Superstition

Here's the dilemma. My chapters are about 8000 words long. It's a length I became comfortable with writing Magdalena Curse and I've stuck with it since.
But it means that Brodmaw Bay, at around 104 thousand words in total, amounts to 13 chapters. And so does the novel (at 105 thousand words) I completed over the summer just gone.
Is 13 an unlucky number? Is this a willfully perverse tempting of fate? Many people avoid the number, just as many (me included) avoid walking under ladders.
I've never succumbed to this particular superstition. Maybe, given the ghoulish subject matter my fiction deals in, I should. On the other hand, 13 chapters in a story dealing with malevolent people and the baleful magic they summon might seem peculiarly appropriate.
No dilemma at all then. Though my fingers are firmly crossed ... and I'm buggered if I'll ever put my left sock on before my right.
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Published on October 15, 2011 06:38
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message 1: by Tina (new)

Tina Callaghan Francis, that sort of superstition kept me from writing the kind of story I needed to tell for a long time. You write about good v evil and I reckon as long as your intentions are good, you have nothing to worry about. Write on, my friend regardless of the numbers!


message 2: by Josephine (Jo) (new)

Josephine (Jo) Sounds like a great book to me and I shall have no superstition about reading it. I loved The Waiting Room and will probably need to sleep with the light on. Bring it on!
Jo


message 3: by F.G. (new)

F.G. Cottam Thanks, Jo, very encouraging and kind of you to say that. This one is pretty sinister in places. You may be grateful for those low energy bulbs!
F


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