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In this issue:
Some ramblings about numbers
Writing Prompt
WWT Tool Kit Craft Card
Some ramblings about numbers
Well, it’s been a week. I’ve managed to open my project every day despite all the things going on, and I put up a couple good word counts, including 3300 one day. But on Saturday I got 28 words right before bed, on Sunday I got 2 words right before bed, and yesterday I cut 1150 words from Part 1. On the plus side, that means I’m anticipating having to write 3000 fewer words overall, which is nice. But still, it didn’t feel very productive.
I guess I’ve been thinking about word counts lately. I sort of trained myself to write long, because back in the day it seemed to me like all the debuts were 90-100k words on average. At least that’s how long the ones I was reading seemed to be. Traditional publishing definitely didn’t want more than that for a first-time writer, except when they did, but… yeah.
The things I believed for far too long…
Anyway, I read somewhere a while back that it was a money thing, why they started putting in long-time writers’ contracts that books had to be 100k words. I don’t know how the math worked out for them, because it doesn’t seem to work out for me. Fewer words seems to be a better deal all around. If I write 100k words, I feel like I should price the book higher. Because I wrote more, I worked longer. But I’m also still new, so I feel like maybe I haven’t earned a higher price.
But with fewer words… I don’t mind asking for less. I wrote less, I worked on it for less time. And now there’s no contradiction with feeling like, regardless of those things, I should ask for less just because I’m new. And it makes barrier to entry lower, too, for the reader.
And when you do the math in print? This project I’m working on is looking like it’ll be about 72,000 words. Even at 30k words less than 100k, this still comes out to over 300 pages. At least it does the way I format them. 360 pages to be more exact, with a 5.25x8 trim size and 12-point font and 16-point leading and optimized margins. I like pretty books. But pretty books with high word counts mean the printing cost eats into your royalties surprisingly fast.
Could I do the 6x9 cost-effective trim size with smaller font and smaller margins? Yes, but it would be harder to read, harder to hold, and not as pleasing on the eye. I like to hold a paperback in one hand. I made a 6x9 paperback for my first book, 400+ pages, and it’s kinda hard to hold. The hardcover is good. But the paperback? Meh. (Don’t tell anyone I said that. I should probably redo it in a smaller trim size, but then it would probably be closer to 500 pages—and I’m looking forward. I’m only looking back long enough to learn so I can do better as I move forward.)
Another thing… cause I like to daydream… shorter books are easier to turn into movies. There’s less material to dramatize. I recently picked up a couple of old books that happened to also have been made into movies—The Executioners and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep?, also known as Cape Fear and Blade Runner—and they’re both short. A little over 200 pages. Somewhere between 48000-52000 words.
Anyway, I guess all this is to say, I’m feeling like maybe the idea I got last week isn’t just to test out writing into the dark on an idea that’s already identified itself, but also to write shorter.
Writing Prompt
Character: WARRIOR
Light Attribute: Fights for those who cannot fight for themselves. Defends the weak, upholding justice and courage.
Shadow Attribute: Wages conflict for personal gain, domination, or the sheer love of battle. Becomes easily enraged and destructive.
Setting: An ancient, mist-shrouded bridge leading to a silent city.
Object: A tarnished metal lantern, a heavy leather gauntlet, a worn silver coin.
Emotion: REGRET. Mournful, guilty, wishing one could undo a past action.
WWT Tool Kit Craft Card
As mentioned before, I’m making a deck of craft cards to quickly remind myself of techniques while also having a convenient place to keep track of elements like character, conflict, and theme specific to each story. This week’s card is the card I meant to post last week. I didn’t realize it was the wrong one until I got the email. Sorry about that. So here is the Nutshell Technique in a nutshell:
Thank you for reading!
I hope this helped you, and I hope your writing goes well this week.
Keep at it,
Megan
WritesWithTools
site: writeswithtools.com
ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/writeswithtools
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