Newest member intro and word count question

AmandaGeorge · Jun 22, 2010

Hello everyone

I found out about this site yesterday afternoon and was accepted overnight (I'm in the UK) so I've been doing a lot of reading of the messages on this board today!

My wonderful husband has just done a word count of my story and it's a lot more words than I was thinking it was! I was thinking it was around 8,000 words but it's actually 11,013 so I'm thinking I should be looking at concluding it soon, but was wondering about word counts - I'm aiming to get 9-11 year olds reading the book and I read that the word counts for that age range is 10,000 to 15,000 for a new author - is that about right or not? If I start tieing up loose ends now I reckon it'll be about 13,000 words which is right in the middle but I want to be sure of how many words I can play with first!

What do you all think?

I apologise if this has already been asked and answered but I've got a terrible memory so can't remember if I've read anything about it on here or not!

Thank you!

Amanda

sissybaby · Jun 22, 2010

Hi, Amanda, and welcome to the Boards. I'm certainly far from knowing a lot, but I've been learning so much around here that I can at least say hello.

When you say 9 to 11 yos. Do you mean it's a chapter book like an early reader, or is it a middle grade novel? Your word count is maybe a bit on the short side if it's a novel. So that might be a contributing factor on what you aim for.

otherwise, your word count needs to be whatever it takes to tell your story. Once you finish, and you start all over again with the editing, you can find ways to cut unnecessary words.

The important thing to remember is that the book isn't finished with the first writing. It may and probably should take several edits to get it polished and ready for submission. There are lots of helpful people around here who can assist you with some of that. The SYW forum is a great place to spend quality - or not - time.

I know someone will come along who can be more helpful, but just wanted to say hello.

Sissy

AmandaGeorge · Jun 22, 2010

Word counts - such a relief!

sissybaby said:
Hi, Amanda, and welcome to the Boards. I'm certainly far from knowing a lot, but I've been learning so much around here that I can at least say hello.

When you say 9 to 11 yos. Do you mean it's a chapter book like an early reader, or is it a middle grade novel? Your word count is maybe a bit on the short side if it's a novel. So that might be a contributing factor on what you aim for.

otherwise, your word count needs to be whatever it takes to tell your story. Once you finish, and you start all over again with the editing, you can find ways to cut unnecessary words.

The important thing to remember is that the book isn't finished with the first writing. It may and probably should take several edits to get it polished and ready for submission. There are lots of helpful people around here who can assist you with some of that. The SYW forum is a great place to spend quality - or not - time.

I know someone will come along who can be more helpful, but just wanted to say hello.

Sissy

Thank you so much, Sissy! I'm not sure what the difference is between a chapter book and a novel as the book I'm writing is both! lol

I've just found out (within the last 5 minutes via email) that the book should be at least 30,000 words so I've got a lot more words to play with thankfully!

I've only just introduced Toni pleading with her mum for an 11th birthday party and I'd like to introduce more about her dad's death before the end of the book too!

SWest · Jun 22, 2010

'Lo!

MsJudy · Jun 22, 2010

Welcome!

May I suggest you start with the Online Writer's Toolkit sticky thread? We've tried to gather all the best resources in one place. You'll find links there to everything you need to know about genre, category, word count, markets, etc.

Find it here: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39596

You can also look up the word counts of your favorite children's books on the RenLearn website. Helpful for comparing your writing to things already on the market. Find it here:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=113931

stormie · Jun 22, 2010

Welcome Amanda, to AW.

You got great advice above, but also--use the word count on your word processing program. Don't bother with manually counting.

shaldna · Jun 23, 2010

welcome.

Smish · Jun 23, 2010

Welcome to the kidlit gang, Amanda!

EagerReader · Jun 23, 2010

Welcome to the land of MG!

kdbeaar · Jun 23, 2010

Welcome!

If I were you, I wouldn't worry about word count right now. Just write your story until it's done. When it's done, edit and polish. Then edit and polish again. Repeat. Then do a word count and see where you stand.

jvc · Jun 23, 2010

Welcome to the forums :welcome:

As KD said above, I would wouldn't worry about the word count until after you've written your first draft and then done the re-write. Once you've started on the re-write of the re-write and the edit, then I'd worry about either cutting words or adding them.

Personally I think it's a bad idea to write a first draft to a specific word count. First write the story, then worry about word counts later.

MsJudy · Jun 23, 2010

I agree, just write the story. But having a ballpark of what the word count should be is still a good thing. If you're at 11K and know you need to make it more than twice as long, that frees you up to look at all the parts of the story for ways to make it richer, more complex or detailed. It's not going to work as well just to keep adding things on at the end to make it longer...

