12.27: Choosing a Length
Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard.
We discuss the ways in which we decide upon the length of the stories we write, and at which point(s) in the creative process we make that decision.
Liner Notes: This is the story-length formula that Mary shared with us:
Ls=((C+L) *750)*M/1.5
(In English: Add the number of characters and the number of locations. Multiply that sum by 750. Then multiply that number by the number of MICE elements the story incorporates and divide by 1.5.)
Or, here’s a handy infographic that she developed later.
Homework: Take a big, complex story, and re-tell it as a children’s story—something you’d read at bedtime, like Are You My Mother? or Goodnight Moon.
Thing of the week: Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries, by Howard Tayler
(Note: the book is shipping now to Kickstarter backers. You can order it now via Backerkit, but it won’t appear at Amazon or the Schlock Mercenary store until August).
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