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So I just read this interesting article about word counts, and book lengths, depending on the genres of novels. Very interesting!
It will come very handy… But not just now. There is a time for everything.
ABOUT WORD COUNT(S)
I used to obsess about word count for my scenes, and balancing word counts for my acts, and stressing out about the fact that my book would end up too long, obviously… But eventually, as I was rewriting the book, I ended up choosing to not obsess about its length anymore.
In fact, not only did I stop thinking about it, but I allowed myself to just write the story as I wanted it to be, without any thought about length. Whatsoever. Because I knew, deep down, it was what the story needed. It certainly was what I needed. And wanted.
It turned out to be a much better approach, and a much better writing experience for me, and I honestly believe that the writing itself became a lot better as a result. Especially over the last part, which incidentally, turned out to be a lot longer than the preceding parts of the story.
Okay, now I’m gonna give concrete numbers. Let’s say that the ending payoff of Seven Drifts, in the state that it is now, could be long enough to be considered a full novel on its own right - at 99,000 words. Not quite as long as all the other parts of the story combined, but still. Kinda long. So there is a sense of unbalance, at least for the time being. But the work isn’t all done yet.
What work?
HAVING LEFT STUFF OUT; ON MY WAY TO ADDING MORE
While writing this new draft, I was very aware, cognizant and willing (by choice) to leave out several aspects of the storytelling for later; to keep them for another day, or a later draft. For instance, some aspects of the world building.
And other things too…
I didn’t forbid myself to play around with these aspects, however, and to dive into them to some extent, but I allowed them to stay kind of loose for a time, because I wanted to leave the door ajar for more new ideas to come in. In any case, I knew I’d be back for further development and tightening, for conciseness and clarification. It wasn’t hard to leave out some aspects of the world of the story and not focus on them for quite some time, because I found more creative freedom in not worrying about them too much while working on the story itself, knowing I would come back to them later, to get them to really sing.
So now, I’ve tackled them to some extent, and I’m glad I took this approach.
SECONDARY CHARACTERS AND PLOTS
As I wrote this new draft, I also decided not to fret too much on details about the secondary characters. I already had a pretty clear picture of them already in mind; where they come from, where they’re going, what happens to them, how they interact, what their role is in the greater story, and what their internal ark is, if any.
So that was one more aspect of the storytelling I could leave for later as I re-wrote the entire novel, which took a long time still, because there was enough matter to think about and to manage as it was.
After all the hard work and planning, and brainstorming, and discussing with my editor, and drafting, and re-drafting, and drafting again - and it’s far from over yet - I now have a sense of assurance about the global structure and genre of the story, and about the external and internal evolution of my major characters; especially the protagonist, Anita Burgess.
And I am pretty darn fucking happy about that.
LOOKING AT THE GLOBAL STORY
After finishing this redrafting, back around February 2024, I’ve looked at the story more globally, gathering all my old and recent notes and putting them in order, grouping them by theme and topic and priority - and by this I mean: what I want to work on first and second and third, and so on.
And then I tackled what I already knew I wanted to tackle: Reshaping the first act.
Because I wrote it a while ago, and at the time, I wasn’t focussing on the exact same genre (or story type) that the story ended up really using.
I didn’t mind too much about that either.
WHAT’S THE GENRE?
I didn’t stress over it, because I knew that the kind of story I had been looking for at the time (a serial killer thriller) was still going to work well as a subplot with the genre I ended up using for the story (turns out it’s an action-rebellion story).
(Get a look at Shawn Coyne’s five-leaf clover of genres for more on this. (Keep in mind that some prefer to call them story types rather than story genres.))
So at the time when I wrote this first act (or beginning hook, in Story Grid parlance), the rebellion story wasn’t exactly on my mind yet. Or rather, surely it kind of was subconsciously, despite me thinking I wanted to go with this thriller plot.
It is this realization that got me to see (with help from my developmental editor Courtney Harrell) where the story actually wanted to go – or rather, what I really wanted it to be.
So in the end, Seven Drifts is not a thriller in the Story Grid definition but instead, a cool and thrilling action-rebellion story.
It’s not a labyrinth plot either, nor a cozy murder mystery…. Although it certainly has elements of both.
(The title of my novel used to be Who Killed Felipe Crasotte when I began working on it, and then it became The Driftist. But its actual title, as the story it is now poised to be, will be Seven Drifts.)
Seven Drifts still includes pretty much all the thriller elements that I came up with earlier. I also still has all the cozy mystery elements I drafted before that. I wanted them all to fit in, and they pretty much did in the end, and rather well I should say.
And what’s more, when I wrote this latest version of the first act of the story, and got closer to its ending - especially the structural scenes like the turning point, crisis, climax and resolution of the first act - It became apparent that I wasn't willing to let go of my earlier vision for the story.
When it came to my attention that maybe I was still writing an action story after all, it came as a revelation to me, and it brought a hefty dose of relief. Because, although I had opened myself to the possibility of writing a thriller, and studied the genre with due diligence, and watched, and read, and studied a number of classic thrillers; even though I enjoyed them all, and admired the craft put into them, I knew, deep down inside, that this wasn’t exactly what I truly wanted to write. Because obviously, thrillers aren’t what I am drawn to primarily, even though I enjoy them, as I enjoy all genres.
Of course, I have my preferences.
What are yours?
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