[Writingworkshop] Last Person Singular
Antony Nigel Donovan
and at MIT.EDU
Sat Jun 20 22:20:17 EDT 2009
I'll give it another read looking for that stuff (probably tomorrow).
I don't think the story should be shorter. You need the length to
develop the story.
Approximate lengths (in words):
Short short - less than 2000 (some would say 1000)
Short story - 2000 to 5000 (occasionally up to 7500).
Novellette - 7500 to 20,000
Novella - 20,000 to 50,000
Novel - 50,000+
There are definitions based on content and execution that can contradict
the above (and are probably more appropriate to an artistic or critical
view of a work - but that's not how publishing functions). All of this
is stuff I've seen in submission guidelines or Joe has told me (in class
and out). As Joe explained it, the 5000 word limit is so that the
magazine and anthology publishers can have more names in the table of
contents. Only well known writers can easily exceed that length. How
those limits apply to online publishing may differ markedly.
About the cat, I think you might need to indicated it's failing health a
little more clearly. I'll know for sure after I re-read. Basically,
cats that don't die violently go one of three ways: a long, very slow
decline for a decade or more, frequently accumulating treatable maladies
along the way; a more rapid decline over a year or two - heart disease
and cancer not uncommon; a very rapid decline over a period of weeks.
The latter is frequently kidney disease which can be arrested if caught
early enough, so probably not what you want. It's unusual for cats to
die unexpectedly if their people take them for regular checkups (unless
you count the cat dying on borrowed time as unexpected).
Other than that, the cat stuff works really well. The lap sitting while
he works at the computer is spot on (for certain cat personalities I
have known).
I hope you can get it published at this length. It is the right length
for this story.
Antony
On Sat, 2009-06-20 at 11:34 +1000, Neale Morison wrote:
> Thanks Antony. If you can remember what the typos and the awkward bits
> are I would greatly appreciate it.
>
> This story has to be long enough to get a bit of historical sweep, and
> to establish the pace that makes the tiny events of child raising and
> cats and growing machine intelligence loom large. I can't think of how
> to cut it down either.
>
> I'll tweak it and prod it for a while and then maybe try it out and
> see if anyone will forgive me for writing over 7500 words. I knew it
> was going to be a bit long, but that limit is news to me. Where do you
> know it from?
>
> And by the way, you're the expert. Does the cat work?
>
> Thanks,
> Neale
>
>
> Antony Nigel Donovan wrote:
> > I found a couple of typos (but didn't write them down because I didn't
> > want to interrupt my reading). I also found a few awkward spots (ibid).
> >
> > I think it's a very good story in the AI genre. It seems to evolve
> > naturally towards a conclusion that isn't obvious, which is very good.
> > And you managed an ending interpretable as happy. Bravo.
> >
> > My only concern is that some of my appreciation of the story is related
> > to my knowledge of the man on whom the narrator is modeled. Oh, and that
> > the story is running close to eleven thousand words. I can't think of
> > how you'd cut it down to 7500 (standard max for great stories by
> > non-name authors).
> >
> > Antony
> >
> > On Fri, 2009-06-19 at 10:52 -0400, Adam Holland wrote:
> >
> > > wow!
> > >
> > > Excited to read it.
> > > And I hope to have some comments on the Uncomfortablists soon.
> > >
> > > On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 10:20 AM, Neale Morison
> > > <neale at nealemorison.com> wrote:
> > > http://www.nealemorison.com/writing/shortstories/LastPersonSingular.pdf
> > >
> > > The lead character in this story is someone you may recognize
> > > from Joe Haldeman's forum. He's been very helpful and reviewed
> > > it. He says he doesn't find it intrusive or exploitative.
> > >
> > > I looked back over the forum posts and I asked him if I could
> > > use him on 18 May. After I finished off Specs on 23rd May I
> > > spent a week and a half thinking about this and started
> > > writing on 3rd June. This took 12 days at a little over 850
> > > words a day for the first draft. Then I trickled out a second
> > > draft with minor tweaks at couple of hundred words a day.
> > >
> > > I'm starting to get over the compulsion to keep on going
> > > without a break for fear I'll never finish the story. It's a
> > > reasonable fear though. I have a long backlog of things
> > > started and not finished.
> > >
> > > I sent Specs to Asimov Magazine. We shall see.
> > >
> > > All the best,
> > > Neale
> > >
> > > --
> > > Neale Morison
> > > neale at nealemorison.com
> > > http://www.nealemorison.com
> > > 35 Frazer St, Leichhardt NSW 2040
> > > +61 417 661 427
> > >
> > >
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>
> --
> Neale Morison
> neale at nealemorison.com
> http://www.nealemorison.com
> 35 Frazer St, Leichhardt NSW 2040
> +61 417 661 427
> _______________________________________________
> Writingworkshop mailing list
> Writingworkshop at nealemorison.org
> http://nealemorison.org/mailman/listinfo/writingworkshop_nealemorison.org
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