There's also a Ray Bradbury chapter, I think from Something Wicked This Way Comes? It goes "And nothing else happened all that night."

I remember reading some book where the author played with the numbers of his chapters, so there was 8 and 8.5 etc. and he skipped 13 altogether. But that's probably more linked with how he was telling the story than any standard.

Really, I wouldn't care too much about how long a chapter was as long as there were little breaks between scenes so I could breath/close the book if necessary every so often.

As for having books with the same number of chapters... well, the only ones I can think of like that are syndicated series' with 20+ books. Probably most people wouldn't think to notice. A story is as long as a story is long.

ChristProclaimer, I recently read a literary agency's site and they said 3 chapters was approximately 50 pages in their view.

Ithil, I think you can get away with anything for chapter length but I think it'd be a good idea for most of the chapters to be about the same length (to keep a steady pace).

Edit: Interviewee #5, AJAiken, is up! http://annamittower.blogspot.com/2012/01/interview-5-ajaiken.html

Edit 2: Interviewee #6, Queen Susan, is up! http://annamittower.blogspot.com/2012/01/interview-6-queen-susan.html

~Anna

Hi everybody!

I don't exactly consider myself a writer, alot of the stories I have are in my head, and what little I do have written down is written in script-type form.

Well, I was looking around in the NaNoWriMo thread and I'm intrigued, but I have a zillion questions for you guys:

1. I see people are listed as "winners". Can there be more than one?

2. What makes you win, and what happens once you win?

3. Do you have to send your story into someone to actually read? (yikes ) Do they judge it to see if you win?

4. I see you guys get your books published. Does NaNoWriMo do that for you if you win? Do you need to pay $$$?

5. What do you guys do while waiting for November to roll around?!?!

That's it for now, I think.

Thanks!

1. Everyone wins as long as they get their minimum of 50,000 words.

2. You get some icons and you feel proud of yourself that you accomplished it, basically.

3. Nobody reads it. It's just a word count thing; you submit your novel (you can scramble it first) and then the site word counts it.

4. It definitely doesn't do it for everyone that wins, but I think there might be something you can buy, or...anyone?

5. Hm. Well, there's Script Frenzy in April, where you write a 100 page screenplay, comic book, etc. By the same people as National Novel Writing Month. http://scriptfrenzy.org/

Sorry I haven't been in here in awhile!
First off, I wanted to say... Menelve, I'm loving these interviews! Thanks for doing it, and sharing them!

Next order of business:
Welcome to the thread, AslansChild!

I don't exactly consider myself a writer, alot of the stories I have are in my head, and what little I do have written down is written in script-type form.

That sort of counts, in my book! I'd be willing to bet that most of us started out that way! And at any rate, even if you aren't a writer yet... you still could be. You're already a storyteller! (even if they're not all written down)

5. What do you guys do while waiting for November to roll around?!?!

Well, I don't do NaNo like the rest. But, I'd guess that they do Screnzy in April, and just write for fun on their own the rest of the year.

.............
I'm still slowly and surely working on my stuff... though I've hit a bit of a block with most of them. Would it be silly to ask if you guys would pray for words to start flowing again? I miss my characters.

I just wrote a death scene that I'd been putting off for weeks. Two of my most likable characters have bitten the dust. It's really depressing. Of course, I wound up having to edit their conversation, because dying men can't talk that long. But it actually turned out better than the original.

Glad you're liking them PA!

Aslan's Child,

4. NaNoWriMo offers prizes to winners and one of the prizes is a deal for printing your books through Createspace. This year it was just a discount, but if you want to see your book in print it's a nice deal. And Createspace is technically a POD (print on demand) site so it's not a publishing company.

Now you may have seen the published writers page on the NaNoWriMo site, but that's referring to people who write the initial draft of their novel during NaNoWriMo, fixed/edited it, and then sent it in to a traditional publishing company. Or they self-published it, which requires a lot more than just printing it through Createspace.

5. There's Screnzy in April, and then Camp NaNoWriMo in June and August (don't know why they're doing it in June when they did it July last year. *shrugs* ). Other than that, there's tons of writing events out there. There's a NaNoWriMo for every month of the year though they aren't sponsored by the official NaNoWriMo people.

Personally, I write during NaNo and then edit and gather info the rest of the year. I'm a burst writer which means I don't do well when trying to write steadily for a certain amount time. I write furiously until my WIP is done, and then I sit back and relax until the next burst/WIP comes along.

~Anna

What? There was a deal for printing your novel?? Is it still on??? XD

If you won, then go to the winner's goodies page. The code for it will be on that page. The caveat is that you have to order a proof copy first (unless you've ordered one before) and you have to pay for shipping. The deal is for 5 free printed copies of your book. And you have until the end of June to use it.

~Anna

If you won, then go to the winner's goodies page. The code for it will be on that page. The caveat is that you have to order a proof copy first (unless you've ordered one before) and you have to pay for shipping. The deal is for 5 free printed copies of your book. And you have until the end of June to use it.

Wasn't there a catch, though, that you had to self-publish? And if you self-publish, you can never get it published in a publishing house, or something along those lines?

~Riella

I just wrote a death scene that I'd been putting off for weeks. Two of my most likable characters have bitten the dust. It's really depressing.

I understand something of how you feel. The main thrust of my NaNo this year was the death of a character; I've never killed a main character before and wanted to broaden my horizons. But (believe it or not) it was harder than I expected, and the story really isn't finished yet. I also want to further explore the effect of this loss on the dying character's family - but that may turn out to be another story entirely...maybe even part of the next NaNo.

