[Eberron] The War-Torn novel proposal thingie

[BiggusGeekus]

I'll be doing it.

Anyone with any writing aspirations should give this a shot. A ten-page double spaced entry is nothing compared to what most publishers want. Most publishers want the whole novel already written before they'll look at you. And if they don't like it, well, that's 90,000+ words gone. Ouch.

 

[Von Ether]

I'll be doing it.

Anyone with any writing aspirations should give this a shot. A ten-page double spaced entry is nothing compared to what most publishers want. Most publishers want the whole novel already written before they'll look at you. And if they don't like it, well, that's 90,000+ words gone. Ouch.

Amen, brother

 

[Macbeth]

I think I'll probably give it a shot. My Ceramic DM stories have come across quite well, so I have a bit of confiedence that I can write somthing at least worth considering. And I've got a good plot mixing around in my head already...

But I must disagree with BiggusGeekus. Since every enrty is one more I have to compete against, I would recommend nobody propose stories. Just kidding...

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I'm giving it a shot, too-- not with any hopes of succeeding, just a stop-loss against future regret.


Wulf

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

I really don't think they'll take something from a first-timer from me, but I really like the characters I've created and hopefully the story will evolve into something decent, so we'll see.

Hey, it's worth a shot. I'll attempt to submit something myself, but having just found out about the contest I'll have to get cracking.

 

[Scribe Ineti]

Hey, it's worth a shot. I'll attempt to submit something myself, but having just found out about the contest I'll have to get cracking.

You have over a month to mail it in. That should not be a problem. If a writer can't put together a coherent 1 page summary and a crisp 10-page writing sample in a month, that writer has no business taking a shot at a 90K word novel.

Good luck to everyone who enters! You're a step ahead of the "I-wannas".

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Unfortunately, I don't think this is something for me - English isn't my native language, and I think I should rather work on my Ph.D. thesis anyway...

 

[TDRandall]

I'm going give it a shot, but like someone else said mostly to avoid the post-contest "I didn't even try" regrets. If this comes anywhere near the thousands of settings entries, then as a first time writer I would likely fall over in shock if I made any sort of cut.

I've got the overal premise and scene / chapters sequences in place. I'm reviewing and planning on how to drive the transition smoothly between them, and front-loading the earlier bits to make later scenes a logical progression. I'll probably end up with 3 pages of skeleton and have to condense it down to the 1 page item. Then it's chosing "the one" to showcase for 10 pages....

Here's the question I can't seem to find an answer for. How much is 90,000 words if you are typing double-spaced single sided pages (12 or 10 point font)? Printed, I expect it comes up to the 300-350 pages or so that seem common to the WOTC novels coming out, but is there a 1-1 correspondence in the printout from your typical word processing program? I figured I would type up the 10 page scene and then word count it via the program to get an estimate of the overall future count, but if anybody can give me the answer before I sure would appreciate it!

 

[Scribe Ineti]

Here's the question I can't seem to find an answer for. How much is 90,000 words if you are typing double-spaced single sided pages (12 or 10 point font)? Printed, I expect it comes up to the 300-350 pages or so that seem common to the WOTC novels coming out, but is there a 1-1 correspondence in the printout from your typical word processing program? I figured I would type up the 10 page scene and then word count it via the program to get an estimate of the overall future count, but if anybody can give me the answer before I sure would appreciate it!

A standard manuscript format using double-spacing and a monotype font such as Courier 12 pt, with 1" margins all around, yields about 250 words per page. This is an industry standard for short stories and most novel publishers, simply because it's easier to estimate word count in that fashion.

So, your estimate is about right. 250 wpp/90,000 words=about 360 word processor pages. A 10-page scene should run you about 2500 words, give or take.