Check out this thought-provoking post from C.S. Boyack via The Story Empire blog on the topic of Bucking the System
Hi gang, Craig with you again. Today, I’m fighting with myself over some things I hold true in writing. I look at writing as a personal journey of improvement, and I can see that improvement from book to book. Here are the two mantras that seem to have found a way to be in conflict with each other. Then I’ll explain the conflict.
1.) A story should be as long as it needs to be.
2.) Never give them a reason to say, no.
Here’s the situation as it relates to word counts. I just finished a draft the morning of this writing that comes to 111,500 words. This is a fantasy book, and part of a series (Lanternfish), so the word count isn’t completely unacceptable. It might be a train wreck as a cozy mystery or something.
I have another series that’s dark humor with a target of around…
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