Beginning and naïve writers pay
little attention to word counts. My first efforts had one 4,000-word story
which I thought was a picture book text.
Near beginners wake up to the bean
counting that exists among publishing and marketing professionals. Word counts
become a near obsession, despite most publishing professionals stating that
these numbers are not hard and fast rules and a story need be what it need be.
Once writers discover the word count parameters, these become a religion. I
confess to the same.
But if you are going to treat word
counts as guides, you must know that in writing for younger readers, the
ordinary counts of the publishing world don’t count. Kidlit has its own.
Example:
- Novella: A fictional work that's between
17,500 and 40,000 words long.
In kidlit, these counts would overlap chapter books and novels for
middle grade readers.
- Novelette: A fictional work that's
between 7,500 and 17,500 words long
In kidlit, these counts are squarely in the chapter
book category.
- Short story: A fictional work that's
usually less than 10,000 words long, but can be over 1,000 words
In kidlit, these counts overlap easy readers to chapter books.
- Flash fiction: A short story that's 500
words or less
In kidlit, these are picture book texts. *
*I love thinking of picture book texts as flash
fiction. It’s a remarkable storytelling category either way.
After many years of writing, I find word counts to be an
accounting of sorts for a day’s work. My output is around a thousand words a
day, give or take. This says little about the stories and what they “should be”
word count-wise. It’s an account between me and myself regarding the
fulfillment of my writing abilities. It tells me I’m doing my job, even if no
one else cares.
And since I mentioned novellas* in this post, where
have they gone? Publishing’s stepchild is overdue for TLC and attention, in my unhumble opinion.
A post about this can be read here.
Back to counting the total words of manuscripts, I’m
less fussy now. At my age and many years of writing, I see fussing for what it
is. It’s a replacement for taking care of the real deal: a great story, which
can’t be quantified.
4 comments:
I loved your cartoon at the end. Definitely added a smile to my day.
Kidlit is a different stripe of cat altogether. That's why it's so important to have critique partners in your own genre, who know its conventions. And even so, we have to remember to have as many or as few words to tell the story.
You're right; novellas are difficult to publish traditionally. Even well-known authors have had trouble with this. J.D. Salinger agreed to have one of his longest short stories published as a novella, but wouldn't agree to the compromises that the publisher wanted. So it never happened.
I hadn't thought about picture books as flash fiction. So very true! I agree that often all these rules, word counts among other things, are distractions for writers on just creating a great story. After all, it's easier to fuss about word counts that to work on the harder elements of the craft. Great post!
Post a Comment