One Day

Maybe I’m getting redundant at this point, but I can’t help but continue. There are certain things, certain small aspects of story, that cannot be pulled and stretched out into novel length. If you string them along and weave them together, they might make it. Otherwise, it’s a bad idea even to try. Don’t do it. Please. Novels need far more than just one focus. So today, what you shouldn't do is...

A Day in the Life

This too is something I’ve seen people stretch out into a full length novel. And this time, I have actually seen it succeed. So today, I’m saying not to try it until you’re extra-seasoned, until you know very well what you’ll need to do in order to make it work. If you’re not there yet, write your idea down and keep it on the back burner until you’re ready to work it out.

I’ll use Michael Crichton’s Prey as an example. The majority of the story (note: not all of the story) takes place within one day. But it’s not a normal day. There’s a lot that happens, and Crichton has to go into a great deal of detail with every few hours. If you don’t have enough going on to make that work, then maybe you need to rethink your idea entirely.

The trouble is, a lot of the time, novels cover a day in a chapter or less. There’s only so much that can happen within a single day, as you well know. There are only so many hours, only so many things we can do to stretch out a day from any given character’s point of view. If we tried to explain everything that happened in one single day, it'd be boring and fall flat.

That’s why I recommend that if you’re determined to try it, you wait until you have at least a couple other novels under your belt. Get to where you really know what you’re doing, to the point that you feel strong and wise enough to build a good story.

Until then, it’ll be easier on you and better for your readers if you stick with something simpler, like a regular full-length novel with multiple plot lines and many days.

[love]

{Rani D.}