The Only Way To Begin Is By Beginning

Back To Basics

When I was writing my initial story making it longer seemed easy. I had so many ideas in my head that I’d almost hit the 7500-word limit by the time my heroes had encountered their first challenge. I ended up producing a cut down version of this story, so that I could at least have the misfits overcome a challenge before I hit the cutoff for length in our class anthology. However, when I got back to the longer version reality hit.

The average length of a novel is 80,000 – 100,000 words. I currently have around 15,000. This means I need to write the same amount another four or five times. Somehow, while I knew a novel was long, I hadn’t really felt the reality of it when I was flying through my short story with ideas galore.

My workbook is packed with information, my index card box is overflowing and yet even stretching out what I have, I estimate reaching the top end of novella count; which is around 17,500 – 40,000 words. That’s half a novel at best.

Now, at this point, I could just aim for novella. I could call it an introduction. A short and sweet story which basically just tells how the misfits were formed and overcame their first quest. However, this also feels like a cop out. I set myself the goal of writing a novel and while I am 100% confident I could produce a strong novella, I fear that if I do, then I’ll just close the chapter and never write that novel. The thought of finishing this story but then having to start from nothing to write a novel makes me panic even more.

So, I am doing a complete overhaul of the temple section of my story. I spoke previously about doing a “mini extra story” for the temple but realised this will actually be my story. The 15,000 or so words I have currently is essentially an introduction to how the misfits were formed and the quest they are about to embark upon. This is only a quarter of the novel at best, meaning the bulk of the narrative is to take place during the quest. My half a dozen vague ideas aren’t going to cut it any more.

So, I’m going back to the beginning and doing some more mind maps to work out different fantasy tropes I can include, and poke fun at, in my story. I need to begin again and, as Sam Reich says, “the only way to begin is by beginning.” So here we go. Round two of story planning begins.