Brevity

Confession:

I love words. Words are awesome. Words are cool. Words do things and go places and makes forms that are beautiful out of lines and shapes and air.

I also have a problem with going on and on with words. This is why I try setting limits for myself - like, for instance, No more than 500 words for a blog post (with which I have obviously had a little trouble!). Limitations are good: Experience has taught me that I can make a point in 1000 words or less, but I won't get to the point if I go over 1000 words. See - my last post, which was under 1000 words but only because I forgot to round out my argument properly.

This addiction to being verbose dates back to the time when, as a child, I drew a picture of a large house-castle and my teacher (who also conveniently doubled as my mom) said something along the lines of "How nice! Why don't you write a story about it, just a page long?" Little did she know! I didn't like the idea, but started - and found that in one page I had only begun. It grew to 60 pages and might've been longer if I hadn't lost interest. Therein, we all discovered that I am a Novelist. No short stories for me! They always grow!

As examples, here are project lengths (I also have trouble finishing...), word counts approximate:

An early (and horribly know-it-all-y) novel beginning, all about Wilfred the minstrel and Lady Beatrice; 5800 words

 "The Masked Actor", a fairy tale which I still like though I will discard what I've written: 16,000 words.

This is the Ultimate Old Stories Notebook. Inches thick, full of often useless stuff, and dusty!

 Within lies dormant:

The EPIC!

 

This monster, concerning a horrible British undergraduate in 1929 and his mysterious ties to another world and thereafter the looming war for control of that world, will - one day! - be finished (though I left off writing it 10 years ago). It is called "Borderland" and I finished the beginning part, at about 252,272 words. I think it'll be a trilogy.

 

Connected with this is the not-for-publication backstory "Mallox' Quest": 21,780 words.

 

 



Another old fairy tale (and my current project, which is only a couple of chapters from completion!): "Reflections" or "The Princess and the Stable boy" or something. I'm terrible at names. It's all fair maidens and knights in shining armor and dragons and curses. Lot's of fun! 223,000 words, and counting.

 



 Another work-in-progress, tentatively titled "Four Calling Birds". It is a British Victorian ghost story set at Christmas, and is considerably less Dickensian and more fantasy-based than that sounds. It started as a short story, but deserved to grow. Trying to keep it short, I have only about 50,000 words.

I started this on the computer, but I like handwriting so switched partly. It's in parts, following different characters in different parts of the world. This is an Second World War espionage fantasy thriller (I like combining genres!). "Under the Radar": 62,013 words in journal, 103,000 digital.

This is a little unusual. Of course I make notes of all sorts of things; but in these journals I record my often vivid and story-like dreams for future writing reference. 87,000 words.

 

 

Not in journals (I love journals!):

 

"The Mind of the Daleks" - a "Doctor Who" fanfic set in Albuquerque: 42,216 words.

 

"Off the Map" - another "Doctor Who fanfic, this time about a mail-order bride in the 1876 West on a train which is attacked by vampires! : 164,684 words.

 

"We Are Old" - modern YA fantasy thriller, with ancient secrets and mysterious assassins: 156,578 words.

 

And all of this does not count notes, meanderings, actual pretty-short stories, etc. I am, alas! too prolific for my own good, sometimes. There's certainly something to be said for brevity, and for finishing