I see.
To be honest, I've written a novel to a specific word count before, and yes, it did become novel-length. That's not to say it's any good (it was my first novel, long before I found AW)...
I think perhaps it's okay to aim for a word count, so long as you don't fall prey to "chapter padding". That's an error I made - "Oh, this chapter's supposed to be 4000 words, and it's only 3000 right now... I better add 1000 words!"
While it is second-hand advice (from a published author to me to you) I do think that my writing has gotten a lot better by simply trying to write only what is necessary (even if it's not specifically necessary to the plot, and is more a character-development thing - if it's necessary in one way, it goes in).
And I hear you about novels being daunting!
Do you use an outline? They've really helped me in the past.
Thanks for that.
I don't think I'm doing chapter-padding. I tend to think "Okay, so the next X amount of words will go in this chapter then I'll be at X word count and I'll start a new a chapter." However, maybe that is chapter padding.
But I usually tend to do 2000 words per chapter anyway; usually, I do end up a bit over, but it's still roughly around that. But still maybe I should stop thinking that way then; maybe that is an alternate form of chapter padding. What do you think?
I mean I think setting a certain chapter word count for me does help, but at the same time, I could be severely complicating things. I mean I am happy that this is working out, the trying to meet 2K per chapter thing, but at the same time, I don't want to really hurt my writing either. The reasons why it's working out is because I am writing more within a piece; Usually, I get to anywhere between 2K- 3K, and that's the whole story. I do want to increase the quantity of my work, but I don't want to sacrifice quality either. Hmm, now I'm worried.
I mean I have deviated from what I originally saw in my head some, but I think it would've made more sense to make that deviation than to stick with what I was originally thinking about doing.
See, I want to write what's necessary, but I don't want too little or start showing more than I tell. But at the same time, I don't want to overfill it with a bunch of random stuff either. I mean so far my characters haven't done the "go-to-bed-wake-up-it's-a-new-day" thing too much. If anything, I'm just a bit worried that one character isn't coming off as in love with another character as I want/need her to be, and some stuff like that. However, I do plan to rewrite this after I finish it, and take a small break from it.
No, I don't really use an outline; I may write down some stuff that sets the story up or some events I know will have to stay in the story. Other than that, I don't think so.
Silver-Midnight, I completely understand about writing a novel sounding as a much harder task than writing a novella. I personally think the first 20k of a novel is easy - it just flows out - but it's the middle part that's terrible, like biting through a sour apple really. Plus, when a novella you sit down and say "okay, let's write 20k". With a novel, you sit down and say "okay, let's write 80k".
I've never heard of yWriter before, but I checked it out and it looks interesting and useful. My entire room is usually filled with notes while I'm writing a novel, and I have a notebook as well, but still it could be useful to keep everything in order.
Yeah. I mean it is possible for me to write one, but I just don't know if I want to. I mean I'm well aware that I'm picking a genre that mostly has novels or novellas. However, if I'm going to write a novel, I think I should either start off with a novella, or try to write a novella and end up with a novel, which I think starts at 40K for Fantasy. But that's just me.
yWriter is a good program. I use it too. It could be another contributing factor my longer word counts now.
I don't know for sure though. Just an idea. I like it. I was going to use it for my first draft, but Word for all of the others. I felt that made a lot of sense to do.