tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3798129571242557592.post6890822635890630835..comments2023-10-17T03:57:52.371-05:00Comments on In the words of Tom: How much is enough?Tom Doolanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03451129317759266295noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3798129571242557592.post-52666323074940290132011-05-31T16:50:47.473-05:002011-05-31T16:50:47.473-05:00I think novella length works very well for these k...I think novella length works very well for these kinds of stories. Somewhere around 60 to 65 thousand words seems just right for me for a sword and sorcery or sword and planet novel. I'm excited about this project. Sounds like what I like to read.Charles Gramlichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02052592247572253641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3798129571242557592.post-52575620553678193682011-05-31T11:07:37.928-05:002011-05-31T11:07:37.928-05:00I think you're absolutely right about the padd...I think you're absolutely right about the padding. Another thing I have seen with that is that the padding consists mainly of internal conflict and the resultant exposition. While this is all fine and dandy, and really makes a good story even better in most cases, I feel that it slides a S&S story out into a more literary vein.<br /><br />That may seem like a backhanded insult to the S&S genre, but it's not intended to. IMHO, "traditional" S&S is more about external conflict. It's about what the character does, rather than how he feels about it. And sometimes, that's just what I want to read.Tom Doolanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03451129317759266295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3798129571242557592.post-91936494587406853372011-05-31T10:41:48.132-05:002011-05-31T10:41:48.132-05:00I've argued (or, maybe just hoped) that e-publ...I've argued (or, maybe just hoped) that e-publishing will allow stories to fall into their natural wordcounts. S-&-S seems to fit its roots better, the shorter novels and novellas.<br /><br />There is certainly a great gulf when "official" novel definitions are 45-50K words, yet no publisher wants to look at a novel under 85K. (at least, in the current print world)<br /><br />I think one thing hindering true S-&-S is constant padding and tangents to make a larger wordcount which, in most cases, makes the story weaker and pulls it from S-&-S into a dungeon crawl in novel form.<br /><br />I know John Maddox Roberts specifically mentioned this, and in at least one of his Conan pastiches, you can clearly see the forced tangent. He didn't want to write it any more than I wanted to read it. But, when in Rome...Paul R. McNameehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13498380385001618758noreply@blogger.com