Re: Scope (Patricia's from the Visual & Verbal thread)


"Nicky" <nicky.matthews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1194724378.653108.24980@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Nov 10, 12:18 pm, Jacey Bedford <lookin...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

So - what is scope?


I've been thinking about this and I've decided I don't know either. My
dictionary has it meaning both the intention and the reach of
observation of action and I think I do use it in both senses.

I would say a novel with broad scope would be LoR or maybe HP and War
and Peace ( which I still haven't read) They are concerned with major
events which shape the lives of many people and the cast list is
large.They are also concerned with big ideas about power and evil and
goodness. ( They are also very long and complicated)I suppose they're
looking at a lot of things and are ambitous in intent.( some epic
tales fall into this category, and the big ninteenth century novels)

However I think I would describe some smaller more intimate novels as
being broad in scope when they too are using the incidents in the
story to talk about bigger issues life and death and the nature of
existence - the usual stuff, while they are broad reaching in intent
they are narrower in their sphere of observation and action. (I would
say this covered a lot of lit novels.)

I also would use it of some kind of huge sprawling multi generational
novel which doesn't say much about life death etc but gives a lot of
detail about a lot of lives so a story in which he shere of
observation is large but the purpose of the stroy is limited. (I think
a lot of block busting yarns fall into this category.)

That pretty much covers what I was going to say about it.

In this particular novel I can see that the events were not
earth-shattering. It was very much a personal story - possibly even a
rights of passage story. As a first in a planned trilogy the whole thing
was due to move from the personal to the political, from local to
national, by book three - but to be honest I'm not sure how much of
that my (then) agent made clear in this particular pitch.

If you were marketing it as a trilogy, that should have been clear in the
proposal. If you were marketing it as a stand-alone with potential
sequels...it's a lot harder to make clear, but you should still try, because
you don't want the editor expecting something just like Book 1. OTOH, if
you were planning it as a stand-alone with sequels, there's no reason not to
write the second book, market it, and have the first one available as a
prequel.

So help, please. Define scope. I'm still a bit woolly on this issue,
especially since it cost me a novel sale.

I think it's just a way of saying they liked it and it was 'good'
enough but that it wasn't quite right for
their list now.

What Nicky said. You don't want to get too caught up in rejectomancy,
especially if it's just one editor or house. If you get six or seven of
them all saying the same thing, it's worth worrying about, but in that case,
it's probably also worth investing in companies that make ice skates for
demons.

Patricia C. Wrede


.

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