Mist and Shadows

So far I’m about 12,000 words and three chapters (plus a prologue) into the rewrite of the synopsis and I have decided to do a restructure of the plot to date.

Seems a bit abrupt given how early I am into it, but on looking at what had been written to date, it didn’t quite seem to work in the order it was written in.

It started off with a battle – nothing wrong in and of itself – except in this case it seemed to be in the wrong spot.

So I am starting off by scrapping the prologue and folding it into the new Chapter One. The old chapter one will have a part in the new chapter one, but will mostly be in two and three. The old chapter two will mostly be the new chapter one, with part in the new chapter two, while the old chapter three will remain mostly in chapter three.

It will need a bit of editing to get right, but I feel it will flow much better when done.

I guess that is one of those question that, like how long is a piece of string, has no real answer, yet is a question many starting authors ask themselves. At least I know I have.

Looking around, the answer varies depending on who you ask. Some say 60-100,000 words, others 100-150,000. It also does vary between author and genre. Some tend to the shorter, while others, most especially fantasy, tend to the epic (in the truest sense of the word), clocking in at quarter of a million words or more, large enough to bludgeon someone to death with. Oft times a story could be told in 100,000 words yet still weigh in at 250,000, in book after book, reduced to a turgidity of shallow, endless characters and plots that no longer make sense, and the only reason they see light of day is to cash in on a name or because of contractual obligations (which, ironically, was the name of a Monty Python album), and should be allowed to die peacefully, but continue on and on, rather like this sentence.

For myself, I am often guilty of over planning things, to the point that they interfere in the doing of the plans. I like to work to a set target, of a set number of chapters. I have always had in mind a target of a prologue (though that is falling from favour) and twenty one chapters, each of around 3-5,000 words, preferably 4000, the chapters split into three parts, the start of the story, the middle of the story and the end of the story. A lot of advice I have seen is not to worry so much about the length, but just write until the story is done. My mind really doesn’t work that way. Hopefully that screwy brain-wiring won’t cause problems for me.