I am like, totally a fake fantasy writer.

[maderr]

Mostly cause I'm too concise.Take this latest chapter, for instance. My chapters in Bound are roughly ten pages each - in html format. Some are nine, some are 11 or 12, but the average is about ten. When I start a story, and start to get a grasp of it, I can gauge how long each chapter needs to be--this is mostly because I am weirdly anal, and I cannot take it when one chapter is three pages, another is twelve, another is one paragraph (argh, Moby Dick, I fucking hate you). It's also why I try to make certain each part contains the same number of chapters. It fucking bugs me if they do not match.

But, I can't always win.

Anyway, anyway. My point here is that I totally fail as a fantasy writer. I just wrote a battle, and I am not very good at it. Any proper fantasy writer would have made this thing at least twice as long, and included all the lovely details of war and military that I simply don't know, and can only learn so much about, war and war-thinking not really being a strong point of mine. I'm a romance writer first, not a fantasy writer, even if people try to convince me otherwise.

This is all said in amusement, mind you. I like noting differences, and I have always known I am too concise to ever be a proper fantasy writer. I wrote Lost Gods, yeah, but each of those is only a novella. Any fantasy writer would have made each book about 400 pages, and introduce a plot so complicated it makes my efforst look like fail.

But, I probably would have fucking hated that series. I like being concise.

Though, having said that, I am forced to admit that by the time I am done with it, Bound should cap at roughly 200,000 words. It'll be my longest, and likely most complicated, story to date.

Yet, I'm still too concise for proper fantasy. Hee hee.

Comments

[nikerymis.livejournal.com]

You know, it always boggles me how you manage to do that -- make each chapter approximately the same length.

(But I love how you put the same number of chapters in each section; for whatever reason that appeals to my sense of balance.)

[maderr.livejournal.com]

It's insanely fucking hard. Some chapters want to go on forever, others can't even make the bare min requirement, so I'm always fighting with them. it's something I should get over, but I get twitchy if they don't all match. I'm sure that says something about my state of mind, but we all know that state is 'wrecked' so psh.

[nikerymis.livejournal.com]

Meh, I have no complaints with it and I don't think anyone else does either. ^__^ So keep at?

[indigoraven.livejournal.com]

The huge battle that dominates the second Lord of the Rings movie... takes up maybe a chapter in the book. So... if one of the greatest fantasy writers of all time can do it, you're good to go.

[alice_montrose]

Well, I so happen to like your fantasy writing. In fact, I think it's better than some of the fantasy books that are out there, all "officially published" and whatnot.

That being said, if you want I can try giving you a hand with the battle scenes at some point. Offer some suggestions and such, which never hurt anyone. I do remember some things from my Ancient & Medieval History courses, and our prof happened to be into all that meant army and campaigning. (He made all those Roman legionary tactics actually make sense!)

[chilayse.livejournal.com]

Well proper fantasy can kiss my..er...anyway...

Maybe we should just change the rules for fantasy?

[twilight-angel.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I'm totally a fake fantasy writer, too. I just cannot fathom writing a single book that's a thousand pages long (let alone a series where all of the books are between five-hundred and a thousand pages long, thank you, Robert Jordan). But by now, I've been straying away from the really long fantasy novels. There's writing, and then sometimes there's just typing.

[ciraarana.livejournal.com]

Three cheers for concise battle scenes!! *cheers* All those lovely details of war and military? Well, in my experience, they're interesting for about 3% of the readers. The rest simply is lost and loses interest and starts skipping bits. Plus, any fantasy story that doesn't come in 29 books is more than welcome to me. :)

[broken-moons.livejournal.com]

Eh, I resent the idea that it can only be proper fantasy if it's the size of the novel that's epic, and not necessarily the contents. I like concise, and that may in part be my education's fault. I mean, if Robert Jordan could have fit the wheel of time into three books (which, after reading five of them, I'm pretty sure is possible) I might have enjoyed it.

If any scene, dialogue, battle or whatever, starts taking too long, I start skipping it. I never skip bits in your stories, because I know that everything you write down belongs in the story. I do not need to know all the pieces in our hero's armour, or the colours of the flags and how frayed the edges are, nor what every single soldier is doing throughout the battle. I have something called imagination, it can tell me those details just as easily while my eyes are busy following the essential plot.