Ivan_B · Jun 23, 2010

If you're anything like me, writing the first draft of the story is just a bit like 'blocking it out'. You want to get the structure of the story, and the main idea, but pretty much every word will change by the time it's finished. Just get the story down, read it through, and you'll know if it means more.
Also, try to write the whole thing at about the same pace, so that editing it will be more consistent. In the end, your story might want to be a little longer, but just forget about that by now.

The only reason why suggested word counts are even there are 1: because the publishing houses have strong ideas about the sorts of lengths of books they can sell, and 2: for 'that sort of reader' (note the scare quotes), there's only a certain amount they can take.
Take neither of these rules seriously. Do what you feel is right.

AmandaGeorge · Jun 23, 2010

Thank you all for your advice! I know I need to be a lot more detailed but I'm just writing what comes to me right now! Knowing that I need to triple my current word count will let me play and describe a lot more when it comes to the editing... I'm just using word counts as guides right now

MJWare · Jun 23, 2010

Welcome!

Others correct me if I'm wrong, but can't early MG go as low as 20k?

Although, if it's your fist novel I wouldn't be surprised if you cut 20% when editing. But you could add that much as well. So, just like the others say, keep a number in the back of your mind, but don't work to it.

Cyia · Jun 23, 2010

Chapter books can cut under 20K, but more contemporary MG needs to be longer.

AmandaGeorge · Jun 24, 2010

JudScotKev said:
Welcome!

May I suggest you start with the Online Writer's Toolkit sticky thread? We've tried to gather all the best resources in one place. You'll find links there to everything you need to know about genre, category, word count, markets, etc.

Find it here: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39596

You can also look up the word counts of your favorite children's books on the RenLearn website. Helpful for comparing your writing to things already on the market. Find it here:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=113931

Thank you! The first thing I did was read the sticky threads but i've got a terrible memory (I'll have forgotten I've written this message within an hour) so I forgot what each message said! Woops!

AmandaGeorge · Jun 24, 2010

mware01 said:
Welcome!

Others correct me if I'm wrong, but can't early MG go as low as 20k?

Although, if it's your fist novel I wouldn't be surprised if you cut 20% when editing. But you could add that much as well. So, just like the others say, keep a number in the back of your mind, but don't work to it.

Thank you! I'm just going to keep writing until I naturally run out of steam then take it from there!

MsJudy · Jun 24, 2010

Things grow and change a lot over time and work, too.

The book I've working on right now is one I set aside about 3 years ago. I wrote a first draft, got stuck, set it aside, wrote 2 other books. Now I'm rewriting the whole thing. First time around, it was about 16,000 words before I gave up. Now it's going to end up being more like 40K. Not because I think it has to be, but because it will be a better, more exciting story if I add more to it.

You might find the same thing happens for you. As the story takes on its own life, it may grow very naturally.

jvc · Jun 24, 2010

Yep, that's true. When I was writing the first draft of my current WIP I thought I'd never get near to 30,000 words with it (MG Fantasy). The story had a life of its own and the first draft grew to 92,000 words. The re-write has it down to about 75,000 at the moment, although I haven't finished with it yet.

AmandaGeorge · Jun 24, 2010

JudScotKev said:
Things grow and change a lot over time and work, too.

The book I've working on right now is one I set aside about 3 years ago. I wrote a first draft, got stuck, set it aside, wrote 2 other books. Now I'm rewriting the whole thing. First time around, it was about 16,000 words before I gave up. Now it's going to end up being more like 40K. Not because I think it has to be, but because it will be a better, more exciting story if I add more to it.

You might find the same thing happens for you. As the story takes on its own life, it may grow very naturally.

Now that I know I've still got all these words to play with I can really go to town on the bullying and the death of Toni's father and maybe introduce Toni to senior school as well!

Newest member intro and word count question

AmandaGeorge

sissybaby

AmandaGeorge

SWest

In the garden...

MsJudy

stormie

storm central

shaldna

The cake is a lie. But still cake.

Smish

Reads more than she writes.

EagerReader

commaholic and adverb junkie

kdbeaar

Trying to finish at least 1 ms!

jvc

Fearsome Dragon Mod

MsJudy

Ivan_B

of Rassilon

AmandaGeorge

MJWare

Kidlit gang, Junior member.

Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny

AmandaGeorge

AmandaGeorge

MsJudy

jvc

Fearsome Dragon Mod

AmandaGeorge