Dragging Out the Writing Report

4 CommentsWriting

It may be almost midnight on Friday night, but I have completed my word count goal for the week.  So, here’s the word-o-meter,

And, ta-da!  It looks fabulous!  How is she getting through the novel so fast, they wonder.  Well…

After consulting various experts in the field, and chattering about the relativity of writing wisdom on my LJ, I decided to once again drop the word count goal for this novel.  I am assured that 60,000 words is a very respectable length for a YA, and probably more marketable than a longer book.  Besides, the novel just doesn’t want to draw itself out or drag on.  It wants to zoom into the finish.

Never fear, I won’t drop the word count again–if it got too much shorter, I’d have to start looking into the picture book market!

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4 Comments

  1. cindy baldwin

    Reply

    I think 60k is a very respectable YA-length novel. More importantly, I do think it’s pretty important to respect the length the novel WANTS to be…

  2. Suanne

    Reply

    Yeah, see, that’s the kind of talk I like to hear! It’s not that my characters are taking charge–I’m showing wisdom by listening to my novel. 😉

  3. cindy baldwin

    Reply

    Well, I think there’s a lot to be said for not strong-arming the story too much (especially when it comes to length). You can really tell if a story has been drawn out too much or truncated too much, in my opinion.

    I’m dealing with the opposite problem – I started a “short story” this spring that ended up totalling about 50 pages and wants to be a novel! Quite unexpected.

  4. Suanne

    Reply

    Hey, that’s pretty cool. I’d say, let it grow. Worse case scenario you have a novella or something in that length, and have to find a market that will take it. That can be frustrating, ’cause there are so few, but it’s also exciting and feels great to let the story stretch into and fill up it’s own space. Good luck with it, and thanks for the support on my wip!

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