1. Board Book — 100 words max
2. Early Picturebook — 500 words max
3. Picturebook — 1,000 words max (Seriously. Max.)
4. Nonfiction Picturebook — 2,000 words max
5. Early Reader — This varies widely, depending on grade level. I’d say 3,500 words is an absolute max.
6. Chapterbook — 10,000 words max
7. Middle Grade — 35,000 words max for contemporary, mystery, humor, 45,000 max for fantasy/sci-fi, adventure and historical
8. YA — 70,000 words max for contemporary, humor, mystery, historical, romance, etc. 90,000 words max for fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal, etc.

you love her, don’t you?

As you can see, manuscript length for young adult (YA) and children’s books depends on the age of your target audience.

And while there are individual reader exceptions (I bet you were probably reading at a higher age level than your actual age when growing up. Me too.), the above rules are what the agents and the publishers of the world play by, so if you want to play in their world, you have to play by their rules.

At least to for the first few rounds of the game. Once you’ve established a track record with your agent and your publisher by having steady sales, longer manuscripts are more of an option.

Logan: So what are we talking here? Short novel? Kafka length, or longer. Dos Pasos? Tolstoy? Or longer? Robert Musil? Proust? I’m not throwing you with these names, am I?
- Gilmore Girls, “Let Me Hear Your Balalaikas Ringing Out “, 6.8

anime luv – d.grayman

If so, Write or Die! is your kind of writing tool. This online application will provide a Consequence of your choice, from Gentle to Electric Shock. You can also set a Forgiving, Strict, or Evil Grace Period before the Consequence takes place.

If you attempt to escape by saying you prefer not to be online while you write, you are out of luck. There is a desktop version of Write or Die! available for $10 – a very economical stick indeed. It uses the Adobe AIR framework, which means it will run on Windows, Mac, and Linux, so you truly have no excuse.

Unless you resort to pen and paper.

In which case I expect you to turn out as much work as Neil Gaiman, since he uses that venue as well.

Bassanio: Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence; And here choose I; joy be the consequence!
- Merchant of Venice

conrad

Fanfiction are stories written using characters and settings that were originally written by someone else. J.K Rowling wrote the Harry Potter series. Thousands of fans have written millions of words using Ms. Rowling’s characters. They have spent uncounted hours pouring their hearts into telling tales in a magical world that is not their own.

Is fan fiction good? Bad?

Different authors take difference stances on fanfiction. George R. R. Martin is against it. Catherynne M. Valente has the rule of “don’t make money off it and we’re cool”. Jim Butcher and Mercedes Lackey have gone Creative Commons on it.

Personally, I think of fanfiction as an expressive outlet of caring. People care about these characters, the setting, the world. They want to be part of the story, and in turn, add their stories to the mix. Playing is fun; it fills a need. It should not be warped into possession nor profit.

The common sense basics of fanfiction are:

• the author is not going to read it, don’t send it to them
• you do not own those characters, therefore you cannot sell them in any way, shape, or form
• be nice and credit the original author without whom you wouldn’t have any characters to put in that fanfic

I admit to writing fanfiction. Years ago. Not much, not often, but every now and then a story using someone else’s characters would get stuck in my head and not leave until I wrote it out. I wrote those short stories for myself, and if someone else happens to like them, well yay.

These days, I write my own characters in my own worlds. I own everything about them, which also means I can sell them off. The thought of someone writing fanfiction about one of my creations is so far away as to not even be a shimmer of a pinpoint of haze on a flat horizon.

But I think it would be kinda nifty.

Just don’t sell it.

Dr. Parnassus:: You can’t stop a story being told.
- The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

when you look at me that way

J.K. Rowling said she didn’t necessarily set out to write a children’s book; she wrote a story she wanted to read. I believe a lot of authors feel the same way, and that is what makes their stories interesting and captivating, because they themselves are interested and captivated by it.

If you don’t enjoy what you are writing, the reader will know. They will see it in the two-dimensional characters and feel the lack of energy of the plot and pacing.

You owe it to yourself, and your reader, to write what you want to write about, what you are passionate about, what you want to share with the world. Because if it matters to you, it will matter to someone else out there.

Every now and then, one of those readers will tell you how much what you wrote meant to them.

At a recent conference, someone who reads this website told me how my Free Ideas page helped her with her own writing. I put up that page to keep track of snippets of story that float through my head, and websites that inspire ideas. I wrote the copy on that web page for myself, as a reminder that any idea can be interpreted many ways. The fact that it also resolved a problem for that reader is proof of the shared connection of humanity.

And that what you care about for yourself, will matter to someone else.

Doctor Who: Look at these people: These human beings. Consider their potential. From the day they arrive on the planet, and blinking step into the sun. There is more to see than can ever be seen. More to do than – No hold on… Sorry, that’s the ‘Lion King’. But the point still stands.
- “The Christmas Invasion”, 2.0

his heart’s desire

Jim started collecting data in February 2010, and wrapped things up in March of the same year. Then he consolidated, parsed, and re-worked the data when he should have been writing. As much as I want to read more books by Jim Hines, I’m glad he made the time to share this information.

This survey about first novels was a personal project – he wanted to learn how new authors broke into the publishing business. From that data, Jim created many charts, and started busting some book industry myths, such as “you have to know someone” and “self-publishing your breakout novel”.

For anyone interested in becoming a professional author, I highly recommend you check out Jim’s survey. It is informative, enlightening, and should hopefully re-enforce things you have already learned through your own research.

