Sorry about the double-post, but it has been 6 days since the last post in this thread.

I have another question.

I was wondering how to decide on dividing up a story. I'm not sure whether to make my story one big book, divided up into parts (like War and Peace), or to make it a book series.

The story follows one big basic storyline, but is also divided up into separate adventures throughout. So, in a way, it has an overall plot; and in another way, it's a bit episodic. I've seen bookseries that are like that, where each adventure is in a separate book but the series follows an overall idea. But I've also seen the same in single novels, where the whole story is contained in one book, and each part or volume of the book contains a separate adventure or unique problem to solve.

My personal preference would be to contain it in one big book. But since my characters move from place to place a lot, and have to solve different, separate problems in each place, I'm not sure if placing it all in one big novel would be an acceptable format.

Which one is best? Which seems less choppy and would be considered well-put together by readers and publishers?

~Riella

Something that will help you decide if a break is worth is would be if there is enough of each part to constitute a 'complete story'. Not everything has to be wrapped up but enough to allow readers to 'set it down'. Lord of the Rings was originally written as one monster book, which publishers forced Tolkien to split into three volumes. But back in the 50's printing costs were much higher than they are now, and it was an excellent marketing tactics. The crowds that waited in line for Return of the King were just like those waiting for the movies and for Harry Potter.

If it's clear you are doing a series, it may not be a bad idea to split it up and have the break points be when side tasks are done. But you can still write it as one giant volume and split it later. I hope that helps.

I have another question, and so I think I'll dust off this thread after it's long nap on the bookshelf.

Recently, I've been working on a book that deals with Pre-crime Discipline. It wasn't until tonight that I heard about The Minority Report, and that it also deals with Pre-Crime. And I wanted to know, does this mean that Pre-crime isn't something I can use in my own book? Would it be considered a form of plagiarism (even though I wasn't intentionally copying it)? Or can many stories deal with the idea of Pre-crime measures, as long as the stories themselves are different or have a different angle?

(Other than Pre-Crime being an issue in the story, my book has very little else in common with the Minority Report.)

~Riella

There are several 'pre-crime' stories out there. There is a new show called "Person of Interest" on CBS that is about this as well. The concept cannot be plagiarized but how it is portrayed can be. There are so many stories out there that are the exact same in concept but portrayed in a different light. My book is very similar to Frank Peretti's, This Present Darkness. It's about spiritual warfare and both of us have battles against the forces of darkness. However, how I display the battles is very different from how Peretti displays his. We have very unique plotlines.

I think you are fine. Pre-crime would be considered a sub-genre of a crime-drama thriller.

Ok, I'm writing a novel about the deep, dark stuff in life. People make very big mistakes and do terrible things. And I have two issues right now:

1. How much do readers need to know? This is a very mature content book, for late teens and adults. So...how much is too much? Where do you cross the line of your story and need to leave stuff to the imagination? PM me on this one if you need to.

2. Secondly, how do I make my writing style more mature? I'm used to writing kids books and it sounds dumb writing in a baby-ish style about such deep, adult stuff.

Thanks.

How much do readers need to know? This is a very mature content book, for late teens and adults. So...how much is too much? Where do you cross the line of your story and need to leave stuff to the imagination?

A lot of this depends on your targeted audience. And I don't mean age group. Were you thinking of Christian literature? Secular? In some circles, it doesn't matter how bad the content is. There are some very X-rated novels out there. So it kind of depends on what you're going for.

~Riella

Well, not Christian per se, but it needs to be a clean book, not a pornographic novel.

Well then put in as much as you are comfortable writing. Personally, I wouldn't be writing anywhere close to pornographic novels because I have no experience with what they describe, therefore I wouldn't be able to write it. (Not that I would, but this is the same reason why I haven't written romance in general.)

As for writing in a more mature style, that's more difficult. Usually such a style develops from having more life experience. Short of waiting several years to write the novel, I'd suggest you read some novels with the mature style and perhaps content you wish your novel to contain. That will give you a feel for the language/style. And there's always editing to change it later if your writing is too kid-ish.

