Novel Word Count

[SJAB]

Originally Posted by Karen Dales

Thanks so much for your input.

Karen Dales

You are welcome. It is just what I have learned over the past few years. I forgot to say that you need to believe in yourself and your writing, but be prepared to "kill your baby" i.e. go back and tear the novel open and re-write huge chunks of it. I was lucky enough to have some great feedback from a number of quarters, and all of them pointed to the same flaw, as it were. I have, I hope, made a good fist of the re-write, so we shall see.

[Karen Dales]

Originally Posted by SJAB

You are welcome. It is just what I have learned over the past few years. I forgot to say that you need to believe in yourself and your writing, but be prepared to "kill your baby" i.e. go back and tear the novel open and re-write huge chunks of it. I was lucky enough to have some great feedback from a number of quarters, and all of them pointed to the same flaw, as it were. I have, I hope, made a good fist of the re-write, so we shall see.

Oh...that's one thing I'm not going to do...kill the baby. I HAVE done some serious consideration about the nature of the novel in it's final form (it's gone through several re-writes and edits, etc over the years). If need be I will split it into two distinct novels, which it lends itself to. It's currently standing at 313,000 words. If I split it into two novels, the first novel would be about 95,000 words and the second would be 218, 000 words. I'm hoping to see it published as one novel, if not, then having two novels ready to go ain't that bad.

Karen

[SJAB]

Originally Posted by Karen Dales

Oh...that's one thing I'm not going to do...kill the baby. I HAVE done some serious consideration about the nature of the novel in it's final form (it's gone through several re-writes and edits, etc over the years). If need be I will split it into two distinct novels, which it lends itself to. It's currently standing at 313,000 words. If I split it into two novels, the first novel would be about 95,000 words and the second would be 218, 000 words. I'm hoping to see it published as one novel, if not, then having two novels ready to go ain't that bad.

Karen

I never thought I would do it. Said for a long time I wouldn't.

In the end it was decision I did not make easily. But when someone in the industry took the time to read a huge chunk of the work, comment and advise at length on it, then I felt it was worth a shot at doing the revisions suggested.

It might result in the novel selling, it might not, but I feel it was worth doing.

Though I admit my heart is still with the draft I first considered final, I realise now that the style/approach of the first chapter did not hit the mark. I had mimicked the style of the poetry of the era in which it was set. It gave it a surreal feel, but did not draw the general reader in as well as I had hoped it would. What works for a poem of a few hundred words, does not for a chapter of a few thousand, it makes it hard going for the general reader...