Rico Lamoureux's Blog: Cafe Lamoureux - Posts Tagged "the-maiden-of-monaco"
Day 17 - Why I Write Novellas
Hello my wonderful readers!
Today is the first day of my new goodreads blog, and 17th. day since the daily blog's conception over on YouTube.
Today I thought I'd write a little on why I write novellas and not novels. A lot of it has to do with my time in film school, where I studied the craft of screenwriting. Unlike traditional forms of writing, this medium requires the writer to be very concise, as one page generally translates to one minute of screen time. And since most people aren't into six hour films, (although some might argue that this is changing due to 'binge-watching', where viewers watch an entire season of a television series within a short period of time via netflix or what have you. I actually like this idea, and will probably become a 'binge-watcher' myself when opportunity allows. Like a book, you're in control of how much you take in at any given time!) screenwriting can sometimes feel rigid.
Forward a few years later and I had awoken from the naive believe that I could actually get into Hollywood based on talent and not on who I knew (or didn't know) and with new direction decided to focus my passion for storytelling back to the conventional narrative form.
What I hadn't expected was for my writing style to change, but that's precisely what I discovered when I sat down to write my first book. I found that it felt more natural to me to tell short stories rather than try to stretch them out when there really was no need to do so. I didn't need to write an entire novel to tell a complete dramatic story. I could evoke emotion, take the reader on an awe-inspiring journey and serve story/character all within the general 25-50k words of a novella.
And thus I had found my niche!
Does this mean I will never write a full-length novel? Not at all. Story and character tell me the appropriate length to serve it properly. Sometimes 20k words, sometimes 30k. In the case of my first print book, The Maiden of Monaco, one can actually consider it a novelette, as it is less than 16k words, yet is one of the most powerful stories I've written to date!
Perhaps someday I'll start a story and soon realize that its characters, its plot, is telling me that it's going to need a greater amount of ink than I usually pour forth. But until then, I'm happy writing novellas:)
Speaking of The Maiden of Monaco, the first two chapters are up on my facebook page, as a way to say thank you to those who LIKE my page:)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...
I'd better wrap up before I turn this blog entry into the length of a novella!
See you tomorrow:)
Today is the first day of my new goodreads blog, and 17th. day since the daily blog's conception over on YouTube.
Today I thought I'd write a little on why I write novellas and not novels. A lot of it has to do with my time in film school, where I studied the craft of screenwriting. Unlike traditional forms of writing, this medium requires the writer to be very concise, as one page generally translates to one minute of screen time. And since most people aren't into six hour films, (although some might argue that this is changing due to 'binge-watching', where viewers watch an entire season of a television series within a short period of time via netflix or what have you. I actually like this idea, and will probably become a 'binge-watcher' myself when opportunity allows. Like a book, you're in control of how much you take in at any given time!) screenwriting can sometimes feel rigid.
Forward a few years later and I had awoken from the naive believe that I could actually get into Hollywood based on talent and not on who I knew (or didn't know) and with new direction decided to focus my passion for storytelling back to the conventional narrative form.
What I hadn't expected was for my writing style to change, but that's precisely what I discovered when I sat down to write my first book. I found that it felt more natural to me to tell short stories rather than try to stretch them out when there really was no need to do so. I didn't need to write an entire novel to tell a complete dramatic story. I could evoke emotion, take the reader on an awe-inspiring journey and serve story/character all within the general 25-50k words of a novella.
And thus I had found my niche!
Does this mean I will never write a full-length novel? Not at all. Story and character tell me the appropriate length to serve it properly. Sometimes 20k words, sometimes 30k. In the case of my first print book, The Maiden of Monaco, one can actually consider it a novelette, as it is less than 16k words, yet is one of the most powerful stories I've written to date!
Perhaps someday I'll start a story and soon realize that its characters, its plot, is telling me that it's going to need a greater amount of ink than I usually pour forth. But until then, I'm happy writing novellas:)
Speaking of The Maiden of Monaco, the first two chapters are up on my facebook page, as a way to say thank you to those who LIKE my page:)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...
I'd better wrap up before I turn this blog entry into the length of a novella!
