That moment when you wrap up another chapter in the current book under development and realize that oh hey, this book isn't going to be finished in six parts but rather seven. Otherwise that 'sixth' part will be over 40k words all on its own which is getting a bit silly in length. Trying to get this book's draft done so it can be edited and posted, but the muse is sitting there laughing with unexpected (but cool!) twists which are gonna make getting to the ending take just that much more. Already the thing sits at 120k words, but it's looking like it'll need another 20k to hit the finish line properly.
Dangit, it's gonna be quite a push to get the draft done by end of June like I'd hoped. Ah well, fighting against what inspiration comes your way never works out so gonna have to run with it! If it slips, it slips.
Not like there's a publisher and a contract or anything, just a mental time-table that just went whoosh. :)
Comments
The Chapter?
So the chapter is going to take up seven parts instead of six. I'm reminded of Attack of the ...
-- Daphne Xu
Edited for clarity
Not the chapter, but the entire book. Edited now to hopefully make that more clear...
I've published the first three books in six 'Parts' each, with 4-7 chapters totalling roughly 20k words per part based on advice read somewhere either here or elsewhere that any more was 'too much' for most readers in a single sitting. Though book 3's Part 6 ended up going long. Well, this book already has 18k for its Part 6 and needs another 18-20k to get to the end sooo...seven parts it is!
20k Words
Long ago, in typing class, we used the rule that one word was five letters. Much later, one word seems more like seven letters. If 20k words is the limit, I probably shouldn't worry if one part approaches 100kbytes in my own novel.
As part of a story about Jean Dieudonne and his "Treatise on Analysis", someone wrote that if a mathematician plans on writing n volumes, it will wind up as 3n. In the preface to "Foundations of Modern Analysis", he wrote that the book was the first volume of a treatise that would be four volumes. However, in the list of volumes in the title page(?) the published volumes had already extended to six, some with only one or two chapters.
-- Daphne Xu
Math!
Good thing these aren't math treatises then! When asked by friends how many books there will be total I usually stutter out 'Six? Eight? Err...depends how it goes?' Which if it really ends up being 3n the initial estimate, yikes!!
All I can say right now to be truthful is 'At least six...'
Bicycle
I wonder how long the author originally thought his "Falling Off a Bicycle" story or stories would be.
-- Daphne Xu
She
Not he. And as an early helper in Angharad's little project I don't recall her ever having set an end goal. That it is still going is a phenominal demonstration of fortitude and determination.
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
I know that feeling well
It has happened to me several times, so I am prepared for it when it happens again.
Daughters of Time was intended to be four parts (chapters) but ended up as five.
The State Does Not Make Mistakes actually managed a projected six chapters but there was so much more to tell that it now has 28.
Don't even get me started about Somewhere Else Entirely. The innocent me thought it might reach 40 chapters.
Then I had to write a simple Epilogue to SEE. I discovered that the scenario was so much fun that it ended up split into three parts that total over 18,100 words.
For most postings I try to arrange them as 6,000-9,000 words or so. There have been a number of occasions where I can't wrap a chapter up properly and have to split it into two to keep the length manageable.
Isn't writing fun!
Penny