I took a few stories I hadn’t been able to sell to print venues and cut them down to 3K for the web. It was an eye-opening exercise and in all the stories I cut, only one or two were hurt, which told me that I was writing fat.

I’m still working on that.

A life sentence-
A bed’s shared
a pillow isn’t

p.s. sorry I’m always in late on the discussions, I’m relying on free wifi where I happen to be.

This is an image I’m sure we can work with if I make it to Harrogate this year…

True about Woolf – one of the lines I’m proudest of in any of my books is when Lucas, the retired hitman in “For the Dogs”, says, “Virginia Woolf – boy, am I glad she’s dead”!

Offshore is the one that won the Booker – I’ll give it a try. Clair felt The Blue Flower was misogynistic – I wouldn’t go that far yet, but halfway through I’m having problems with the fact that the central character isn’t someone you can easily warm to, and given that he’s wooing a 12 year old girl I can only see that getting worse…

Phil

I agree with Stuart that there are plenty of very short books that feel like a slow death reading them. Virginia Woolf has written some very short novels, but I found them like wading through treacle.

But a lot can be said for short books (from a short man…) You mention, Penelope Fitzgerald, Kevin. She is a fabulous writer, one of my favourites, and she rarely wrote a novel over 200 pages. She makes every word count.

There are a lot of novels out there that just feel like a meal at TFI Friday’s: overpriced, lacking in flavour and a tendency to bloat when consumed.

I always thought it might be an industry driven thing. A longer book justifies that extra one pound on the cover price (soon gobbled up by high discounts).

A fellow agent has a theory that the `Great American Novel’ is never less than 500 pages these days, and I kind of agree. To have `something to say’ you need to take a long time to say it, to show how deep you are.

Toodle pip.

Phil

Thanks, Claire, for agreeing about THE BLUE FLOWER. I felt guilty about saying this afterward. On the whole, I’d rather praise other authors.

This is another very good thread and in the end it made me feel better about things. I have been grumpy lately, wishing I could detach from the market (both publishers and readers) and only care about the writing. Lately there has been an enormous struggle with potential revisions to two novels that remove all subtle hints in favor of spelling everything out until even the most inattentive reader grasps it. I resist because I think that cheapens a novel, but those who know warn that subtlety does not sell.
So please forgive my ill humor.

Finally, and completely coincidentally, I received this email this morning from someone who’s just read “Among the Dead” -

“I picked up the book last night, and have read it this morning…
LOVED it.
but why oh why isnt it longer.
I was becoming addicted!”

I feel suitably chastised.

I read the same way.

I liked For the Dogs. I liked Power of the dog.

Both were just the right length.