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My internal debate, coughed up for others to see.
Fri, 09/11/2009 - 06:14 — rbackwards
Here's what I'm debating. I have a two-sided coin right now in the form of a non-sequitur memory of Deasil's that is followed by the scene that follows the end of the last chapter, and then a small cliffhanger that follows those two. I kind of want to put them out as a chapter, because I like the simple nature of the two unrelated ideas and then the third thing, but it would be the shortest chapter I've had in a while at a mere three thousand words. I think if I'm going to do that I have to move some things around and add some concentrated action at the end, but it might be worth doing. It is a bit of a turning point. Also it's more of how D's mind works. Hmm. Sometimes you write these things down and then they decide for you. I'm curious, though, about other people's takes on short chapters amidst long ones.
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Works for me
I've seen a chapter in a published work which was one whole sentence.
In context, it was perfect.
In the context of "Phantom Limb" I can't think you'll be any worse than that.
The length of a chapter
The length of a chapter doesn't concern me, only if the author has selected some random point in the progression of the story to call the end to a chapter.
A non-sequitur memory of Deasil's
What?
Sorry, I had to do that even though it cost me 10 points. Is there a rule, beyond the 1000 word minimum at SIYE, on chapter lengths? Write what you need to write to make the chapter complete. I'll read it!
Just to re-iterate . . .
. . . what I've said before, a chapter should be as long as you feel it should be. Whether it's 500 words or 15,000 words, if you feel it's right then it is.
Just save those plantings from that mad couch while you're at it, would you? They didn't deserve that fate!
I agree
. . . with everyone else. I stressed for a while about having chapters of a certain length, but then I got over it. In fact, I have an upcoming chapter that might end up very short, too.
Yes
I was a bit confused when I first started reading this...and started thinking you were having a concern about "a non-sequitur memory of Deasil's". If true, that would have been, indeed, one of the funniest things you ever wrote!
Anyway, listen to the peeps here: write what you want to/need to. Have no doubt we/I will love it. If we're still with you in this story, we're pretty well prepared for just about anything.
Well, all right then!
It'll be up in a few days. Thanks, everyone. Nice to know you have become inured to bizarre things in my story.
This structural quirk makes it possible for the following chapter (20) to live its own life. It'll need to. It's the weirdest in terms of what happened when. A long series of stories, not in chronological order, not in order of importance necessarily. Bring Tylenol.
You can do just about
You can do just about anything with this chapter. It's anything goes. I just finished a 150 page novel called The Mezzanine. The entire novel takes place in the span of a few minutes of a man going up an escalator. Great book too. I don't think there's another author out there with the guts to to do the same thing this guy (Nicolas Baker) did.
rbackwards wrote: Bring
Bring Tylenol.
And what should us Europeans bring?
Silly european people
Can't they recognize the alias for acetaminophen?
Ah! Paracetamol !
Ah! Paracetamol !
Just bring some
absinthe. Or something.
okay, I lied
This whole being-a-new-daddy thing takes a bit of time and effort, I've found. I had been chipping away at chapter 19 and then actually sat down and read it, and discovered a degree of scatterbrained that I'd never attained previously. But not in a good way. I'm doing a bit of hack-and-slash now. It will still be a short chapter but not as short. And I'm in a strange position of really wanting to get on with fleshing out the following chapter, which has an outline I love, and I really want out of this current chapter, but I'm not willing to just chop it off. To which I say, waaaaaah.
Ha!
Welcome to my brain at approximately chapter 5 of MoO2. And, for that matter, chapter 23.
And toss into that mix . . .
Mandatory extensive training, travel, legal entanglements to avoid contamination, writing technical papers, writing a technical book, actually doing your "real" job and not that other stuff which isn't actually your evaluated-on-merit job, H1N1 impacting the whole lot of everyone a few times, . . .
Yeah, it's hard to find time to write well on a long-project story. It is what it is. Take the time you need to get it the way you want it.
I think this is
why I like you guys.
Yep
I think this is why I like you guys.
This site is all about "do it right, not quick".
It does make me feel better about my glacial pace of writing, I must say ;-)