It’s Not The Length, It’s What You Do With It

Guest Post by Mindy Klasky

Thanks, Doranna, for letting me hang out here today and for allowing me to share some of the background of my Diamond Brides Series, including Perfect Pitch, which is in stores now.

Once upon a time, I wrote my first novel. The Thirteenth Teaching was an epic fantasy, a quest novel that involved the collection of twelve artifacts, each pointing toward the reincarnation of a vengeful goddess. Clocking in at 175,000 words, Teaching was rejected by every major publisher in New York.

One editor took mercy on me in her rejection letter.  She explained that the book was too long for its story, and she urged me to cut 50,000 words.  I did, taking the extremely scientific approach of eliminating two sevenths of the words on every page.  The revised book was rejected by every major publisher in New York.

Ultimately, I wrote and sold another book, The Glasswrights’ Apprentice, which was 110,000 words long.  My next nine novels floated between 100,000 and 110,000 words.  That was a comfortable length for me.  It allowed subplots and multiple points of view; I could craft complicated worlds and add multiple details to tell a fantasy story.

And then I received a letter from my then-publisher stating that, due to the increased cost of paper, all contracted-for novels would now top out at 80,000 words.

Initially, I panicked.  How could I tell a complete story in four-fifths of the space?  How could my characters be real?  How could my plots be complete?

I edited.  I trimmed.  I streamlined.  And my fiction became stronger for the restrictions.

Another few years passed, and I got the crazy idea of writing a contemporary romance series around a baseball team—nine novels, each telling the story of a different position player.  I wanted to experiment with new marketing schemes, releasing the books one-a-month.  But I knew I couldn’t create nine 80,000-word novels in a year.

But I could produce nine 45,000-word novels.

“All” I had to do was streamline my writing.

First things first—I jettisoned subplots.  There simply wasn’t enough room for secondary stories, not at my chosen length.  Instead, I focused on honing the main plot, making sure that every plot incident led inevitably to the next, that the entire structure was built on a firm foundation and that every single twist and turn put a necessary, story-advancing stress on that basic structure.

Next, I pushed my dialog to serve double-duty.  It wasn’t enough for characters to speak to each other.  In every conversation, words needed to further the plot at the same time that they illuminated characters (ideally providing both backstory and forward motion).  By focusing on active verbs and precisely chosen nouns, I pushed dialog to advance my condensed story.

Finally, I reviewed all of the descriptive writing in my novel.  As a long-time fantasy writer and reader, I have a great love of description in my books—I want to share the entire sensory input from a scene, lingering over sights and scents especially.  But with a maximum of 50,000 words, I didn’t have space for that luxury. Instead, I needed to be certain that every sensory detail contributed to the whole.  When I describe my character’s wardrobe, I’m telling you about her character.  When I detail someone’s meal, you know the food on his plate is telling you about how he lives his life.

As a result of this structuring and toning and tightening, I emerged with a concise, 42,000-word novel.  Perfect Pitch has all the conflict of my earlier work and all the depth of character (plus a lot more graphic description of love scenes!)  I think of Pitch—and the eight other Diamond Brides novels—as distillations of books.  All of the excess has been boiled off, so that readers are left with the sharp, pure, essential nature of a contemporary romance.

What sort of writing do you prefer?  The highly distilled nature of a short novel?  Or the lush, relaxed feel of a long one?

Mindy Klasky learned to read when her parents shoved a book in her hands and told her she could travel anywhere through stories. As a writer, Mindy has traveled through various genres, including hot contemporary romance. In her spare time, Mindy knits, quilts, and tries to tame her to-be-read shelf.

PS sez I — I read one of the books in this series and am really looking forward to the entire collection!  Have fun!

Reigning beauty queen Samantha Winger is launching her pet project, a music program for kids. All she has to do is follow the pageant’s rules—no smoking, drinking, or “cavorting” in public.
   That’s fine, until D.J. Thomas—God’s gift to baseball—throws her a wild pitch. He slams her in an interview, and the video goes viral. Sam’s no shrinking violet. She parlays D.J.’s apology into a national T.V. appearance—and a very unexpected, very public kiss.
   Soon, paparazzi catch the couple in a steamy make-out session, and Sam’s music program is on the block. The blazing hot relationship is threatened even more when D.J.’s son begs to trade in Little League for music class.
   Can Sam and D.J. sizzle past the sour notes and find their perfect pitch?