/H first meeting during the story, to letting them have a bit of a history.

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