Jed On: Standards. · 2:46am Oct 20th, 2014
Howdy folks.
First off: AOA Chapter Thirty Four is at something like 2,700 words as of right now. It's been slow going: combination of baby, other projects (mostly fan films of various sorts: I'm a sad sod like that) and starting university again for my Masters degree have been delaying me.
The main thrust of this blog post, however, is to ponder a question. See, at the moment AOA is held, for me, to a certain standard, namely that every chapter should be at least 4,000 words (give or take). However, I find myself occasionally considering the possibility of adding chapters that are less long than this: Thirty Four is a sterling example. I've already written what feels like a perfect end for that chapter, and thus I find myself wondering if adding more to it wouldn't be - well, silly, but to be more precise, I find myself wondering if it wouldn't be forcing it to be longer than is "natural". My chapters do tend to be quite short when compared to some other alt-TCB fics, a fact I am acutely aware of, so I am wary of doing too few words, but at the same time I don't want to unnaturally extend something just to fill a quota. I'm convinced, if you will allow me this conceit, that good art doesn't work that way.
It's something to ponder, and I'd be interested in any comments from any of my readers who catch this blog. Until then.
Jed.
If you can tell the story without reaching a set limit of words, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Then again, a sort of shift in perspective to remind us of the bigger world wouldn't be a bad thing either.