My M/M/F book Wolves of Harmony Heights was written back in 2015/2016, and has zilch to do with my recent (as of late 2019) dive into Chinese webnovels and dramas. But as this dive keeps getting deeper, I realized that in writing that book I was searching for novel structure I did not know existed. Reading cnovels and watching cdramas has opened my eyes to how I was fencing myself into restrictions that hindered me.
My main problem was that WoHH was originally a NaNoWriMo project, and as such was designed to be 50,000 words long — probably more, but not by a lot. I hit that mark but when I did, I realized that the book was nowhere near done, at least, not any way that would be satisfying to the character arcs and the world building I had done. But ideally a paranormal romance should really not be more than 100k, according to industry standards. I felt trapped by that limitation, and the perceived “need” to wrangle it into a typical plot arc structure.
In the end, it took a year, two major rewrites, and 250,000 words to tell the story.
I still wasn’t happy with it.
It is, in fact, one of the few books I’ve written that required major structural changes along the way. That is not a brag. As a pantser I generally build the story as I go, and I’ve become good at that by following my instincts even when they write me into a corner.
Don’t get me wrong: as a pantser, I actually expect to write myself into a corner. That is feature for my process, not a bug. It pushes my creativity outside of the box it lives in, forces me to look at characters and the plot from an angle I had not considered before. It always results in a better story, no matter how frustrating it is at the time. Sometimes it means going back and jiggering with earlier scenes or doing some minor restructuring.
With WoHH, though, my instincts were failing me.
Or so I thought at the time. I kept expanding the story and the character list to an almost unwieldy extent. Logic demanded that I go and cut things out, curtail it, and shoehorn the plot into a narrative structure that would result in a complete and (reasonably) long novel. But I didn’t, I simply couldn’t, and the result was me hemming and hawing over multiple plot points and scenes, which is very unlike me.
It was already too long! It was already too complex! The danger signs were clear. So, with WoHH, it was less a writing myself into a corner and more trying to write myself out of a an intricate maze as quickly and efficiently as possible no matter what. I did it, as the final product attests, but it was a very unnatural process for me and endlessly frustrating.
What, you may ask, does this have to do with cnovels?
The fact that cnovels do not conform to the novel/narrative structures I have been drilled with all my life has retroactively made me realize that I was trying to pound the story into a form it was not meant to take, simply because I thought that was the ONLY form it could take.
(caveat: I am hardly an expert, and mostly am talking about the few webnovels I have read, but Legends of the Condor Heroes does fit in here)
Cnovels are distinctly different than the western European novels I have been exposed to all my life. First off, they are unapologetically long (500,000 to a million words is common) and readers just expect that kind of length. Also, to my sensibilities, they are a bit meandering. They are not; that is a culture clash that reveals my own lack of exposure to traditional Chinese (or East Asian, I don’t know for sure) narratives. After reading “The Moon Is Beautiful Tonight: On East Asian Narratives” by Jianan Qian, which I stumbled over in my search to learn more about the novels I was reading, I realized that what I considered meandering is often important structural components to establish characterization. Makes sense when you know what you are looking for.
There are a bunch more interesting differences that I could go on about, but I don’t want to suggest that I feel I should have written WoHH in an appropriated faux cnovel format. That’s definitely not in my wheelhouse nor what I want to do, then or now. My point is that I simply wasn’t aware that there were other ways of structuring a novel that readers would still love. I had been indoctrinated with the idea that novels must be roughly between 50k and 150k words. Longer works for were series that were carefully chopped up into individual novels (GoT, HP, etc.). Very long novels were the purview of the already successful author, for whom readers would be willing to “endure” longer books and publishers willing to front the much higher costs of publishing.
Mehhhhh. Is any of that really true? Not intrinsically, no. Book length has been bound more by printing costs and physical limitations than anything else, historically. No one wants to publish a huge-ass 500 page novel on spec. Even Dickens’ Great Expectations did not get printed as a full novel until it was known it would pay out. And young writers, well, we are warned against trying to do what Dickens did until we are wizened and established. Avoid too many characters! Avoid rambling plots! Stick to the 3 or 5 act story structure! Etc. etc. and triply true for genre writers. Romance, in particular, is expected to be a tight story with predictable beats and no more than 100k words.
And sure, if you want to rank #1 on the romance list on Amazon, following that formula with good characters and solid writing will get you there (eventually). I’m not dissing that, it works for a lot of writers and has resulted in many great books!
For me, though, the realization has sunk in that it was never my goal, and isn’t my goal now. I mean, I THOUGHT it was. But it’s not. I just didn’t know any better.
Ironically, I’ve been immersed in the fanfiction community since 2007, where none of these rules hold. Stories are anywhere from 500 words to 500,000. Single page vs. multi-chaptered. Chapter length varies widely and wildly from 1,000 to 10,000 words, and some authors even vary chapter length within a story (sacré bleu!). Sometimes in a fic there is a complex plot, sometimes it is PWP, and sometimes it’s just a series of vignettes. Readers eat it up regardless.
Yes, of course, there is a divide between fanfiction and original fiction, but I also think too much has been made of that divide. Some people won’t read one or the other, true enough, but most read both. The majority of readers want to be drawn into a story, no matter how it’s told. That leap of logic failed me, though, until I got into reading cnovels.
The takeaway from all this for me is that length, and even structure, matter less than emotionally engaging characters.
In retrospect, I realize that I should have followed my instincts with WoHH. It’s a fine book as it is, a fun paranormal M/M/F romp with love, magic, and mystery. I’m proud of it! But what could it have been? First thing: a lot longer. Second: A lot more complex. There were characters who should have had stronger, more involved roles. Honestly I think that story could have hit 500k words without much of a stretch. I could have included darker themes and possibly even a tragedy or two. Who knows!!?!!?!?! Not me! *sad face*
I look now at the structure I was trying to build for Dragon’s Grail and I realize I was caught in the same loop that hung me up with WoHH: not trusting my instincts. Fearfully holding back because the structure wasn’t tight enough, wasn’t happening fast enough, wasn’t the correct word count, wasn’t the right story arc. Too many characters! Too much world building!
Ah well. Look, I have to acknowledge that while I’d love to write a book that has lasting cultural impact and a rabid fanbase, that’s more of a metaphysical goal. That is what I want my legacy to be, in short. Even if no one remembers my name, even if I never make any money creating these stories, that is my goal. To that end I need to write the stories in my heart, in whatever shape they take.
For 2020, I will be spending more energy on my creativity coaching business and less on trying to build a traditional “brand” as an author. I will write, I will follow my instincts, and I will so without constraints. Now that I know that I can, in fact that I should, that is my plan.