Narrator: Look at this. Isn’t this so MythBusters? Jamie’s truck, flanked by the bomb squad and the paramedics.
- MythBusters

country heart

The AutoCrit Editing Wizard is an online application where you paste in part or all of your manuscript and run one of fourteen different reports, such as Overused Words or Cliché Finder. The results are displayed in your web browser. Which reports you can run and how much of your manuscript you can paste in depend on which version of the AutoCrit wizard you are using.

The Free version has 3 reports and accepts up to 800 words per submission/paste into the text field.

One-year memberships are available at three price/service levels:

• Gold – $47 – 5000 words, 9 reports
• Platinum – $77 – 8000, 14 reports
• Professional – $117 – 100,000 words, 14 reports, ability to submit your entire manuscript

So far, I’ve been using the AutoCrit Wizard on a chapter at a time. Chapters I have looked at, read, read aloud, edited, re-written and edited some more … and which still contain repeated phrases and other things these reports point out to me that I need to fix. It is helping my manuscripts be just a little bit cleaner, a little bit more polished, stand out just a little bit more from the others waiting in the pile.

And that is worth a lot more than the prices listed above to me.

Dorothy: Oh, please! Please, sir! I’ve got to see the Wizard! The Good Witch of the North sent me!
- The Wizard of Oz

doctor who collection obsession #3

That’s fancy sales talk for I’m more likely to get useful links from my favorite author’s websites since they are writers themselves.

Some authors have a dedicated “Links” page – like Maggie Stiefvater and Rosemary Clement-Moore.

For authors that have blogs, look at their tag cloud – this is a bunch of what looks like random words clumped together, usually in a sidebar of the website.

These are tags that the author has applied to their blog posts to help give you an idea of the topic of that entry. It is also a great way to find the specific kind of blog posts you are interested in.

Sometimes words will be bigger than other words in the tag cloud. This means there are more posts associated with that tag. Be sure to read through all of the tags, just in case you find multiple tags for the same kind of topic, as on A. Lee Martinez‘s website which has tags for “aspiring writer” and “aspiring writers“.

Depending how busy they are, some authors may not address any writing craft topics on their website. Or they might have a few articles that they wrote, which I often find the most insightful, such as Garth Nix‘s “Nine Stages to a Novel” or Jim Butcher‘s now defunct Live Journal (hint – start reading at the bottom of the page).

Some authors, like Candace Havens, add to their busy schedule by teaching workshops and online classes. If you want to learn directly from those who have gone before, this is a great way to do so.

No matter how you find the writing information and advice you are looking for, always consider the source. This is one of the primary reasons I prefer links or information directly from an author’s website. If they found it worthy of pointing out, I can probably learn something from it.

Tony Stark: You are the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I’ve ever met. You’ll do great.
- Iron Man

anime luv – saiyuki

Born as David Wolverton, he used that name for over a decade and created several science fiction best-sellers. Turning his hand to fantasy, he created more best-sellers under the name David Farland. You can learn more about those novels from his Runelords website.

From David’s personal website, you can learn more about writing. The best way to do that is by signing up for David’s Daily Kick in the Pants newsletter.

Delivered to your email box every day, this is information about the craft of writing from someone who knows.

And if the topic needs more than one day to cover it, there will be more than one day of that topic. The series of “Million Dollar Outlines” was seven days worth of step-by-step information.

David’s email newsletter is also a timely way to learn when and where he is holding his next workshop. These are limited-attendance events that he personally conducts around the US, ranging from novel writing, to outlining, to a writer’s death camp that will get you through the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in style.

I subscribe to several email newsletters from several different authors. It is an easy, free way to learn more about writing from the people who know. Sometimes they say the same thing. Somethings they say completely different things. All of it is good information.

Alice: Well, in last month’s newsletter, you wrote about how Jesus was coming, but you didn’t mention any dates. So, um, mum wants to know when to get the house tidy.
- The Vicar of Dibley, “Ballykissdibley”, 2.0

best date ever

From the publishing house Tor, over fifteen April Fool’s Day posts graced their website, including five True Facts of the Science!, information about the new new new new Doctor Who, mummies, and a recently announced Entmoot.

Locus Online took part in the fun by announcing that Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross will write an official sequel to Rand’s bestselling novel Atlas Shrugged.

Anyone reading these sites on this day will know that something is amiss. Hopefully the content itself makes the reader skeptical. Googling for information months or days later, you might come across one of these posts and end up scratching your head as you read them.

Bottom line – always check the date of anything you read online. If something is posted on April 1st, you know to question it. For other days of the year, the information is likely valid, however it may not be the most current. Google and other search engines do not display their search results in chronological order – they display their search results in the order of “most relevant” to your search criteria, based on their own internal algorithms.

So enjoy the wackiness that fills the Internet with April Fool’s Day posts. And for any real research, check the date of what you are reading.

Haridson: Really, guys, seriously! Come on, now, look, if you’re done with your little delightful banter, I’ve got some actually useful information, okay?
- Leverage, “The Stork Job”, 1.6

• Words of Affirmation
• Quality Time
• Receiving Gifts
• Acts of Service
• Physical Touch

wax tonbo

Using the five love languages’ patterns, I can add depth to my characters.

If the girl speaks Receiving Gifts and the guy speaks Words of Affirmation, no matter what he says or how often he says it, she won’t really feel loved unless he gives her something tangible, unless he speaks her language.

Same thing goes for her – no matter how many cards, or physical tokens of her affection she gives him, he won’t truly feel her love unless she talks with him.

This kind of dynamic can make for great scenes of misunderstanding and reconciliation.

So what’s your character’s love language?

Dean Winchester: Am I speaking a language you’re not getting here?
- Supernatural, “Route 666″, 1.13