After the A to Z Challenge, and the excitement of talking about my favourite children's books for the postings, I am faced with being speaker at women's groups again and the three book signings that are not too far away. More importantly, I have set myself the task of completing the sequel to Candle Dark by the end of July. Woe is me. I've written the first draft, twenty two thousand words. My books are usually about the forty thousand mark, so much to do! For those of you who write for adults, forty thousand words must seem ridiculous. But I make things difficult for myself by writing in the first person; in this case as a child who lives in 1780, and with the accompanying problem of how to make the speech sound authentic and yet possible for today's children to understand.
Interesting that not so very long ago, the accepted length of a children's book was twenty-five thousand words. Anything much longer and the publisher would reject it. Then along came J.K. Rowling....
8 comments:
It sounds like you're making good progress!
Thanks, G.E., now to stop finding excuses and get on with it! :0)
Baby steps Carole. Just put one word in front of another!
That's still a lot of words! Even just a few hundred words a day adds up.
Oh good for you! And yes, Ms. Rowling set a new bar for us and thankfully so. Finally we have some room to create fantastical worlds again. :)
Yes, you are right, Eve.
It's the other things that get themselves in the way, Christine. Having an invalid husband, preparing meals for friends older than ourselves, the publicity I must do... arghhh! :0)
You are right, PK, being able to write more than 25,000 words is of great benefit.
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