So don't you feel bad for being concise. Maybe together we can change the genre?

[maderr.livejournal.com]

I don't feel bad. I was trying to be amusing. I think the whole thing is funny. I guess I didn't convey that properly, b/c everyone keeps trying to reassure me ^^;; I dont' read long series, typically. They get boring fast. I'm going to read sword of truth, but it'll take me forever and I already skipped a good 200 pages in the first book.

[bitchypixii.livejournal.com]

Dude. I would just like to assert how much this trend of THIRTY THOUSAND PAGES FOR EVERYTHING WRITTEN IN FANTASY EVER now annoys me. I'm one of those people for whom the writing style is almost more important than the story itself (the characters are tantamount, and honestly to me the story told is pretty much a far third-place finish in 'factors in my story enjoyment' race) and those epics? Tend to have a style which would be pretty if they would just GET ON WITH IT, instead of wasting pages on irrelevant description that I mostly skip anyway. Fantasy appeals to me more than any other genre, but I'm pretty much just reading a lot of crap online now because I don't have the money or the time to waste trying to find proper authors in fantasy who I can put up with. Mostly now I stick with authors I know I've enjoyed before and recs from friends whose book-tastes I trust. Online stuff takes two seconds to find, costs me no money (except for my internet connection, and I'm going to be paying for that anyway), can easily be discarded with no regrets if I don't like it, is easily paused, and can't distract me from other things I'm supposed to be doing if it's not pulled up in front of me. If there were better books more easily found out there (and also if I had more self-control and/or room and a little extra cash for more books) I would probably read real stuff more.

And wow, this comment turned into EPICVILLE pretty quickly itself.

[suzume-tori.livejournal.com]

The thing that you think makes you a 'fake' fantasy writer is, of course, one of the things that I love about your writing. You don't need to wade through a bunch of superfluous details to get to what is happening. You have DETAILS, just -- yeah. Epic battle scenes don't describe everyone's armor and everyone's movements ("and he blocked that with a cunning counter attack that was typical of the elvish race; he'd learned it from his father, who'd learned it from an elvish general. His speedy spear then pierced through his opponent's armour just beneath the breastplate, and the follow through as he shot him with an enourmous FIRE BALL OF DOOM was very epic, and also singed the hair at his man's greying temples") also there isn't as much of the really weird political and historical and tactical wtf plotting by random people in your stories who aren't, you know, generals or anything. (I hate when Average Guy is suddenly a tactical genius, and happens to know all of the historical facts about the relevant situation and can therefore instantly come up with a Cunning Plan.)

And of course, I'm still sick and on cold meds, so if this is completely incomprehensible, I'm sorry >< in any case, I like the way that you write, because you don't write like a military strategist, nor like someone who studied the forensic evidence and is carefully mapping out everyone's movements.

I hadn't actually noticed the super-precise chapter divisions. Therefore, however you're dividing them is good, because it reads in a natural way. (I don't get to an end of a chapter and think 'wait, why stop here? Did we use up our word rations? This is a weird place to stop'.)

Anyway, rock on :P

what? not a proper fantasy writer? who says?

[arithonrose.livejournal.com]

I am glad you are amused.

You write what you write and I for one enjoy your work.... I often re read something of yours just coz I like the stories or the characters or the world

I am doing a writing course at the moment I find it interesting that we study genres and there are certain rules etc...why do I have to categorise my writing? why does it have to go in a particular slot?

anyway romance writer or fake fantasy writer I think you rock
this fan says great work and thank you

S

[destinee-carols.livejournal.com]

Ha ha, not a proper fantasy writer... I for one don't mind; your work is fine as is and really, in proper fantasy books with that fricking long battle scene, I probably skim over it anyways.

[beatrisu.livejournal.com]

I LOVE YOU!

My friend gave me the link to your webpage, and I'm so happy she did, because....

You have such talent. It's like nothing I've ever read before. At the moment, I'm reading Dance with the Devil, and I simply fell in love with the characters. (Especially Doug and Jester.) So... I would like to read more. And I hope you friend me back, because... I love you! And... I'd ask you to marry me, but I think my boyfriend would be mad... Hmm... So I'll just... Give you all the chocolate in the world instead. Yep!

*heaps over tons of chocolate*

[cornporngirl.livejournal.com]

and that is why I like reading you and can't stand George R. Martin