Monday, May 11, 2009

Sub-plots and Word-counts

So I'm a little bit stuck on a subplot. I have zero ideas. But I need one. Mainly to pad out the novel and make it that bit longer, as not much happens in the A story, so I need a B story.

My previous two drafts of the first novel (which vary GREATLY from the next one I'm about to write), both clocked in at about 25k, which isn't many words. Although one was written when I was very young, and the other was rushed.

This then brings me to the next concern: how many words should I write?

Most people classify a novel as having 50k words or more, but most novels are much longer than that. Young Adult or Children's novels, however, will have less words than an adult's novel and I think Meowsie falls into the former. So I'm just gonna have to write and see how many words I get, then I can pad it out or cut it down when I rewrite.

Also, interestingly, Marienbad My Love is claimed by it's author, Mark Leach, to be the longest novel ever at 17,000,000 words. He also claims it contains the longest English sentence (with 3 million words). It was released online in 2008.

All I can say is whoa mama.

1 comment:

  1. Where I stand right now, I am at about 12,000 words. I have it formatted, etc. to be the fit of an actual page on paper and I have about 117 pages. Since YA titles are mainly from 150-250 words, I wouldn't worry about it too much since your previous titles were around 25,000. That would make it about 200-250 pages give or take. An excellent amount of pages for a YA novel. My advice: Don't worry about the amount of pages you write. Instead, focus on the content. That's what really matters and I'm sure you would have no problems with the rest.

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