Tag Archives: words

August 15, 2011 · 2:06 pm

Agape – words of wisdom

I have a window of opportunity today because on Thursday I will be talking about Novel Publicity and next Monday I will be posting a review of a novel ‘Leah’s Wake’ for their current ‘Blog Tour’. This leaves me with a single post to fill and a chance to share with you one of my favourite words:

The word Agapé is a precious word.

(I have put an accent on the e so as not to confuse it with the adjective ‘agape- mouth open wide,’ although it does not seem to appear like that in the dictionary.

‘Agape ( /ˈæɡəpiː/[1] or /əˈɡɑːpeɪ/; Classical Greek: ἀγάπη, agápē; Modern Greek: αγάπη [aˈɣapi]) is one of the Greek words translated into English as love, one which became particularly appropriated in Christian theology as the love of God or Christ for mankind. Many have thought that this word represents divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional, and thoughtful love.’

Quote from Wikipedia

Not that I have used it in any of my writing, although I believe that my main character in Riduna, Harriet, followed the priciple when she watched the love of her life sail away from Riduna to fulfil his desire to explour the world. Although, in one of the earlier chapters of Riduna, the teenage Harriet also discusses her understanding of the nature of love with her best friend Jane, building a graphic illustration of their simplistic notions.

Is any form of love ‘unconditional’?

Maybe that of a mother for her baby –  until all sorts of human elements enter the equation as the baby becomes a child and then a young adult.  

The word agape is also better known in its biblical sense where it is seen more often as a noun than a verb.

I believe that my fondness for the word agape stems from my aspirations in their purest sense. We all like to think that:

  •  We place each other’s needs above our own
  • We always celebrate the good fortune of others 
  • We know when and how to let go for the greater good

 I also imagine that it is a goal we rarely achieve.

1 Comment

Filed under Writing

Tagged as , , ,

July 11, 2011 · 1:18 pm

Watch the word count 85,000, 90,000, 100,000…

I was interested to read an article in the newspaper recently which discussed the new fashion of shorter novels to fit in the the e reader life style. Novellas are coming back into fashion, as are short stories, bite commuter sized reads to while away the hour travelling by train.

When I wrote   ‘Riduna’ I did not think of an optimum length. I just wrote the story until it was finished and, although the editorial process was fairly vigorous, it did not run to cutting out chunks of the novel to make it shorter.

Thus the final word count was just over 102,000 words; (Not 200,000 as mentioned in one newspaper article and I’m not sure whether it was a slip of the tongue on my part or a slip of the pen on behalf of the journalist! I’ll give the journalist the benefit of the doubt since I was quite nervous to be interviewed in those early days)  The actual word count of 102,000 seemed ok for a first novel but larger than the optimum count I’ve heard mentioned of 85,000 since.

I hoped to aim for nearer 85,000 for my second novel, which I hope to be out before the end of the year, but even then I have finished up with over 98,000. Unlike Riduna, which is a very gentle book describing the weaving in and out of island life through the eyes of my key characters until half way through when the pace quickens and every page is full of drama as the saga unfolds, my new novel is action packed throughout. It would take an expert with an independent eye to trim it down, if it was felt necessary to do so.

In my eyes the length  (within reasonable parameters) makes little difference  to a paper based novel, so long as the story is compelling and the characters believable, except maybe in the temptation to decrease the size of print, but is it the same for e books? If my publisher were to bring Riduna out as an e book would it be better to offer an abridged version?

I’m inclined to think the answer is ‘yes.’ What do you think?

2 Comments

Filed under Planning a novel, Riduna, Writing, Writing a novel

Tagged as , ,