http://www.writers-online.co.uk^65FANTASTIC REALMS
APRIL 2020With that said, it’s also crucial that the pace does not go
along too fast, and that readers find themselves left breathless
by the rattling speed of your story. It’s important to strike a
balance – if you want something to go down in history as truly
epic, it’s crucial that events within it feel as though they have
meaning and have real impact on the characters and/or the
world of the story. Cramming in too many events can be every
bit as unsatisfying as having events be too sparse – anyone who’s
ever watched Jupiter Ascending will know exactly what I mean.
The events have to have meaning for the characters and these
thoughts and emotions should be explored too.
Make it a party
Most more substantial novels would have a larger cast of
characters – there’s a certain logic to that, giving you more
individuals to carry the extra ‘weight’ of story involved. This is
well worth thinking about for any epic novel, and something
that you should be looking to factor in from the very start.
Ideally you would have a host of characters, probably at least
three, each with their own plotline and story arc to go through in
your novel. If you do insist on having a lone central protagonist,
you will at least need a few other side-characters around them
who will still go on a journey of some kind. The other option
you could go for would be to go for a classic ‘hero and nemesis’
structure, with a ‘bad guy’ and a ‘good guy’ in a constant
back-and-forth battle for supremacy and victory. But a large
zooming in on one or two characters is going to make your task
substantially harder – most epic novels are better served by a
wide and varied array of characters.
Break it down
One of the prime psychological obstacles of a longer book is
quite simply a feeling that the mountain you are trying to climb
is too big. Writing a novel of any length is no mean feat, but if
you double the word count you are angling for then things can
feel a lot more difficult!
As such, one simple ‘mind trick’ to play on yourself is to
divide the story up into numerous parts. Of course any story
would tend to have chapters, and these can serve as handy
waymarkers to show that you are making progress with your
book. But the addition of parts provides a further way for you
to note the ground you are making towards your grand target,
and help to ensure that your motivation for the project doesn’t
drop off. If you divide your story into four parts, you’ll be able
to acknowledge and feel a sense of achievement in hitting the
quarter, half and three-quarters mark on the way to finishing
your book.
Don’t waste words
One thing that could be a temptation with a larger project
would be to try and bulk out the word count, be it consciously
or unconsciously. You might feel that in-depth and detailed
description is a way to get through some of your word count,
but if it’s not justified for the story then it’s not going to help
make it a more enjoyable or satisfying read. You might even
keep slipping in an extra descriptor, or an extra pause in speech
to grab another word here or there. In many regards this is the
downside of thinking about word count, and honestly in these
cases these additionals rarely help things along. Ultimately books
will tend to be improved for excising words rather than adding
them, so try not to get into this habit – and indeed be wary of it
as something you might slip into without intending to.Set a deadline
The thing with a big project – in any realm of life and work –
is that it can easily spiral out of control, growing unwieldy and
taking two or three times the length of time expected. That’s
why a deadline for any novel is crucial, and I would argue this
goes even more for a longer novel, because it could even more
simply lose momentum or come off the rails than a shorter
project. Try not to view the deadline as a pressure, but instead
a motivation – a challenge that you have set yourself and a goal
to strive towards.But be realistic
With that said, it’s important to set yourself a feasible deadline- having the sense of falling behind or missing targets is never
going to help your creative process or your enthusiasm. The sense
of being on track is pivotal, so what I would suggest doing first
of all is setting yourself a sensible daily or weekly word target.
Of course everyone’s lifestyle and circumstances are different,
so what is viable will vary immensely from person to person.
But the idea of targets is certainly a valuable one, and it’s often
surprising just how quickly you can get something written if
you break it down into manageable chunks. For example, at 500
words a day, you would still have 150,000 words in ten months - or if you wanted to take the whole year on you would be
surpassing 180,000 words. And there is nothing too scary about
the idea of writing 500 words, right?
Conclusions
The writing process changes immensely as you go from the
short end of things to the long end – a short story can be
launched into with minimal planning, with quick completion
and a more rapid-fire editing process. Arguably it is where prose
writing can be at its most creative. I would encourage anyone
looking to write a novel to think generally in far more practical
terms – yes, the creative element remains strong, but it’s much
more in expression of ideas than it is in pure ideas. Novel
writing concerns itself much more with the long-term. If you
count on the ‘muse’ to carry you through that, it’s going to be
a very long way home – if the book gets finished at all in those
circumstances. Put simply, the ‘muse’ comes and goes. Planning
your book, your time and your writing process will all be
important, and that takes even more precedence where that book
is longer than the average. It certainly can be done, but it will
be a series of small victories that will ultimately lead you to that
major victory in getting that longer novel completed.
Finally, you should bear in mind that not every novel can be
epic – you might think that your plotline is going to eat up a
huge word count, but that doesn’t always come to fruition. I’ve
found many a writing project weigh in at under what I expected,
and usually when that is the case it’s because the story works
better at that length. If you land that bit short of the epic, it’s
going to be very hard to expand convincingly to fill in those
‘missing words’, and is liable best left to be whatever length it
naturally came to a close. Never try to be epic for the sake of
being epic.