Well, I'm back at my mom's house now and lounging around after the most epic hike of my life. In case you don't know anything about Mt. Whitney, the hike to get up and down it is twenty-two miles long in which you ascend a total of 6,100 feet from start to finish. The mountain itself is like 14,500 feet or something; I don't know the exact height. At any rate, it's the tallest mountain in the continental United States. You start out in a bunch of lush, leafy gorgeousness and climb up into a rocky, wind-swept zone that is completely barren excepting a few clusters of flowers growing here and there between boulders...but it's beautiful the whole way. The hike took us thirteen hours to complete, which in my opinion is a pretty long time but this lady we talked to said that that was really good. So go figure.
Anyway, now that you know a little about it, the hike was incredible. I won't describe every detail (even though I want to, it was so awesome!) but it was a fantastic experience. I have never been so high above the world before without being in an airplane; you can see clear into Utah! The wind was ridiculously powerful--I was almost blown over several times--and it was very cold, but WOW it was so worth the grueling journey/weather. I'm not sure exactly how it has changed me yet, but I feel like a slightly different person, as silly as that sounds. It was just a stupid hike, right? But I don't know. It was a really neat experience. I won't keep blathering on about it, but if you have the means and enjoy (a shit ton of) hiking, I would highly recommend doing it. But remember to wear sunscreen. LOTS of sunscreen. I forgot to put some on the backs of my knees and now I can barely walk. Oh, and wear sunglasses! My eyes got sunburned as well, so I am having just a blast looking exhausted/stoned.
Okay, apart from hiking, I have been spending a great deal of my time planning out Death List. I still need to put a lot of what I have come up with on paper, but I have made some progress. I think I might continue on that now, actually; I'm spending the rest of today recovering from my epic mountain adventures and reading Cori's posts about Caged inspired me to work on my own things. Oh, that reminds me, I need your opinions on something. Or on a few somethings. These are kind of stupid questions, but they are always things that I (sadly) fret about while writing...which I am still forbidden by myself to do right now, but even so. Anyway, I need your thoughts on the following:
1. Can a book be too long, even if the plot is good and things keep moving forward? Is there a point where the length can be a detriment to the book as a whole?
2. Is there a good length for a chapter to be? Assuming that what the chapter sets out to accomplish was accomplished, is it okay to end a chapter after only a few pages? I only ask because I worry that short chapters might seem like I am rapidly firing information at the reader when I do each chapter from the point of view of a different character.
3. Corruption in the government: too cliche?
4. Is it okay to kill off a few characters over the course of a book like mine? I mean, there's no epic battles or anything in this one, so I don't want the deaths to seem like pointless character-killing, if you know what I mean.
So, yeah, that's it for now. Well, actually it's not, but I can't figure out how to phrase my last question. I'll probably be on here later with that.
Before I draw this post to a close, I just want to say hi to Chelsea! Welcome to the blog! I am completely addicted to it, as you will soon see, and hope that you will not be too annoyed by my frequent posts.
-Iridian
1. A book cannot be too long and lose interest. Ask those really well known long authors such as Anne rice who never writes anything shorter than approximately 1000 pages in small, and I mean minuscule, print. The one that is a determinant is if the plot is indeed moving or if it's over described, too wordy, or just drawn out for too long. I personally will sometimes pic a 700 or a 1000 page book over a 300 page book depending on my want for a book.
ReplyDelete2. Again there is no set length even for chapters. My mom likes to read James Patterson who writes sometimes half a page chapters and I've personally read 20 page chapters before. As long as there's enough in there for your taste I dont see a problem.
3. It depends on what you're doing on corruption. Sometimes people can come up with original ideas that make it super interesting or they use old ideas with their own twist. If you're worried about Death List I know enough about it to tell you you're fine. Cori and mines book has corruption in it and so does ours in a sort of way through Phoenix and Lyric.
4. It's no problem to kill off a few characters if you feel like its necessary or if it will help in the plot. Some people just end up killing off characters just cause they can and sometimes it's over done. At the same time however if there's no real need for them to die they don't have to.
Hope that answered all your questions! Sorry it's such a lengthy comment but I wanted to be detailed! Glad to hear your mt Whitney hike went well! We'll talk later! Off to a sax lesson! See ya!
-Kamie
Thank you for such a detailed response, Kupo! Seriously, I will never worry about quantity again. I hope you had a good time at your sax lesson!
DeleteDid you call her Kupo? :O
DeleteThat's from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. The little mogs that bring your characters mail always call you that!
...Do you play Final Fantasy??
-Cori
It's from FF9 too which both Rachel and I played together. We call each other Kupo from all the great memories of that game! :) She says she likes to watch more than play so I play while she watches. Those were some good times, huh Kupo! :)
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@Cori, we even signed our yearbooks this year as Kupo! :)
Thirteen hours? Daaaamn, Rachel!
ReplyDelete1) A book can never be too long. Just look at the fifth Harry Potter book; people eat that stuff up.
2) Different authors use different chapter lengths. Whenever it feels done to you is a good place to stop, no matter the length. In Cornelia Funke's novel Inkheart, the chapters are normally only a few pages long. (Sometimes only two.)
3) That depends on how you write it. Caged has a lot of corruption in it, but I added my own little twist that made it unique in every way that matters. You just have to find a good twist that makes it...well, yours.
4) As long as it helps the plot advance, anything is allowed when you're writing a novel.
-Cori
Thanks for helping me out, too, Cori. I just wanted to say, your answer to number four should be a quote of some sort. "Anything is allowed when you're writing a novel." I like that :D
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