I've been following this thread for awhile. From my experience, in respect to the writing process, shorter word counts don't always mean nothing's wrong.
For example, in my novel Gabriel, which many who've commented are fairly familiar with, was actually fairly short in the first couple of drafts, somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000 words. But it needed a lot of help in other areas.
In my case, I was trying to tell too long a story within in that short word count.
My current version is slightly over 29,000, but I suspect once the changes I make are done, I'll be a bit over 30,000, but my pacing has improved by leaps on bounds. Before, the word count was shorter, but it still was meandering too much because I wasn't getting to my points quick enough.
When I was trying to get my query letter better last year, some felt Gabriel at 29,000 was too short for MG, but after hearing what JSK and Toothpaste said, I don't think so.
That said, I'm a firm believer that a story is as long or as short as it needs to be.
JSK, while I understand that really long books can be a hindrance to some readers, and of course the obvious costs of printing, you know as well as I do that we can't satisfy everyone.
Some books are just long, and they're still good reads, and the pacing doesn't suffer at all, even past the 30,000 mark. Just how there are different books for different people, there also books for one time in our lives versus another. That's also something to consider. I didn’t read Harry Potter at first because the length and heft of the books looked overwhelming. So your concerns are meritable. But I did eventually read a few and I was well rewarded.
I think it's important to remember that just that athletes improve and evolve at different rates, so do readers, whether or not they have severe learning disabilities.
The things I read now are considerably different than six or seven years ago. The major difference is that I take more chances, I'm not afraid to open certain doors that at one time would've felt like torture. Not necessarily because it was too hard technically, and rarely because it's poorly written, but emotionally I couldn't take it, even if it had the best prose and pacing on Earth.
At the end of the day, it comes down to personal preference just as much as reading ability. Many wouldn't like my books if they can't get past my subject matter, even it was at the shortest possible word count and was paced well. But you and others help to remind me that I'd still find a readership, so long as my story holds up. That's why I've spent the past few months especially trying to make sure of just that.
I'll say this though, there are some stories that are the right length, but aimed at the wrong audience.
Last year, I tried to make a really long story into a chapter book, and it didn't go over so well…
It was an appropriate length at around 5,000 words, but it read too clunky and was too complicated. I have severe problems varying the way I write from one audience to the next.
After putting it away for over seventh months, I've been fiddling with it since the start of this year, and while I better see where I went wrong, fixing it without ruining the MC's voice is proving to be hard.
Just making it readable to ANYONE other than me is tough. For me, the younger I try to write, the more it just suffers. Working with simpler sentence structures and vocabulary makes it tough to write anything simple to understand, without sounding generic, which is never a good idea.
That's probably why some of my novels don't work, because the subject matter may be better suited to chapter books, or even picture books, but even though I read them, trying to adjust my stories into shorter, more limiting forms is proving to be a job all by itself. A full time job at that!
My advice, if you don't belong to a critique group, online or in-person, get as many betas as possible to read the book in question when you're done with the changes. Different people spot different things, and it's a great way to cross-examine your work.
Also, don't feel alone in this. Everyone who's commented knows what you're going through, and believe me, as long as you believe in your story, you'll eventually find ways to fix it for the better.
In the five years I worked on Gabriel, you wouldn't believe all the sleepless nights of revision, countless conflicting advice, and seemingly impossible changes I had to make.
The beginning alone changed over 15 times, and I basically now went through 4 versions of the same story. Thankfully, the version I have now seems to work well. I'm still waiting to hear the final word from some of my trusted readers, but
You won't ALWAYS have to start over like that, but sometimes it's the only way to move forward, especially if you don't want to put the story away in eternal storage, if you get my meaning. I don't shelve anything unless I feel I've done everything in my power and nothing short of a miracle I can't attain will make it work.
Above all else, just remember, you are not alone. Many times just knowing that both gives you the comfort you need, and the strength to move forward
I can't tell you how many times that alone saved me from giving up or just loosing hope.
.
C.J.
