50,000 Words

[peroxidepirate]

I'm 21 days into my 31_days  collection ('m a little behind...), and I've about just reached 6,000 words (which is about the length of my longest completed story). That's an average of just under 300 words per installment, and I really don't think the last few will be shorter than the early installments. Assuming I manage to finish, the whole thing could easily end up close to 10,000 words. I don't know if it's a single story, exactly -- I think it is a collection of related pieces, though with some (significant) future editing, I could turn it into a kind of novella. I'd like to make that happen, maybe for Piercefic 2011.

In between working on that, I've been thinking about NaNoWriMo. I've been thinking about how I can write 2000 words of anything I want to write in the first place, and I can write 4000 to 5000 if I really have something to say, but after that I start to get lost. I really want to do NaNo, and I'd like to further develop my writing skills. This means I somehow have to get from 6,000 words to 50,000, and I don't really know how.

Well, somebody over at Glake mentioned that Alanna: The First Adventure is just about 50,000 words. It's 125 pages in mass market paperback, which is a pretty normal length for a pre-Harry Potter YA novel. So I'm planning to do some rereading of other books in the 50,000 to 75,000 page range over the next couple of months, with the aim of analyzing how they're put together.

Meanwhile, I've managed to tease out some things about A:tFA (since I've read it so many times, I don't even need to reread for this...).

The overarching plot, of course, is that Alanna wants to become a knight, which isn't allowed because she's a girl. That story doesn't even come to a conclusion inside the 50,000-ish word first novel, but it still provides the framework for the rest of the book.

Within the framework are several smaller stories -- several episodes, if you will:

• Alanna deals with being bullied by Ralon (which is closely tied to...)
• George teaches Alanna to fight, generally takes her under his wing, and eventually learns that she's really a girl
• The sweating sickness comes down on the palace, Francis dies, and Alanna saves Prince Jonathan's life
• Alanna, Jonathan and the other squires visit the Black City and take down the Ysandir

Lots of other things happen, too, of course: Alanna learns to use a sword; becomes close to Myles; makes friends with Jon, Raoul and Gary; occasionally runs afoul of the training master; becomes suspicious of Duke Roger; struggles to accept her magic. These run throughout the other episodes, slowly being built up as the book progresses.

But what's more interesting to me, right now, is the episodic nature of the big events of the book. It's not a 50,000 word monolith; it doesn't just have one plot, and it doesn't have multiple plots that all start at the beginning and end at the end. It's a series of four major connected stories, with the same cast of characters, which could each be told in 10,000 to 15,000 words.

That's valuable. Because that, I think I can do.

It's about 1750, Captain Jane Chelsey's ship has been sold out from under her, and she's trying to protect her crew. If that's going to be a 50,000 word story, I need a series of, say, five major events between the beginning and the end of the novel. And, well, I can write Five Things stories like breathing. My brain likes fives.

*rubs hands together* This is going to be fun.

Comments

[boredsvunut.livejournal.com]

Coming from a three-time nano participant (who's finished twice), have some random, unsolicited advice:

-- Get involved. The NanoWrimo message boards are like a much-larger Glake (and just as crazy; there seems to be a board-wide fascination with Oscar Wilde and trebuchets). There are local groups for participants almost everywhere and my local group takes over a coffee shop once a week in November and writes and complains and reads the Eye of Argon. (People who show up have ranged in age from teenage to 50+). Being involved helps and makes it fun.

[peroxidepirate.livejournal.com]

Trebuchet FTW! (also, wtf? Firefox spellcheck doesn't know "trebutchet?" That's a basic word, people!)

Thanks for the advice! I know there are groups in this area, too, so I'll see if I'm feeling sociable enough to do the coffee shop thing. It should be interesting, anyway, since my roommate/saati is also doing NaNo... we're both taking time off work in November, but different weeks, so as to lessen the odds of distracting each other. :p

[sillyberry.livejournal.com]

I feel the need just to give you a giant pat on the back for trucking through 31_days!

[peroxidepirate.livejournal.com]

Awww, thank you! *smushes*