Oatik has some tales in him!

[Morreion]

Oatik shrugged as he watched several goblins fall to the ground and spin around in circles. “Why do the do that?”

At this leader shrugged as well, “Stupid gits.”

*laughs* Nice touch!

A good feel for Warhammer battle forces in War? And the spy angle- now that's a cliffhanger!

[Oatik]

Reposted the story as "Oatik Part One" and added a new chapter. Hopefully it makes it seem like I've been working harder!

[Jaema]

OK, so I'm noticing that Oatik's Tale has been neatly divided into chapters now. So some questions about mechanics and putting together a novel are in my head and you conveniently have offered up writing that's blocked up into "chapters" now, SO, we shall use you as the example. Much easier than writing chapters of my own ....

So, it seems Oatik's story is kind of in your head in some clear sections and you were moved to mark that off in chapters. They are not actually long enough to be chapters in a novel, I'm sure you realized that. So I'm curious about your work pattern --- I always wonder about how other writers work. Some of those chapters clearly lead right from one to the other. So you are not intending to add more and more to each existing chapter or that will mess up your transitions. Or are you. Or you will combine some of those chapters perhaps. Or you just want me to get my red pencil the hell away from your stuff.

This site offers a pretty concise view of chapter and word counts --- and of course this varies by genre. I'd say you're writing fantasy which tends to be longer so that unfortunately means higher word count and longer chapters Oat.
writing-novels.suite101.com/article.cfm/dividing_a_novel_into_chapters


Padding up chapters makes me a little nervous because it starts to feel a little like when you think you finished your english homework and then you realize your essay isn't long enough and you go back and start repeating everything over and over until you have two paragraphs or whatever your teacher said was the minimum.

Starts making big red arrows and circles and squiggles and giant question marks all over Oat's chapters just for the heck of it.

[Oatik]

So naturally I don’t know what I’m doing. Let’s just make sure we get that out there on the ground floor. I can tell you what I was thinking…more or less. In each scene I think of as a scene, the early ones are really short I think I started at about 1 page, then some of the last ones you’ve read are 2 pages and it seems the stuff I’m working on now tends to be about 3 pages (in word, single spaced). I think this falls in line with what I usually read…see fancy quote:

If you are writing a thriller or page-turner you may want to plan shorter chapters. Mary Higgins-Clark, James Patterson, and Harlan Coben often have chapters that are only a few pages in length. These chapters stop at the height of action and keep readers turning pages.

Fantasy setting or no, I think at some point this story will be a thriller.
The other thing I tend to do is (again with the fancy quotes). I think this is due to what I tend to read.


The chapter should end right at the crucial moment. It is good to have each chapter finish with a question that will not be answered until a following chapter.

I’m thinking if I ever finish then some of this will be cleaned up during the rewrite. Scenes that are too small either get deleted or something else would need to happen in the middle. Right now I’d say chapter 1 is the preface to the book, with chapter 2 being the opening chapter. If I remember right it has quite a bit of action, and Oatik is hauling Melkin out the door at the end. But it is really short, so I might need to add a couple more paragraphs about the dwarves in the corner or something.

Currently I’m jumping around in the timeline with about 3 major threads, Oatik’s story is mostly happening right now, with one flashback thrown in. Melkin’s story is a few months in the past, before she met Oatik. Her story expands (you haven’t read this yet) to include her Grandfather and we cover events that happened 60 years ago. The part of the story I’m having trouble with is my villain(s). I don’t really know what I’m doing with that yet, at least in my other threads I can sort of feel which way I’m moving.

I’m probably half done with part 2 (if you thought the chapters were random, these part numbers really mean nothing) and I think I’ll post that in a week or two.

Put down that red pen and start writing something yourself!