Hello, friends!
This past week I dealt with more of the Big Move, which is now the Big Cleaning Project. Going through the things that were left in the apartment, finding the important things that will go to the new place and making sure the rest is ready to be removed. We found a place to do that and it’ll be done next week. So this coming week will be somewhat quiet. I’ll go back to my parents’ old place, finish going through the last things I need to go through, and then bring the stuff that needs to come to the new place.
I saw Superman yesterday, which I think I’ll write more about later in this newsletter.
Welcome to the 130th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and the kinds of stories I like to read and write.
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Project: Moons saw about 2,400 words added to it this week, bringing the word count total to around 20,000 words. The manuscript is around 83 pages right now. Some days certainly felt like a struggle while other days went smoothly.
I’ve done almost no marketing research or working on anything else this summer because I’ve been so consumed with Dad’s move. We’re almost halfway through summer vacation (which almost makes me want to cry) and I don’t see it changing much. With this week being a little slower, I’m hoping to get into market research for the books and maybe write a short story. I should also begin working on the third draft of Project: Amusement Park.
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There are two literary forms that I love: the novella and the really long novel. That’s not to say that I don’t like stories that fall into other kinds of formats because I do. Short stories are wonderful. You can live an entire, epic life in one or two sittings. Average size novels are also great. Something between 300 and 400 pages is a great size because it tells the story with just enough time spent to become part of that world but not so much time that one feels like a permanent resident. For me, though, novellas and really long novels are the things that speak to me, both as a reader and as a writer.
A novella is a short novel. Technically a novella is between 17,500 and 40,000 words in length and a novelette is between 7,500 words and 17,500 words. In my experience, however, I’ve seen (and have labeled) works from 7,500 words to around 40,000 words as novellas. The only times it may matter is in the various fiction award categories put out by the variety of writers organizations, like the SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association) or HWA (Horror Writers Association). For a while, novellas were hard sells, so much so that Stephen King published collections of novellas a few times. The last 25 years or so have changed that because of the small presses and the advent of print-on-demand. It’s no longer considered silly to publish a book that’s only 100-200 pages long.
As a reader, the novella is a really good form because it has the same impact as a short story but allows you to live longer in the world of the story, like a novel does. It doesn’t eat up tons of time reading it. The same goes for writing a novella. The first draft of my novella Alice on the Shelf took about a week or two to write. Editing and revising it was also much quicker. I liked that I could tell the story I wanted to tell but didn’t have to blow it up with lots of meandering. The same thing goes for my novella Shadowed. That story began as a short story. I loved the short story but felt like there was more to tell. I attempted writing it as a novel but the story didn’t work. The novella form gave me the ability to get into my characters’ heads and glimpse their lives but also forced me to be concise with it.
Really long novels are also something I enjoy. When I get a 600-page (or more) novel, I get excited. Stephen King’s seven-volume (erm…eight volume) The Dark Tower story is a place I feel at home, same with his 1,000+ pagers The Stand and It. When a writer I like has a huge book that comes out, a real doorstopper, I’m excited. I love the multiple POVs, the exploring their world, knowing this and that and the other thing.
The same goes for my writing. Echoes on the Pond probably could’ve been told with fewer characters and POVs, but that’s not how the story presented itself to me. Of course everyone gets at least a little internal glimpse as their stories unfold. As a reader, I love that shit! The novel that I’m currently shopping around started off the same way but I’ve edited it to mainly be from the POV of the two main characters. It shortened the book by nearly 100 pages from where I was happy with it and, I think, made it stronger. The novel that I’m currently in the process of revising, the one I refer to as Project: Amusement Park, is another big book. Lots of characters, lots of POVs, and even several time periods. It has a lot going on in it, just like the books I enjoy reading.
The greatest part of storytelling (and reading) is that it’s all valid. I truly admire all forms even if I’m drawn towards some more than others. What matters, at the end of the day, is whether the story is told well. If it is, if it captures me and allows me to forget about the outside world for a little while, then it did its job, length be damned.
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That little boy in the picture was pretty thrilled yesterday. He saw James Gunn’s Superman with his family. See the picture? That’s how he felt about it.
I was a fan of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice as well as the Justice League films (both versions) but that’s because I can enjoy many versions of these characters. I didn’t love them but enjoyed them for what they were: adaptations of characters that had been around 75 years. Well, now it’s been 85+ years and I can still get behind those movies but from the very first my reaction to them was—and is—that they’re not a lot of fun. And, worse than that, they aren’t for kids.
When it was announced that James Gunn would be taking over DC Studios (with Peter Safran) and then announced Gunn would write and direct Superman, I had a good feeling. Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies have tons of heart and humor. While Superman doesn’t need humor, he certainly can crack a smile.
Sitting in Superman yesterday with my family, I felt like a kid again. This is a Superman for the ages. Is the story perfect? No. But it’s good. The acting is great. David Corenswet is excellent as Superman/Clark Kent. I believed him in the role the same way I believed Christopher Reeve in the role. The rest of the cast is also excellent. Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor were scene stealers, particularly Hoult. This is the best live action version of Lex Luthor. Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen is also pitch perfect. I could go on….
The thing that I loved most about Superman, besides being a great adventure, besides watching Superman fight giant monsters and robots and everything else, besides the heart and caring and hope that the movie made me feel, the absolute BEST thing was that the kids in the audience seemed to love it. I remember some children who’d been taken to Batman V Superman, carrying 12-inch action figures of the characters, who had to be taken out midway through the movie because it was too scary for them. That didn’t happen this time.
I know I wasn’t alone in this, either, because the audience actually began talking to the screen when a character has the chance to help but it means doing something they don’t want to do. The audience encouraged the character to do it.
I know many people are feeling superhero fatigue after all these years of superhero movies, but Superman is a reminder that you can tell an epic story with a well-known character and have it be relevant, important, and entertaining as hell. I suspect I will see it again soon. Not for the 47-year-old writing this, but for the four-or-five-year-old in the picture.
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Gautham: Bill Gauthier.com 
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