Wasn't there a catch, though, that you had to self-publish? And if you self-publish, you can never get it published in a publishing house, or something along those lines?

Well, yes, it does equal self-publishing. However, I know one person queried a publishing company about only printing 5 copies for themselves and the company said it didn't matter. As long as you don't select any distribution options for it. But even then, you'll have it registered to a Createspace ISBN which technically means they are the publishers.

My solution is that I'm going to use the code for something I won't ever publish or for first drafts which will be heavily edited.

Edit: Interviewee #7: Winterlife on the blog! http://annamittower.blogspot.com/2012/01/interview-7-winterlife.html

Edit 2: Interviewee #8: daughter of the King now up! http://annamittower.blogspot.com/2012/01/interview-8-daughter-of-king.html

Edit 3: Interviewee #9: Ithilwen now up! http://annamittower.blogspot.com/2012/01/interview-9-ithilwen.html

~Anna

I've enjoyed reading your interviews, Menelve. I'm enjoying hearing my fellow Narniaweb/Nano members talk about themselves--a really good idea on your part.

If 3 chapters equals 50 pages, I'm afraid my chapters are a wee bit (okay, more than a wee bit) short. I don't think I'll worry about it too much, though, as long as each chapter has a coherent purpose in the story. They're mostly around the same length.

I have never found that writing death scenes makes me emotional. Maybe that means I don't write them well. But I've never cried over my own character's death.

The insufferable question of publishing continues to plague me. I don't know what to do about it, or if I should publish at all. I'm going to post the first chapter of my novel over on my blog pretty soon...would anyone here be interested in reading it when I do and then telling me what they think? I need fresh opinions.

If 3 chapters equals 50 pages, I'm afraid my chapters are a wee bit (okay, more than a wee bit) short.

Frankly, I think the idea of three chapters equaling 50 pages is insane. If that were the case, most of the classic authors would never have been published. Let's take a look --

Chapter 3 of Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe ends on page 34.
Chapter 3 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice ends on page 15.
Chapter 3 of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre ends on page 33.
Chapter 3 of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women ends on page 33.
Chapter 3 of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities ends on page 13.
Chapter 3 of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace ends on page 13.
Chapter 3 of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment ends on page 41.
Chapter 3 of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird ends on page 32.
Chapter 3 of George Orwell's 1984 ends on page 34.
Chapter 3 of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein ends on page 44.
Chapter 3 of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days ends on page 13.
Chapter 3 of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings ends on page 83.

So, out of twelve classic authors, only one of them made it past the 50-page mark at the end of their third chapter -- and that was Tolkien, who (though much loved) is known for being a bit too long winded in his writings. And his page count also includes the pages of his fairly long prelude at the beginning, before the story even starts.

The average of all the page counts of the above authors is 32.3.

In other words, if "3 chapters = 50 pages" is the standard for that publishing company, that publishing company isn't exactly being fair.

Also, what size font do they want for it to equal 50 pages? I can take a passage I wrote, set the font size at Size 10, and it fills only half of one page. I can take that same passage, set it on Size 28, and it fills ten pages.

I have never found that writing death scenes makes me emotional. Maybe that means I don't write them well. But I've never cried over my own character's death.

I don't cry over my characters' deaths either. I think there are a lot of other authors out there who feel the same way. I was actually quite surprised when I found out there were people who got upset after killing one of their own characters.

For me, writing a book is much different than reading one. I get sad when I read a character's death, because I'm very much inside the story -- I forget it's a story, and it feels real. And there's nothing I can do to stop them from dying.

But writing a book is quite different. No matter how interested you are in your own book, it's hard to completely forget it's a story when you're the one putting the words down on the page and deciding what's going to happen next. Plus, you're in charge. The characters aren't really dead for you. If you want them alive again, all you have to do is write them back into the story and erase what you wrote before. It's a completely different situation; and, I think, has little to do with actual talent or the quality of the scene.

~Riella

Been quite busy the last few weeks so I haven't been posting.

RE: Chapter lengths.

There really is no guideline for how to do chapters, but as long as you are relatively consistent. The key thing about a chapter is that it needs to contain a complete scene (like in a movie). Don't cut off a chapter in the middle of a scene (unless there is a intentional reason to do so). Tolkien has a 40 page chapter in Fellowship of the Ring (Counsel of Elrond). It would not make sense to break it up because there is no break point in it. On the other hand, Steinbeck in Grapes of Wrath has chapters two pages long and other chapters 20 pages long. So don't judge chapter length by page count but by scenes. If you have a very long scene (such as an epic battle like Minas Tirith), then it might be an idea to break it up into two or three chapters, but make the breaks at appropriate points in the scene.

RE: Character Death Scenes

I have several characters die in my works. I have never cried over any of them, but I know some of my readers have. There are times where I really wanted to keep a character alive because I fell in love with him but the story necessitated it. I have a character die in my first book that I would love to see in action in the second but I ended up have another character that lived through the first story 'replace' the one that died in a greater way. It's quite an adventure. But one thing I do suggest. Don't kill a character for the purpose of make it 'seem real'. When a character dies there needs to be a reason in the story for it.

And on a complete separate note, El Paso has just started a new Christian Writer's Group that I attended yesterday. From those present, I was the furthest along in the dream to get published, but it seems to be a good group that seeks to grow and have an impact. When my schedule this semester settles down (start student teaching and taking three on-line classes while moving a mobile home onto a now previously undeveloped property) and I know what kind of time I need for that, then I can see how much I can commit to the group. It's so hard to be involved in so much, but God has plans for it all.