On another note, today marked the beginning of the Nwebber NaNoers feature on my blog. Head on over to read Bookwyrm's interview! http://annamittower.blogspot.com/2012/01/interview-1-bookwyrm.html

Edit: Interview #2, MoonlightDancer, is now up on my blog! http://annamittower.blogspot.com/2012/01/interview-2-moonlightdancer.html

Lucy of Narnia: Well, when writing about 'dark stuff', you have to keep in mind that unless the book is targeted at Christians, most of them have already read something worse. You can leave a lot to imagination and let them fill it in. The more important thing I would suggest, is to ensure that your audience realizes that you're portraying this stuff as wrong. I think you'll find that in some scenes (say at the beginning of the book), you can fade out a lot, but at the end, readers may need more details.

And question 2: I think a lot about a person's style will vary depending on what they write. Try writing a more mature short peice and see how much your style changes--I don't think it will be as much of a problem as you think. As as Menelve said, there's always the beautiful edit option.

Hope your work goes well!

Like Lucy of Narnia my book is aimed at Teen to Adult.
My main Character is a very flawed and messed up person.
I also wonder how far do I go in describing what he has done.
But I feel it's important to explain what he has done in his past and how that makes him who he is during the story and shows how he is changed and redeemed later on.

Also I have another question:

I was thinking it over the other day.
In my story each of my characters are hiding some fact, or won't say much about themselves or their past.
And as the story goes along, you find out about their pasts and how they came to all be in the same place when they met.
So my question is: Would it be to choppy to Have a whole chapter dedicated to each characters backstory?
Or should I write it as if the character was telling them at the current part of the story?
I'm not sure if I'm wording this right?

I started a blog a few weeks ago. I figured it might be a good thing to do considering I'm a Journalism major. Anyway, it only has two posts so far, I need to start working on another one. If you want to check it out, here you go.

Through My Eyes

7chronicles:

Just make sure however you do it, it isn't an info dump. It'd probably work out well with the different bits strung out over the story as the character(s) starts trusting the others enough to tell them. Personally, I'd stick to the character telling others in the present flow of the story, but it really depends on your story and narrative style.

One question to think about is whether you want the reader to find out before or at the same time as the characters. If before, then you could employ short flashbacks (please no chapter long flashbacks because they get boring fast) or dream sequences involving scenes from the past.

Pick a style and go for it, you can change it later if you want, but the important part is writing down the complete draft.

narnian at heart, good luck on your blog! What purpose are you trying to accomplish with the blog? If you haven't figured that out, then the blog will be a huge drain on you. Target the blog and it goes smoother.

Interviewee #3, Narnia_fan12, is up on my blog! http://annamittower.blogspot.com/2012/01/interview-3-narniafan12.html

Edit: Interviewee #4, The Jedi Clone, is up on my blog!
http://annamittower.blogspot.com/2012/01/interview-4-jedi-clone.html

~Anna

All right, now I've got a question. It's about chapters, or more specifically, chapter length.

I know, I know...it varies by novel/author preference. But really, professionally, isn't there some kind of industry standard? Say if you were sending in to a publishing agency which asked for your first three chapters...how much are they really asking for? Just how long should an average chapter be?

And I have a second question, about Christian fiction. I'm looking for a place to post bible-based stories (like retellings of events in the bible). I know the best place would be Fanfiction.net, but I hate to refer to bible-based work as 'fanfiction' (since the Bible ain't fiction). Does anyone know of another place like that to post Christian fiction online?

narnian at heart, good luck on your blog! What purpose are you trying to accomplish with the blog? If you haven't figured that out, then the blog will be a huge drain on you. Target the blog and it goes smoother.

Hmm, purpose. There's not a real purpose: like I'm not trying to spread the news about something or work to effect a certain change or anything. Basically, it's just a place to help me get used to writing more regularly and, if I write anything good, a place to refer people to when I'm telling about what I do. It's just for my thoughts and experiences. I'll probably post some of my photography at some point, too.

ChristProclaimer, I'm no expert, but if you look at Chapter 11 of Through the Looking Glass, it appears there is no real standard of length. The chapter is only 8 words long.

One thing I'm not sure on is varying chapters within the same book. Does anyone know about that? I've often wondered if it would be acceptable to have some chapters that were ridiculously long and others that were ridiculously short, or if publishers want them to be somewhat uniform.

Also, when you're writing a book series, and so far all the books have had the same amount of chapters... would it be acceptable to release the next book in the series with a different amount of chapters?

~Riella