It is a writer’s occupation to create a novel that touches the reader’s life. Through the conflicts, subplots, suspense, cliff hangers, and imagery a novel becomes a movie in the readers head. On the big screen movies have to go through all the main plots in a certain amount of time. It has been shown a movie over three hours normally bores the audience or no one will actually go to the theater to sit through the movie. Therefore why are authors writing novels that exceed the average of five hundred pages? If we cut down movies to get the point across, shouldn’t we cut down novels as well?
When novels exceed five hundred pages they lose touch with the message that’s trying to get across. To make a novel longer you have to add multiple subplots, these plots can confuse the reader because they do not have an extreme relevance to the main conflict in the novel. These excess details can also bore the reader because they are struggling through them to get to the main conflict. Also if a reader sees a novel is more than five hundred pages they will be less likely to pick up the novel and read it. So if an author’s job is to write for the sake of influencing people, why would they write a novel that most individuals would not even attempt to read?
11/22/63 by Stephen King, is a novel that is over eight hundred pages. This novel is about a man going back in time to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This main plot of the story is what initially interested me to read the novel. However, the novel being so long ruined the main plot and the overall message of the novel. There were too many repetitive sub plots of love and saving different families from devastation. This took the attention away from the only reason why I wanted to read the book, to see the outcome of JFK being saved. Also with the sub plots dragging on there were excess and repetitive details that could have been left out of the story that had no real importance to the overall plot. Stephen king could have easily cut down his novel to five hundred pages. This would have enabled readers to be more likely to read it. As well as getting the point across in a clearer way.
Novels over five hundred pages make the message of a novel hard to get across. It causes the reader to get bored with the novel and not want to continue reading it if they know they still have to struggle through hundreds of more pages. We need authors to not exceed the average amount of pages because novels can influence lives. The more novels we have that individuals will read the better lives can become through their message. Therefore, when creating a novel over five hundred pages they fail to get the point across and in essence fail the individuals on the influence the authors could have inflicted on their lives.
I completely agree that novels that are too long ruin the actual plot. No matter what the topic of the book, if it exceeds 500 pages the audience will begin to get bored and confused. Having read 11/22/63 by Stephen King I felt that the novel could have been extraordinary if it were to have been shorter. The main plot of time travel and attempting to save JFK's life interested me very much, but all of the smaller subtopics that were put in just seemed to confuse me. It was very hard to keep track of all the characters and exactly what was going on. Hollywood producers try to not exceed a certain length in the movies that they make, so authors should also do the same when it comes to writing books. Any story should be able to be conveyed within a reasonable amount of pages without taking away any context or meaning.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that books exceeding 500 pages are simly outrageous. When walking through a book store, I'm more likely to pick up a book that is around 200-300 pages than a book thats 600 pages. To me they look intimidatley and I know, like most people, that I don't have the attention span or interest to read one plot line that seems to never be ending.
ReplyDeleteWhen our class first decided to read 11/22/63 I was so interested and excited because the plot was so original. Once I heard that it was over 800 pages I became a little skeptical, but I tried to keep an open mind. I was so interested during the first 300-400 pages and then it seemed to be dragging out. I felt like it could've ended way before page 800 came along. With the multiple subplots, I also believe that it took away from the essential plot line. I wasn't interested in the whole love story and other families stories either. I would've much rather have had it centrally focused on the saving and aftermath of JFK.
I don't see myself reading another novel that is over 500 pages. I think they cause me to get easily distracted and I don't retain as much information. I'll stick to the books with interesting plot lines that get the point across without having to use 500 pages to make that point.