I have finished my new horror novel! This is a cause for celebration, and time to start submitting it.
The novel is about a group of LRP-ers who unwittingly unleash an undead magic user onto the world whilst performing a ritual during a game, which proceeds to wreak death and destruction on those involved in the game. The finished draft has come out at 69,000 words. I'm aware that this is a very short novel. In fact, to some it's only half of a novel. The majority of people in the writing group are fantasy writers. Most of their first drafts start off with over 150,000 words.
I've never really 'got' how you can stuff so much into one novel to make it so long. I am the opposite. I end up with 50,000 word first drafts and then I have to pad them. Only that's what it looks like - padding. I used a fair amount of padding in the version of DEATH SCENE that got submitted to Lyrical Press. My editor promptly stripped out all the padding, saying - quite correctly - it was superfluous to the plot.
I remember that lesson when I write novels now. Is this scene moving the plot forward in some way? Is it revealing something about a character, or a plot point that becomes important later on? If the answer to all of these is 'no', the scene has no place in the book. So this is a very short novel. But it doesn't have much padding, and I think I'm going to keep it that way.
I am a voracious reader, as anyone who follows this blog will know. I read quickly, and I like strong plots, but I read so many books I don't retain plots of books I've read for very long. I like clear beginnings, middles, and ends. I don't like subtle hints, I don't like ambiguity (my attitude to this is if the author couldn't be arsed to work out what was really going on, why should I?), and I like satisfactory endings. If it's a horror novel, the horror should be resolved. I don't mind if all the main characters die - that's acceptable in horror. But if it's a crime novel the killer must be caught. If he or she gets away with it, that's an unsatisfactory ending.
I do most of my reading on the train, going in and out of London to the day job. I have about 40 minutes at each stretch. On my journey home I want to be able to pick the story up again from where I left off that morning. I don't want the plot to be so complex that I have to re-read the last 10 pages to remember what's going on. I don't want to be re-introduced to a character who had a brief appearance 100 pages ago and I'm supposed to remember that, because I won't. And I like chapters to be short. When I get to the end of a chapter at Clapham Junction I will be checking to see how long the next chapter is, and if I have time to read it in the few minutes I've got left until the train gets in to Victoria station. If it's only five pages, I will keep reading. If it's 20, or worse, I will put the book away at that point and put some music on instead - because I hate finishing a reading session mid-chapter.
I am aware that my writing style reflects my reading preferences. I write plot-driven stories, I focus on a few main characters and the peripheral ones are never really fleshed out, I don't complicate the story with lots of sub-plots, and I write very short chapters. The vast majority of them are between 1,000 and 2,000 words, and I have been known to chapters less than 1,000 words long.
Consequently I tend to write very short novels. But you know what? Maybe that's just the way it is. I'm never going to win any literary prizes for fiction, and maybe I'll never write the kind of doorstopper that hits the best sellers list.
But that's OK. I write what I write. It's not going to be to everyone's taste, and I get that. But I know there's a few people out there that like what I write, and the way I write it.
And so this new novel is for you. It's short, but it's finished, and it's about to go out into the big wide world to find a publisher.
The novel is about a group of LRP-ers who unwittingly unleash an undead magic user onto the world whilst performing a ritual during a game, which proceeds to wreak death and destruction on those involved in the game. The finished draft has come out at 69,000 words. I'm aware that this is a very short novel. In fact, to some it's only half of a novel. The majority of people in the writing group are fantasy writers. Most of their first drafts start off with over 150,000 words.
I've never really 'got' how you can stuff so much into one novel to make it so long. I am the opposite. I end up with 50,000 word first drafts and then I have to pad them. Only that's what it looks like - padding. I used a fair amount of padding in the version of DEATH SCENE that got submitted to Lyrical Press. My editor promptly stripped out all the padding, saying - quite correctly - it was superfluous to the plot.
I remember that lesson when I write novels now. Is this scene moving the plot forward in some way? Is it revealing something about a character, or a plot point that becomes important later on? If the answer to all of these is 'no', the scene has no place in the book. So this is a very short novel. But it doesn't have much padding, and I think I'm going to keep it that way.
I am a voracious reader, as anyone who follows this blog will know. I read quickly, and I like strong plots, but I read so many books I don't retain plots of books I've read for very long. I like clear beginnings, middles, and ends. I don't like subtle hints, I don't like ambiguity (my attitude to this is if the author couldn't be arsed to work out what was really going on, why should I?), and I like satisfactory endings. If it's a horror novel, the horror should be resolved. I don't mind if all the main characters die - that's acceptable in horror. But if it's a crime novel the killer must be caught. If he or she gets away with it, that's an unsatisfactory ending.
I do most of my reading on the train, going in and out of London to the day job. I have about 40 minutes at each stretch. On my journey home I want to be able to pick the story up again from where I left off that morning. I don't want the plot to be so complex that I have to re-read the last 10 pages to remember what's going on. I don't want to be re-introduced to a character who had a brief appearance 100 pages ago and I'm supposed to remember that, because I won't. And I like chapters to be short. When I get to the end of a chapter at Clapham Junction I will be checking to see how long the next chapter is, and if I have time to read it in the few minutes I've got left until the train gets in to Victoria station. If it's only five pages, I will keep reading. If it's 20, or worse, I will put the book away at that point and put some music on instead - because I hate finishing a reading session mid-chapter.
I am aware that my writing style reflects my reading preferences. I write plot-driven stories, I focus on a few main characters and the peripheral ones are never really fleshed out, I don't complicate the story with lots of sub-plots, and I write very short chapters. The vast majority of them are between 1,000 and 2,000 words, and I have been known to chapters less than 1,000 words long.
Consequently I tend to write very short novels. But you know what? Maybe that's just the way it is. I'm never going to win any literary prizes for fiction, and maybe I'll never write the kind of doorstopper that hits the best sellers list.
But that's OK. I write what I write. It's not going to be to everyone's taste, and I get that. But I know there's a few people out there that like what I write, and the way I write it.
And so this new novel is for you. It's short, but it's finished, and it's about to go out into the big wide world to find a publisher.
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