- Joined
- Nov 9, 2017
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I'm writing a literary novel that is part dystopia, part historical.
In simple terms, my plot follows a 20 year old, who goes back into Nazi Germany for 10 years, and then travels back ten years after his first disappearance, where he is now thirty.
The dystopian elements are set in a decaying Germany that is post-European Union, while the historical elements are World War II, and the years after the Great Depression (spanning 8 years). My novel is essentially, three books in one: Germany's identity crisis (15,000 words), Germany under Nazism / WWII (65,000 words), and Germany's future embrace of totalitarianism (40,000 words). My MC experiences all three of these periods. I'm writing with a strict ouline, have scenes planned, and written the first 'book' which is around 11,000 words. (underwriter!)
Originally, my aim was a word count of 120,000 words for trade publishing. It'll probably be a few thousand under. But I look at novels like Wolf Hall, The Kindly Ones, All The Light We Cannot See, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel, and plenty of historical, or inspired-by-history fiction, and I believe that my worldbuilding is insufficent. Readers like detail and worldbuilding, and I'm afriad that I'm thinning out on it.
But I'm also worried about inflation. If my novel is too long, and as a debut author, that makes querying already more difficult.
Any tips on how to incorporate worldbuilding without inflating the word count? Remember: I need to recreate Nazi Germany, and create two worlds: Germany under totalitarianism, and under economic ruin. So I'm building 3 connected worlds, and they must seem believable.
In simple terms, my plot follows a 20 year old, who goes back into Nazi Germany for 10 years, and then travels back ten years after his first disappearance, where he is now thirty.
The dystopian elements are set in a decaying Germany that is post-European Union, while the historical elements are World War II, and the years after the Great Depression (spanning 8 years). My novel is essentially, three books in one: Germany's identity crisis (15,000 words), Germany under Nazism / WWII (65,000 words), and Germany's future embrace of totalitarianism (40,000 words). My MC experiences all three of these periods. I'm writing with a strict ouline, have scenes planned, and written the first 'book' which is around 11,000 words. (underwriter!)
Originally, my aim was a word count of 120,000 words for trade publishing. It'll probably be a few thousand under. But I look at novels like Wolf Hall, The Kindly Ones, All The Light We Cannot See, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel, and plenty of historical, or inspired-by-history fiction, and I believe that my worldbuilding is insufficent. Readers like detail and worldbuilding, and I'm afriad that I'm thinning out on it.
But I'm also worried about inflation. If my novel is too long, and as a debut author, that makes querying already more difficult.
Any tips on how to incorporate worldbuilding without inflating the word count? Remember: I need to recreate Nazi Germany, and create two worlds: Germany under totalitarianism, and under economic ruin. So I'm building 3 connected worlds, and they must seem believable.