TOO BIG!
So, one of the perks of switching to THE TRIAD SOCIETY is that it will be a smaller story than THE SEVENTH SACRIFICE (that was budgeted for 250k words). A smaller story would increase my chances of publication, which is becoming more of a priority if I ever want any of these other stories to get a chance. The market has gotten so fickle (150k is not overly large for a fantasy!!!!! That used to be SMALL!!!! [/rant]).
So, all well and good except that I'm having a lot of success with THE TRIAD SOCIETY. Kilrachen is a wonderful city with a great amount of intrigue and there are just so many stories. This is going to be the best novel ever--wait, what? What's that? There are too many stories to tell? What do you mean? An epic steampunk? Who makes an epic steampunk? Epic fantasy or steampunk, take your pick. You don't get both. And we don't want both. We want a shorter novel that won't get discounted just because it has more than 100,000 words (lame standard for fantasy). So what are you saying? 200? 250? 300k words?
TRILOGY?
GODDAMMIT!!!!
No, not a trilogy! No, not a series either. One book. We're writing one book and it will be no larger than 120,000 words. ... No, I don't know how he comes to terms with the death of his brother, gets the girl, defeats the Red Sock Society, joins the Triad Society, becomes count, and becomes king all in one book. I'm only in chapter two.
Yes, that is a lot to happen. I hadn't planned it that way, it all kind of crystallized while I was writing chapter two. I'll make it fit somehow.
...no I won't. Dammit. THE TRIAD SOCIETY has grown too large for all the different plot points I was considering. I'm not even done with chapter 2 and I'm already past 5000 words. SO, without making any official announcements, I am going to shelve a lot of the plot points for later novels (THE WRENCH AND HAMMER SOCIETY and THE RED SOCK SOCIETY perhaps?) and just write a single story with this character in this setting. Still plenty of space to sort things out, but I don't want this to get so large that everyone rejects it out of hand again. I've done that already and I don't like it.
(Caveat: The word count will be the word count. Agents be damned.)
So, all well and good except that I'm having a lot of success with THE TRIAD SOCIETY. Kilrachen is a wonderful city with a great amount of intrigue and there are just so many stories. This is going to be the best novel ever--wait, what? What's that? There are too many stories to tell? What do you mean? An epic steampunk? Who makes an epic steampunk? Epic fantasy or steampunk, take your pick. You don't get both. And we don't want both. We want a shorter novel that won't get discounted just because it has more than 100,000 words (lame standard for fantasy). So what are you saying? 200? 250? 300k words?
TRILOGY?
GODDAMMIT!!!!
No, not a trilogy! No, not a series either. One book. We're writing one book and it will be no larger than 120,000 words. ... No, I don't know how he comes to terms with the death of his brother, gets the girl, defeats the Red Sock Society, joins the Triad Society, becomes count, and becomes king all in one book. I'm only in chapter two.
Yes, that is a lot to happen. I hadn't planned it that way, it all kind of crystallized while I was writing chapter two. I'll make it fit somehow.
...no I won't. Dammit. THE TRIAD SOCIETY has grown too large for all the different plot points I was considering. I'm not even done with chapter 2 and I'm already past 5000 words. SO, without making any official announcements, I am going to shelve a lot of the plot points for later novels (THE WRENCH AND HAMMER SOCIETY and THE RED SOCK SOCIETY perhaps?) and just write a single story with this character in this setting. Still plenty of space to sort things out, but I don't want this to get so large that everyone rejects it out of hand again. I've done that already and I don't like it.
(Caveat: The word count will be the word count. Agents be damned.)