Limits

Short-ish post today. I'm thinking of posting a YouTube video I find relevant every Friday, but I don't know if it's going to be a thing. It might be a thing. We'll see. /Wheezy

In the past few weeks, there have been a few really inspiring vlogs from a couple of the YouTubers I follow. While not directly about writing, I feel that the videos apply to the lifestyle of any creative type. Today, I'd like to share a video about "limits", by one of my top three vloggers, Wheezy Waiter.

Personally, I have a lot of trouble with short fiction. The limit is so strict that I'm barely capable of spinning out something interesting. Twabbles, drabbles, micro-fiction, flash-fiction, short stories - no matter what I shoot for, I tend to end up with too much for one, too little for the other. That's probably why I lean towards writing novels and novellas, but even those have limitations.

 In the world of fiction today, word-count is a huge limiting factor for a book. When I tried to pitch THE MARK OF FLIGHT the first time, the agent told me "the writing is nice, but the story is too long and slow". 130,000 words was clearly past the limit. Of course, insanely-long epic fantasy exists, but it will be hard to publish unless you're A) already an established author B) a celebrity or C) able to write like Tad Williams. On the other end of the spectrum, an adult fantasy novel that's only 70,000 words long is going to have a hard time finding a home unless it can be bulked up without sacrificing the story.

In what other ways do limits affect your writing? What do you think of the limits imposed by the current industry? Do you think limits impede art or improve it? Or both?

Also, go follow Craig on his YouTube channel: wheezywaiter