I guess I'm going to have to cull a lot of these things & keep on track. Maybe open it up into something bigger at a later date, depending on how well received the short is, if I can make it coherent.
Anybody else have this problem?
I don't think that's wrong, though.
[This message has been edited by Robyn_Hood (edited September 26, 2005).]
I know that OSC recommends this in his 100 questions exercise, or whatever its called.
I think I tend to do this naturally to some extents.
I've got this guy who has a farm & uses all his magic on keeping it going, when the land has stopped being fruitfull. Then I ask -
Why is the land no longer fruitfull and then have to answer that somewhere.
Then I have to ask, why hasn't he got another job instead? and have to answer that.
These are all things that I didn't really intend on being the main focus of the story, but think they need answering for it to be credible.
I do understand how stories get longer - my current WIP started as an 800 word craft. It is now around 14K. BUT - I've been working on revising, and found lots of stuff that, while interesting, doesn't advance the story. So I'll be cutting. I'm rewriting the first scene completely, combining others, deleting another...
It's ok to write what you feel you need to get out at the time. Outlining will help you to plan and figure out which "why" answers need including and which don't. As you know, outlines aren't written in anything permanent - they are flexible, even burnable (!) - but they can help you contain your story. I reread my current WIP, outlined what I had written, and that process helped me determine what needed revising, cutting, and adding.
Not everything is meant to be a novel. But if it turns out your story would be a great novel, don't let the fact that you have another in progress stop you - it's ok to have two going, or even more ;-)
Lee
[This message has been edited by lehollis (edited September 26, 2005).]
Look at it carefully. Be ruthless. If you don't need this scene, this location, this character, cut 'em out.
I've written with outlines and without them. Usually (when I've actually finished something) it beares no resemblance to the final product. I once wrote a story where the end didn't change---but everything between that and the beginning did. My most recent novel (now, alas, some five years done) ran about, oh, forty chapters---and I cut the first eighteen off and revised from that point. (I incorporated a good chunk of the rejected bit further on, much revised.)
quote:
I've got this guy who has a farm & uses all his magic on keeping it going, when the land has stopped being fruitfull. Then I ask -
Why is the land no longer fruitfull and then have to answer that somewhere.
Then I have to ask, why hasn't he got another job instead? and have to answer that.These are all things that I didn't really intend on being the main focus of the story, but think they need answering for it to be credible.
Do you answer the questions in a word? a sentence? a paragraph? a page? a chapter?
Both of the questions you raised could easily be answered in 30 words or less -- both of them...together!
i.e. "Drought had ravaged the land but Joe would not leave -- could not leave. The land was as much a part of him as his hands and feet."
[This message has been edited by Robyn_Hood (edited September 26, 2005).]
quote:
These are all things that I didn't really intend on being the main focus of the story, but think they need answering for it to be credible.
Well, sure, but like Robyn Hood said, a sentence or two will do in order to gain your credibility. Don't sweat those answers beyond that because when you do you expand into situations that demand importance in the story.
Try this:
1. Focus on one main character with a maximum of three secondary characters. Everyone else will be relegated to nameless masses if you need them.
2. Focus on a single issue or conflict that you intend to resolve in the story. Despite the temptation to do so, don't bring in any other issues or conflicts. Keep it simple.
Last Christmas I wrote a short that kept demanding to be a novel. I kept having new characters and situations assert themselves all over the place, but I didn't have time to write a novel before Christmas (I wanted to send it out in lieu of a Christmas card to all my close friends and family). So I had to step back and start analyzing every single named character and every single identifiable conflict situation and decide what was needed to make the story work and what was only adding to the size of the story. It was an amazing exercise.
In fact, I might even recommend reading a novelette or two and determining which characters/situations you might be able to remove in order to shorten it. Might be a good exercise. I may have to try it myself.
With my latest WIP, it seems to me on my last re-read that I spend a lot of time exploring the inner workings of the characters, because I love really fleshed out, 3D people in my stories.