Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Writing To Size
Sometimes I have to write something that is “to size” meaning that the story has to fit within a certain word count. In particular this comes up with the short erotic stories that Ellora’s Cave calls “quickies”. These have to be between 10 to 15 thousand words, or 10 to 12 thousand if it is for one of the Cavemen anthologies. Within that word count you must introduce the characters and show them falling in love, all through the use of lots and lots of hot sex. Challenging but fun to do.
Some people are pretty good at it, some find it very difficult to do. I find all the sex exhausting to write as Rachelle pointed out in her post last Friday, but I do like the short form in that I can stay focused on the basic relationship story I want to tell. I don’t get real repetitive…no point in repeating information that was only a couple pages away and I don’t have the word count for it anyway. Every word is golden…you don’t want extras so you write tight.
And there is a lot of sex to put in.
So I’ve got one quickie that I’m finishing up for the Wild Winter series that is due to my editor on Friday. Also on Friday I have a release – Ellora’s Cavemen: Dreams Of The Oasis III with my short story Pleasure Maid is coming out in ebook and print format. That’s about this woman who wakes up in the garden of a young man being held prisoner. She has no memory of why she is there but Dina and Gal manage to find ways to fill their time. Within 12 thousand words.
Anyone else want to talk about writing to size?
Some people are pretty good at it, some find it very difficult to do. I find all the sex exhausting to write as Rachelle pointed out in her post last Friday, but I do like the short form in that I can stay focused on the basic relationship story I want to tell. I don’t get real repetitive…no point in repeating information that was only a couple pages away and I don’t have the word count for it anyway. Every word is golden…you don’t want extras so you write tight.
And there is a lot of sex to put in.
So I’ve got one quickie that I’m finishing up for the Wild Winter series that is due to my editor on Friday. Also on Friday I have a release – Ellora’s Cavemen: Dreams Of The Oasis III with my short story Pleasure Maid is coming out in ebook and print format. That’s about this woman who wakes up in the garden of a young man being held prisoner. She has no memory of why she is there but Dina and Gal manage to find ways to fill their time. Within 12 thousand words.
Anyone else want to talk about writing to size?
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I, too, like the short form. Not only is there no room for repetition, it's so short that by the time you start to get tired of the story, you're done! LOL
BTW -- Pleasure Maid sounds like a fun story, Janet. :-)
BTW -- Pleasure Maid sounds like a fun story, Janet. :-)
I love writing to size, no matter what the size is. I tend to be a panster and go into a story with very little idea of what it's going to be about. Word count helps me organize my plot, sex scenes etc. as I know, somehow, what a particular length needs as I'm writing it. And no, I haven't got a clue HOW I know, it just seems to work...hopefully!
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