>>>put the thought into your mind that you’re looking to break the book into individual, shorter novels.
I'm currently going through Part 1 (115,00 words) of my 3-book series (of which you edited #2) for the dreaded quote marks. It's all coming together nicely, thank you very much. I'm thinking of breaking it up into two novels, but time will tell as I proceed with correcting various "" marks (grin) while I refresh my memory along the way.
I do have a dilemma, though, as I mentioned in another post. Part 3 has come to a standstill as I do the part 1 edits. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I'm certain) I've halted at a section where killing or not killing someone is eating away at me. While it's on the back burner for now, the direction I want to go is bothering me. In your opinion, should I take on writing both ways and let the fallout land where it wants to go? Or might I choose only one and do the same? I think I know the answer, but another opinion wouldn't hurt.
I finally got your substack links straightened out. As mentioned, it was not your links, but a VPN problem.
Peter, take it a stage at a time. Try not to think about the story at all as you're making a conscious-mind editing pass, correcting the quotation mark issue. Finish that first so you have a cleanmss to look at.
Re the dilemma, Tiffanie (see her reply) is largely right.
If the "direction I want to go" is what your characters want to do, go with it. If it's what YOU want to do, follow what the characters want to do.
In other words, write the story as it unfolds, not as you would like it to unfold or as you expect it to unfold. Allow it to be their authentic story. When you do that, the pressure is off because you have no decisions to make. You don't decide WHAT is presented on the page, only HOW it is presented.
He's going to say that it goes the direction the characters take it...
I think by the time you have read all the way back through it, it will be fairly natural to you by then and just continue as an extension. The waffling right now, is because the characters are sitting in the "green room" waiting for their turn on stage, to see if the director is going to try to change the script.
Tiffanie, you're absolutely right about the "green room" waitlist. I should have put it down on the screen before departing to edit #1. At the time I thought it was a great place to halt since I would be raring to go at it when I returned. Most likely it still is. Since it's a trilogy, I want them all to look the same, thus the formatting break. Now, it may be a four-parter, not that there's anything wrong with that, either, if I can locate a place to split book #1.
I shall no doubt return with refreshed energy to get the job done on #3 (or 4), if all goes as I hope with #1.
I had this experience with one of mine years back. It ended up over 200K in length. I did exactly as Harvey suggested - I read through it and found 3 natural break points. Imagine my surprise when those break points resulted in 4 roughly-50K novels. I was surprised they were close together in length and loved it. Instead of a single HUGE novel, I ended up with a quadrilogy. Worked out well.
>>>put the thought into your mind that you’re looking to break the book into individual, shorter novels.
I'm currently going through Part 1 (115,00 words) of my 3-book series (of which you edited #2) for the dreaded quote marks. It's all coming together nicely, thank you very much. I'm thinking of breaking it up into two novels, but time will tell as I proceed with correcting various "" marks (grin) while I refresh my memory along the way.
I do have a dilemma, though, as I mentioned in another post. Part 3 has come to a standstill as I do the part 1 edits. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I'm certain) I've halted at a section where killing or not killing someone is eating away at me. While it's on the back burner for now, the direction I want to go is bothering me. In your opinion, should I take on writing both ways and let the fallout land where it wants to go? Or might I choose only one and do the same? I think I know the answer, but another opinion wouldn't hurt.
I finally got your substack links straightened out. As mentioned, it was not your links, but a VPN problem.
Peter, take it a stage at a time. Try not to think about the story at all as you're making a conscious-mind editing pass, correcting the quotation mark issue. Finish that first so you have a cleanmss to look at.
Re the dilemma, Tiffanie (see her reply) is largely right.
If the "direction I want to go" is what your characters want to do, go with it. If it's what YOU want to do, follow what the characters want to do.
In other words, write the story as it unfolds, not as you would like it to unfold or as you expect it to unfold. Allow it to be their authentic story. When you do that, the pressure is off because you have no decisions to make. You don't decide WHAT is presented on the page, only HOW it is presented.
He's going to say that it goes the direction the characters take it...
I think by the time you have read all the way back through it, it will be fairly natural to you by then and just continue as an extension. The waffling right now, is because the characters are sitting in the "green room" waiting for their turn on stage, to see if the director is going to try to change the script.
Just my thoughts.
Tiffanie, you were pretty close, actually.
Tiffanie, you're absolutely right about the "green room" waitlist. I should have put it down on the screen before departing to edit #1. At the time I thought it was a great place to halt since I would be raring to go at it when I returned. Most likely it still is. Since it's a trilogy, I want them all to look the same, thus the formatting break. Now, it may be a four-parter, not that there's anything wrong with that, either, if I can locate a place to split book #1.
I shall no doubt return with refreshed energy to get the job done on #3 (or 4), if all goes as I hope with #1.
Thanks.
I had this experience with one of mine years back. It ended up over 200K in length. I did exactly as Harvey suggested - I read through it and found 3 natural break points. Imagine my surprise when those break points resulted in 4 roughly-50K novels. I was surprised they were close together in length and loved it. Instead of a single HUGE novel, I ended up with a quadrilogy. Worked out well.
Thanks, Dawn, for the endorsment.
And I thank you both for your responses.