Friday, October 18, 2013

Book Length

Love this Cormorant braving the waves...I took this pic on yesterday's celebration walk on Lizard POint
My next book A Cornish Stranger is due to be handed in on the 31st of this month. Yesterday I typed the words THE END but in truth it is far from the end. What happens now is what will make the book shine, or I hope it will.

However I have a problem at the moment. The book is shortish. Not novella length and not novel length yet I feel in my gut that the story is complete. I think with the themes and seriousness of some of the issues I don't want to pad the story out with things that will distract...so what do I do?

Today is my day away from the story. Despite the rain I plan to go for a walk, take a long bath and read something else. I know I actually like 'shorter' reads. But I wonder how readers feel? Do they feel cheated when the book isn't a door stop? What do you think?
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4 comments:

  1. UnknownOctober 19, 2013 at 5:21 AM

    Personally I like a book that is exactly the right size for itself :-)
    Also in this world of Kindles I'm not sure that I notice the length of books anymore. Unless it is written by George RR Martin.

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  2. UnknownOctober 19, 2013 at 5:34 AM

    I agree with the Kindle/ebook feeling that a book will be the length the story needs to be...but in print...will readers feel cheated to be paying a certain price for less physical pages...I wonder???
    lx

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  3. MoniqueOctober 20, 2013 at 6:12 PM

    It really depends on the novel itself. Some novels feel padded and by halfway through I'm wishing the author would hurry up and get to the point, but others could go on for 1000 pages and I'd tear through every one of them without noticing them turning and wouldn't care about the price.

    I would care about the price if, when I got to the end, I felt like it hadn't been worth it. For example, if the writing felt rushed and unpolished or there were threads of the story that felt unfinished. Then I'd feel cheated. But if I thoroughly enjoyed the book, I wouln't care about how much I'd paid for it, although if it was short, I might wish it had been longer just so I could have spent more time reading it, if that makes sense.

    By the way, I usually download books on Kindle or order them through the library, so length isn't an issue when I choose them.

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    Replies
    1. UnknownOctober 21, 2013 at 3:19 AM

      Thanks Monique. I have felt the same. I do think kindles and other readers have made a big difference because of the 'lack of pages'...which in one sense I have enjoyed and others times I have felt frustrating having been so programmed on how many pages I had read...
      lx

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