See you tomorrow:)
Day - 22 The Maiden of Monaco
Welcome my wonderful readers!
You know, sometimes an author will sit down to tell a specific story, but along the way will discover that the tale is destined for much more.
This turned out to be the case with The Maiden of Monaco, my first venture away from ebook novellas and soon to be released as a print book.
At the beginning of this year I was still with a small publisher(before they went out of business and I decided to self-publish) and they were planning to put together an anthology of short stories based on The 12 Days of Christmas. My day was going to be day 10, 10 Lords a Leaping, and so I set out to write this holiday-themed tale.
As I researched, as I contemplated, I began to realize that what I had in mind far exceeded something that should just be a short Christmas story, and so I ended up withdrawing as a contributing author. Not only to give what had become the Maiden of Monaco the full attention it deserved, but also because the red flags of my publisher's unprofessional ways were starting to wave strong. The way I saw it, there was no way I was going to hand over Maiden to such incompetent hands!
So yeah, it really didn't come as a surprise when I found out soon thereafter that the publisher was going out of business. By the time I finished Maiden I knew it was destined to be my first print book. Not to take anything away from my ebooks. They're powerfully dramatic as well. But Maiden needed to be told on the printed page!
And now the time has come for my wonderful child to make its way from a computer file to the printing presses and into the hands of wonderful readers like you!
You can have an advanced read over on my fb page, and if you like it, it's available for preorder, with free shipping and a free bookmark!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...
See you tomorrow:)
You know, sometimes an author will sit down to tell a specific story, but along the way will discover that the tale is destined for much more.
This turned out to be the case with The Maiden of Monaco, my first venture away from ebook novellas and soon to be released as a print book.
At the beginning of this year I was still with a small publisher(before they went out of business and I decided to self-publish) and they were planning to put together an anthology of short stories based on The 12 Days of Christmas. My day was going to be day 10, 10 Lords a Leaping, and so I set out to write this holiday-themed tale.
As I researched, as I contemplated, I began to realize that what I had in mind far exceeded something that should just be a short Christmas story, and so I ended up withdrawing as a contributing author. Not only to give what had become the Maiden of Monaco the full attention it deserved, but also because the red flags of my publisher's unprofessional ways were starting to wave strong. The way I saw it, there was no way I was going to hand over Maiden to such incompetent hands!
So yeah, it really didn't come as a surprise when I found out soon thereafter that the publisher was going out of business. By the time I finished Maiden I knew it was destined to be my first print book. Not to take anything away from my ebooks. They're powerfully dramatic as well. But Maiden needed to be told on the printed page!
And now the time has come for my wonderful child to make its way from a computer file to the printing presses and into the hands of wonderful readers like you!
You can have an advanced read over on my fb page, and if you like it, it's available for preorder, with free shipping and a free bookmark!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...
See you tomorrow:)
Day 58 - The Maiden Of Monaco
Welcome my wonderful readers!
Well, got some good new and bad news. Bad news first? Ok...
Just can't get the conversion right to make The Maiden of Monaco a POD book, so it has to be released as an ebook.
Good news: It's now available!
http://www.lulu.com/shop/rico-lamoure...
And here's a radio interview I recently did for the book!
http://romanceradio.net/2013/12/21/rr...
Thank you for your continued support of my literary works. Happy reading!
See you tomorrow:)
P.S. If you'd like to support this daily blog, please Become A Fan!
Well, got some good new and bad news. Bad news first? Ok...
Just can't get the conversion right to make The Maiden of Monaco a POD book, so it has to be released as an ebook.
Good news: It's now available!
http://www.lulu.com/shop/rico-lamoure...
And here's a radio interview I recently did for the book!
http://romanceradio.net/2013/12/21/rr...
Thank you for your continued support of my literary works. Happy reading!
See you tomorrow:)
P.S. If you'd like to support this daily blog, please Become A Fan!
Cafe Lamoureux
Cafe Lamoureux started off as a daily video blog on youtube and has now taken the form of a daily blog here on goodreads. In addition to discussing his literary works, Rico Lamoureux will be posting d
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