Being Novel A Literary Article |
You have mastered the intricacies of the short story, experimenting successfully with word counts from 500 to 7,000 and had them accepted in many zines, both non-paying and paying. You understand the importance of establishing a hook, developing plot, characters, twists and a denouement. You have received praise for things like pacing, narrative and dialogue skill, descriptive ability and phrasing. Although writing short themes still intrigues you, there is an urge to attempt something greater, one to challenge everything mentioned above in a more memorable and lasting work. And above all, more critical than all the others, you have experienced what I call 'flow' where your creative ideas are so forceful and bountiful that they seem to come out in a flood, each turn of phrase adding to both the previous one and the next. It is such a powerful drive that you feel you are ready to tackle the complicated novel. As a design goal, you can plan something like 20 chapters, each of 5,000 words, and try to limit your output to 120,000 words or less which is industry standard. Of course, your chapter lengths can vary considerably. To be effective, each chapter should be a stand alone short story in and of itself, with enough unanswered questions for the reader that it demands further exposition and dialogue in succeeding ones. I have found that the best method of doing this is to accumulate chapters in separate files before attempting to combine them in a single manuscript. It becomes easier to edit and proof them as singular works and simpler to see how effectively you have related each chapter to all the others. In the process of writing this first novel, you have increased your skill at vocabulary, technical and content editing, and learning to omit that which does not contribute to the story. You have also learned to eliminate your pet phrases, your literary darlings, in short ego, that often ruins a story by expressing common complaints with the human condition. You may also want to review your use of names in the story. Are they the kind to be remembered? Do they have an impact and reflect the environment described? Fine, you have 20 chapters of a goodly length. At this point, you need cover illustrations for front and back and should be thinking about things like an advertising blurb or possibly kudos from the reviewers to whom you will send the manuscript. You also need to establish the front matter containing the Title Page, Copyright Page, Acknowledgments, Dedication, Introduction, Table of Contents and other items like a Prologue or Foreword. I recommend creating a Front Matter template of these items. Most publishers today prefer single spaced electronic manuscripts submitted in PDF, though there are still some who will accept snail-mail copies in Word or Word Perfect, double-spaced. If you have separate chapter titles, it is a very good idea to use alternating headers varying the book title with the chapter titles or your name as well as alternating page numbers. You may also want to justify your text on both sides of the page and create large drop caps, three lines in height, for the first capital letter of the first word in each chapter. You may also elect not to indent the very first paragraph of each chapter. Before combining everything into a final text, you should proofread the manuscript several times. If you can, a second set of eyes often comes in handy. Be sure you validate the spelling, grammar, punctuation and phrasing of the entire work. Also look for errant line breaks and improper line height errors to correct. Are you chapter headings the way you want them, centered, bold, larger font? Will you be actually using Chapter 1, Chapter 2 etc. Have you omitted both the header and page number from the first page of each new chapter? Does the front matter use small Roman numerals centered at the bottom of the page? Are there blank pages between the front matter and page one? Does page one begin on the readers' right side? Fine. You are ready to combine everything into a manuscript. Is the publisher going to do it in a 6 X 9 format? If so, you must reformat the front matter first. Be certain to create a blank page after every chapter you add. Then you will be able to add chapter by chapter which will automatically fit the format by inserting the cursor at the top of that blank page and copying the file. Once the novel is intact, review it for any errors that may have occurred to page numbering and headers. Verify these page numbers with your Table of Contents. You will also want at least one blank page at the end of the novel. If this is all to your satisfaction, seek out someone who owns Adobe Standard 6.0 which will generate a PDF file for you. You are now ready to submit the manuscript to a publisher. W. A. Rieser |