P.S. If you'd like, PM me and maybe we can talk it out further.
For example, in my novel Gabriel, which many who've commented are fairly familiar with, was actually fairly short in the first couple of drafts, somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000 words. But it needed a lot of help in other areas.
In my case, I was trying to tell too long a story within in that short word count.
My current version is slightly over 29,000, but I suspect once the changes I make are done, I'll be a bit over 30,000, but my pacing has improved by leaps on bounds. Before, the word count was shorter, but it still was meandering too much because I wasn't getting to my points quick enough.
When I was trying to get my query letter better last year, some felt Gabriel at 29,000 was too short for MG, but after hearing what JSK and Toothpaste said, I don't think so.
That said, I'm a firm believer that a story is as long or as short as it needs to be.
JSK, while I understand that really long books can be a hindrance to some readers, and of course the obvious costs of printing, you know as well as I do that we can't satisfy everyone.
Some books are just long, and they're still good reads, and the pacing doesn't suffer at all, even past the 30,000 mark. Just how there are different books for different people, there also books for one time in our lives versus another. That's also something to consider. I didn’t read Harry Potter at first because the length and heft of the books looked overwhelming. So your concerns are meritable. But I did eventually read a few and I was well rewarded.
I think it's important to remember that just that athletes improve and evolve at different rates, so do readers, whether or not they have severe learning disabilities.
The things I read now are considerably different than six or seven years ago. The major difference is that I take more chances, I'm not afraid to open certain doors that at one time would've felt like torture. Not necessarily because it was too hard technically, and rarely because it's poorly written, but emotionally I couldn't take it, even if it had the best prose and pacing on Earth.
At the end of the day, it comes down to personal preference just as much as reading ability. Many wouldn't like my books if they can't get past my subject matter, even it was at the shortest possible word count and was paced well. But you and others help to remind me that I'd still find a readership, so long as my story holds up. That's why I've spent the past few months especially trying to make sure of just that.
I'll say this though, there are some stories that are the right length, but aimed at the wrong audience.
Last year, I tried to make a really long story into a chapter book, and it didn't go over so well…
It was an appropriate length at around 5,000 words, but it read too clunky and was too complicated. I have severe problems varying the way I write from one audience to the next.
After putting it away for over seventh months, I've been fiddling with it since the start of this year, and while I better see where I went wrong, fixing it without ruining the MC's voice is proving to be hard.
Just making it readable to ANYONE other than me is tough. For me, the younger I try to write, the more it just suffers. Working with simpler sentence structures and vocabulary makes it tough to write anything simple to understand, without sounding generic, which is never a good idea.
That's probably why some of my novels don't work, because the subject matter may be better suited to chapter books, or even picture books, but even though I read them, trying to adjust my stories into shorter, more limiting forms is proving to be a job all by itself. A full time job at that!
My advice, if you don't belong to a critique group, online or in-person, get as many betas as possible to read the book in question when you're done with the changes. Different people spot different things, and it's a great way to cross-examine your work.
Also, don't feel alone in this. Everyone who's commented knows what you're going through, and believe me, as long as you believe in your story, you'll eventually find ways to fix it for the better.
In the five years I worked on Gabriel, you wouldn't believe all the sleepless nights of revision, countless conflicting advice, and seemingly impossible changes I had to make.
The beginning alone changed over 15 times, and I basically now went through 4 versions of the same story. Thankfully, the version I have now seems to work well. I'm still waiting to hear the final word from some of my trusted readers, but
You won't ALWAYS have to start over like that, but sometimes it's the only way to move forward, especially if you don't want to put the story away in eternal storage, if you get my meaning. I don't shelve anything unless I feel I've done everything in my power and nothing short of a miracle I can't attain will make it work.
Above all else, just remember, you are not alone. Many times just knowing that both gives you the comfort you need, and the strength to move forward
I can't tell you how many times that alone saved me from giving up or just loosing hope.
.
C.J.
P.S. If you'd like, PM me and maybe we can talk it out further.
