 Fantasy: November 09, 2016 Issue [#7960] |
  Fantasy
This week: Focus on Numbers in Writing Edited by: Dawn Embers  
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Fantasy Newsletter by Dawn
Today we discuss numbers for story, genre and beyond. Numbers are important for writers and help dictate certain factors to story classification and even to a degree, reader preference. |
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We're in November, which for a number of us means National Novel Writing Month time and focusing on the attempt to write a novel (or part of a novel) within that month. That means, we are very focused on numbers because the goal is 50,000 words, there are only 30 days and about 1,667 words per day. But we're not the only ones who often have to think about numbers. Writing words often has an association with numbers in fantasy and beyond.
First there is the overall number of words, which place the story in categories. Limited counts make the difference between short stories, flash fiction and even the every challenging micro fiction. Aside from determining which shorter category, at times the smaller word limits help in more considering contests have word count requirements. There are also some readers when wandering the sight who will prefer reading/reviewing something that is much smaller.
Short isn't the only category. Novelettes, novellas and novels all have a specific range of word counts and each have more success in certain genres. All of them have had success in the scope of fantasy and science fiction, along with the shorter and mid-range being popular also within romance. The good part of speculative fiction is that it works for a number of word count ranges that go from very short to the epic novels that are many many thousands of words in length.
Numbers can also find their ways within the depths of the stories as well, not just for dictating factors on the technical side. In fact, I'm sure there are a few fantasy stories that use numbers within their magic systems. I haven't read one yet but I'm interested in idea of numerical based magic.
Or it could be that a number is important to a character. There are many superstitions when it comes to such. There are the good side where things are considered positive or with fortune depending on the number. For some it might be the three, maybe a seven, or having the same number a few times in a row. Other numbers are not considered with such a happy view, such as the number 13 where even hotels will avoid having a "thirteenth" floor even though any that have 13 or more do technically have that number, even if it's missing the title.
Writers and characters alike can have a focus for numbers and it's all in how you use them as to what they dictate. Do you write flash fiction? Are you doing a novel? Does your character hope to find items in sets of three? The question is: what numbers are important for you and your writing?
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How are numbers important for you story or novel? How many words do you need to write?
Last time, I discussed the combination of horror and fantasy (or sci-fi). Here is the one comment sent in when it came to the topic presented:
Comment by Elfin Dragon-finally published 
Like you horror is something I'm not good at writing. I can write some riveting scenes where something scary might be happening, but not an entire book where you have to keep the reader on the edge of their seats almost the entire time. I think I'll leave things like that up to the real experts like Steven King and Dean Koontz.
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