Last night, the 28th of December 2010, I officially finished my novel, proofreading and all. After I sat and stared at the last words of my novel, amazed at what I had accomplished, I decided to use that dreaded Word Count in which every writer must use at least once. Now, before I finished writing my novel and started proofreading, I had been reading up on how large a novel should be. I read that to make it technically a novel, it has to be at least 50,000 words or more. Average novels run anywhere from 70,000 to 90,000 words, and a good sized novel (such as the later Harry Potter novels) run anywhere from 100,000 to 150,000 words. 200,000 words or more is a bit excessive, and very few publishers will even bother to read it. As the Word Count on my own writing program did it's thing, painstakingly counting my 262 page novel, I waited in worry. Earlier, before I was finished writing it, I was worried that I would have to fill it with too much nonsense to make my quota. Luckily it was in the 170,000 word range already, so I finished it how I wanted to, but then I had to worry if it was going to be too much, and would I have to downsize...I did not want to do that. Everything I wrote thus far fits in my mind, even the little things that seem insignificant mean something to me. They add something in there that helps tell the story, and without them something might not feel right. Might feel empty. So finally, the word count was in, and the end result: 176,723 words altogether, 14 chapters (not including Prologue and Epilogue), and 262 pages of novel-ly fun. Now all I have to do is write out a query letter, and send it to as many publishing companies as my little mind can think of! Wish me luck, and if you have any helpful hints please leave a comment! Thanks <3
-A.M. Burnshaw, Future Published Author
P.S. I posted this on my other blog too, so the deja vu you are feeling if you've read both blogs is not just in your head. Or maybe it is. What do I know? Teehee...
