SmokeAndOranges
Hi friends! Did you know it's possible to predict the final size of your book before you've even started writing? If not, I've got a blog post for you. The timing is (of course) in honor of Wattpad's Open Novella Contest, which just launched on February 1st. This post formalizes a long-standing theory of mine that was originally inspired by the ONC's comorbid plague of novelitis, which provided fertile grounds for the study of what books outgrew their wordcount limits, and why. It's since been field-tested by authors and editors alike, and continues to hold.
https://www.abchanning.com/how-to-predict-book-size/
Apologies in advance to anyone whose ONC plans, plots, or aspirations get thrown awry by reading this. It's not just you! I promise xD
SmokeAndOranges
@AmariOkito You are very welcome! I've done the same xD One of the novel-plot examples I gave in the post was sneakily from an ONC dropout of mine. I can't even count the number of times this theory has saved my a$$ since I came up with it, so I can see why and how so many people have to bail on the ONC because their stories outgrew the contest. Sometimes it's even certain prompts themselves that are impossible to make novella-sized, but people who fall in love with them don't realize upfront exactly what they're getting themselves into. So I hope this helps at least a few people. In my own experience, once you start to see book sizing issues, you start to see them everywhere!
•
Reply
AmariOkito
@SmokeAndOranges This theory seems pretty accurate. I've often given up on the ONC because the development needed for the story to be viable exceeded the word count. Thank you for this, it's very insightful.
•
Reply