Writing a novel - Is it worth it?

If you want to write a novel, then go for it!  Anything you write is ultimately for yourself, and for your own enjoyment.  I think writers in general focus on what they want, rather then others want.  I enjoy stories involving mummification, permanent bondage, entombment, and burial, and happen to be lucky enough that others enjoy my stories. 

If you follow your passion, you might be surprised where it takes you!  I was once contacted by an independent publisher wondering if I wanted to publish some of my stories in book format (though I declined for privacy issues).  If you really keep at it, and write what you love, then there's no telling where opportunity might reveal itself.


Edited by Darkraptor1 - Jul-30-2010 at 19:07

Back quite a while ago there use to be racks of bondage and porn books, but there also use to be tons of magazines also. I'm not sure who would print and market a bondage or porn novel any more. Sure the nonfiction, how to and kinky relationship books seem to be still printed. Maybe I just don't go the right places any more. If you lightly hide the kink, the mainstream publishers seem happy to publish that sort of thing. Mostly I would say that if you want to make money and sell it, find a publisher or several first and a market. If you want to write a book just to do it for the fun of it and know you are going to loose the people who only want to invest 5 or 10 min in reading a story.

Originally posted by Alina Is writing a novel really worth the effort?

And the answer to that really depends on your definitions of "worth" and "effort". Is writing hard? Do you want money, kudos, a chance to express yourself, or what?

Hired Help is one of my favourite stories, and at 100,000 or so words is at the longer end of novel length. It's true that most writers of free fiction tend to go for shorter stories, simply because a novel really is a serious undertaking to express one set of ideas, but there is no reason that it won't be read.

If we're talking free fiction, question is not whether or not you should write a novel, but how long the story actually should be to pace it correctly. I've lost track of how many novel or novella length stories I've waded through, thinking, "there's really a short story here trying to get out." But on the other hand, a lot of good ideas don't get enough development, and become unbelievable or dry as a result.

If you actually want it printed for money etc, the picture changes. Then you have to deal with publishers who will aim around 60,000-80,000 words, so that it's thick enough to get the title on the spine. I don't have any experience with getting anything much printed, so I'll leave it that that. But the basic principle applies; there's no point trying to turn a short story into a novel unless you really have the requisite material.

If you are going to commit to a novel-length story, then it's reasonable to be doing a bit of character development. It may seem unproductive on its own, but it helps make the "good bits" work. That's the advantage of a longer story; you can get away with scenes that a shorter story couldn't because you've already done the ground work - a really well crafted scene takes several threads and brings them together to an exciting climax, something you can do better in a novel than in a shorter story.

Don't worry about the extra development taking up "fap-space" in the novel. By going to a longer story, you've already lost those with seriously short attention spans. There's no point worrying about them, so tell the story in a way that takes advantage of the longer format.

Should it be emotive? Hell, yes! Even fap-fodder needs to be; bondage is about emotion. If you build the emotion up, you'll end up with characters that the readers can relate to. Get the reader inside the characters' heads, and vice-versa. I can't stand fiction of the type that reads like a history lesson, a series of events without any explanation of the characters' motivations, turn-ons etc. The best fiction tells us not only what the character is feeling, but why they feel that way.