Fiction Writers

Comment by Borislava Borissova on November 16, 2011 at 9:36am

I never account the number of words I have written. I am afraid of being bored with writing if I say myself: "Today I must write 3000 words" etc. I wish writing to be pleasure for me. After I finished my third book "Love and other dreams" with more than 108 000 words I needed some months rest from the story and heroes because I thought I was at the point to hate them and yearned of doing everything else but not writing. Just now I started re-editing it and even re-writing some pages so the number of words is nothing, it is very changeable because of the edit. I see, my writing style is very different from yours but the important is the book to be worthy for the author and readers.

Comment by Robert L. Allen on November 16, 2011 at 7:49pm

Borislave, I have been wondering where you have been. I wanted to suggest you go to Poets and Writer's.com. They deal with the selling of books and other topic. You can't post any writing there, but there is a lot to learn from them and there are a lot of pros, I think. As to a work count, I'm not certain what genre you write in but in mystery, the publishers ask for 70-90,000 words. The word count we are all talking about here is just for fun. I spent two weeks and only gained a few hundred words. But this morning, I advanced two chapters of editing.

 

 

Comment by Borislava Borissova on November 16, 2011 at 8:24pm

Thank you, Robert! I will check the site up and will give you feedback. I received advice to divide my long book on two parts and to publish first part soon and the next within six months because 108 000 words are too many even for a great story. I still consider to take this advice to heart or to cut down some scenes despite they are beautiful...

The work is fiction, here is the blurb:

http://borislavaborissova.quenit.com/books/love-and-other-dreams.html

Comment by Anna L. Walls on November 16, 2011 at 8:57pm

I have a friend who diligently keeps track of how many words she adds and how many she cuts. I don't know how she does it. It would drive me nuts. The closest thing I keep track of is how many pages my document has, but even still, I don't count how many I add or cut. I too just write for the pleasure of it.

Robert, I think the word count is fairly consistant with publishers, it has to do with the size of the cover. Much larger than that and special sized covers have to be designed and that's too much trouble to go to for new writers.

Comment by Catherine Green on November 16, 2011 at 10:18pm

I never really considered word counts until I actually wrote a book I wanted published. Then I discovered that most publishers set a requirement for a minimum of 80,000 words unless they are accepting novellas. I think it is a useful habit because with the popularity of eBooks, readers want something they can read quickly, rather than huge tomes that take a lot effort. Just my personal opinion, I don't want to upset anyone.

Comment by Catherine Green on November 16, 2011 at 10:19pm

Oh, and then of course you can instantly create two or more separate books if you split one up, perfect!

Comment by Anna L. Walls on November 17, 2011 at 3:34am

Yep - gotta pick the perfect place for the split though

Comment by Robert L. Allen on November 17, 2011 at 7:48am

Catherine, by all means you will never offend me!!! My first book was 142,000 words. I edited down to 90,000 words. The reason for a word count is the bindery. Books exceeding 90,000 words, the bindery has to stop and reset to get the whole book in. Which cost more. Thus the price of the book has to be higher. I know Sci-fi and thrillers can go 90 - 100,000 words. Mysteries are under 90,000. I don't know about romance. If you want to find out just look in the Writer's Market, it should say in there somewhere. Anna, if you are going to split up your book make certain that you have an ending and a new beginning in each book. I don't know much about self publishing...

 

 

 

Comment by Robert L. Allen on November 17, 2011 at 8:05am

Borislava, I hope you don't mind. I went to your synopsis and read it. I thought it was a bit wordy. I copied a line from the frist chapter to let you know what I mean:

 

Michelangelo walked to the entrance hall and stood there, staring at the car that drove off on the main alley of the estate.

 

I think the word (there) can be taken out as well as the word (on) thus making the sentence:

Michelangelo walked to the entrance hall and stood, staring at the car that drove off the main alley of the estate.

 

Now I hope I didn't offend you, just trying to help...

 

Comment by Borislava Borissova on November 17, 2011 at 8:38am

Of, if possible to have you as an editor, Robert, I would be happy :)))

Unfortunately you would not have a time for it or to be my beta-reader :(((((

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