Distracting myself from my dilemma. Thank you to those who've already responded and I'll respond individually shortly.
So yeah, distracting ... been writing. I am now almost done with Chapter Twelve of my book (no edits except minor things I catch when I go back to reread something) - that's 19,327 words (which isn't TOO much). I'm not even halfway
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Comments 18
3) I usually have a title at the end of the book.
4) Your cast size will fit your book. There are books with groups of one and there are others who have a million. Don't over analyze it. Just write the story as it needs to be told!
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Phew! I got my last title so fast, I was starting to worry (:
Yeah I have a bad habit of over analyzing everything in my writing. HAHA. It's why I never get anywhere (: I am my own worst critic.
P.S. I LOVE THAT ICON! Hahahaha.
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lol no don't worry!
Write first. Edit later. ;)
Thanks. :)
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2. The main benefit of saving chapter-by-chapter is that each file takes up less space on your computer, and therefore doesn't take as much time to save. Also, if one chapter becomes corrupted, the others are safe.
3. I've come up with titles before I start writing. I've come up with titles on the fifth revision. Don't sweat the title. Here, have a blog post about it.
4. Don't introduce important characters after the halfway point. Don't add characters just to pad out a cast. Give everyone something important to do. Most novels have at least 7 named characters, but there's no hard and fast rule. I have a blog post about that, too.
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Yeah, I personally DO like having it all in one document, but only because of my psycho 'editing' desires. At least once a week I go back to the beginning and read the whole thing through, fixing/adding/deleting/editing as I go along lol ... I'm bad, I KNOW (: But the ONE document helps this greatly.
Great blog posts on BOTH topics, but I totally resonated with your 'characters' one. One of my old favorite authors used to have 2-3 main characters ...but as the series progressed so did the number of main characters showing up in her chapters and it got to a point when there were 10 people all acting/reacting/talking in this ONE chapter and it was driving me insane keeping up. Sorry, but in my book that is too much (in one chapter alone ( ... )
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LJ has been marking posts as suspicious if they have links in them. While it is true that spammers almost always post links, it makes it difficult for those of us who like to share posts in our comments.
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I tend to, like you, keep all my chapters in one document, but i've found that with long stories it's harder to go back for referencing. So for long stories i do it chapter by chapter to stop the endless scrolling syndrome lol. Additional to this i keep a character document, that lists all the characters used, who they are, relationship to the story and to other characters. And a short bio and description of what they look like. This is helpful to keep characters consistent and give you a firm idea of them as a 'person'. I also keep a timeline doc. To help me keep track of time in the story. And also a small doc. About environments used, to give me a clear picture of each setting used.
Lastly i use a brief outline of how i want to story to be set out, so i get the idea of what happens in each chapter, what ( ... )
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I was just more curious how other folks did it.
Yeah, I agree on the characters comment; they do come around when I need them (:
I used to keep a 'character' sheet on my characters, but then I would lose them and that would just drive me nuts. Since I go back and read over it so often, the stuff kind of sticks now LOL.
This did help, THANK YOU!
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SO I am trying to train my brain to write, even when all is well. It's hard!
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As for titles, I'm never really happy with any of mine.
As for characters, I reckon three main ones is probably about right, actually. I don't think that extra supporting/secondary characters cause problems, though. The main thing, I suppose, is for the reader to be able to keep track, really.
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I actually liked the title of my last book, but didn't like the book so much (probably why I never went back to really edit it) ... but now I really like this book, but can't think of a title. Go figure (:
Yeah ... I get so bogged down when there are too many characters, especially simultaneously in one chapter (like one of my old favorite authors ... she started out with 3ish main characters and it turned into an orgy-no joke-of like 20 people talking / acting in one chapter ... kind of gave up on her).
Thanks for your thoughts!
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