[Baudinsballs]

Currently writing my second book onto the computer and am only 58'200
words in. Trouble is I've reached the end of my plot. I don't know what to do.
My current options are thus.

1 Panic
2 panic
3 dump all I've written of book two into book one making the manuscript 160'000 words long.

[Yellow]

Well, there's the old adage about the thing being as long as it is and there's not much you can do about it.

I don't know about your wip or what genre it is, but yeah 58k is very short for most adult fantasy these days (even 160k is respectably trim for epic fantasy). Would dropping your second book in there actually work, or would it make it feel like you sellotaped two short books together?

My advice would be to flesh out what you have. More aspects to the plot, maybe. Either that, or finish your series as it is, and all the while think about the next one you're going to write.

[nacht]

Philosophize. Read TTH for inspiration. I think even Kallor starts doing it.

[Baudinsballs]

It's adult fantasy through and through.

I might finish the book as it is then go back and look at it later.
Dunno yet.

I'm splicing it together now to see how it reads, might just end up being a duology instead of a trilogy.

[Fist Gamet]

Are there any characters you can develop and use to bring a whole new element to your story? Is there another side to the story worth developing? It's odd but I find myself having to ruthlessly trim characters and sub-plots in order to keep the story on-track and slimline - you may well be having the opposite problem. You can flesh out the story as well with things like flashbacks to develop background and characters, or think up some scenes that can fit in here and there (so long as the further the story, of course).

Good luck

[Baudinsballs]

Fist Gamet, on 07 January 2011 - 06:23 PM, said:

Are there any characters you can develop and use to bring a whole new element to your story? Is there another side to the story worth developing? It's odd but I find myself having to ruthlessly trim characters and sub-plots in order to keep the story on-track and slimline - you may well be having the opposite problem. You can flesh out the story as well with things like flashbacks to develop background and characters, or think up some scenes that can fit in here and there (so long as the further the story, of course).

Good luck

Well the good news is that I've beefed it up to 66,666 words and can get it to 80'000 hopefully. I've added stuff too. I've brought back the Innkeepers story etc, where i tell a story from a characters just met in passing P.O.V in 1st person. This time however I have them from peoples P.O.V that have had P.O.V in the main story though i keep away from the main main characters. Added another interlude that wasn't in my 1st draft. And where before I had planned to pick up a story line in book 3 I picked it up in this one.

I have a flash back scene where one character sees a vision of certain points in history, which I had thought to turn into a section where it's told completely from the others perspective. I thought however that it might be too much considering I plan an entire section of book 3 in the past.
I might also need to expand plots. But I feel they reach natural conclusions where they do.

The whole New Empire plot line ends at page 162

Thanks. How is yours going by the way, I haven't seen you posting much. I think you're lucky that you can write such an amount that you slimline

This post has been edited by Baudinsballs: 07 January 2011 - 08:31 PM

[TheSurvivor]

I used to have that problem with writing too little but have since learned to allow my story to grow and expand instead of keeping to the plot I outlined to myself. Now I find my four book series may well become a five part series. More to the point, it is very discouraging to reach the end and discover just how short the story is. Glad you were able to work past it; good job mate.

[Fist Gamet]

I guess I would agree that if you feel you have reached natural conclusions that make sense in the story then I wouldn't want to force them to change too much. I suppose the point is that you are writing the story you want to tell and that is more important than how long it is.

For my own fantasy WIP I am up to 167,000 words and I would guess at maybe 50-60,000 more to conclude this book. My first book topped out at 225,000 words and my sci-fi WIP stands at a respectable 26,000 (though I expect this to end at around 100,000 at most). As I am doing the Open Uni Creative Writing course atm I get sidelined with short stories, character developments and poetry etc but I still write regularly. As for the trimming dowm, I have found that the editing process is quite simply the most important creative process in writing a story and that through being ruthless, I am improving all the time as a writer. Sometimes it can be difficult but it's worth it.

[Baudinsballs]

Wow. I can only have one project on the go at one time. Though I do admit to working on little side projects.
Weldone.

Have reached the 80'000 word mark, story done. I'll let someone else decide if it should be added to Book one, which would make it 180'000 words in total