Hello everyone! I am writing a fantasy book, i have written around 35,000 words. The finished book should be around 50,000. i am aiming this book at the teen market.There are two main characters who find another world through a bookcase. The school they are in is for exceptional kids ie they are half creature half human. They are sent on a quest and have many riddles, mysteries and dilemas to solve. There is a map and inventory to go with the book, the creatures include blind mermaids, trolls, unicorns that sort of thing. The story unfolds as to what creature my main character is slowly turning into, the story is based in this land but also has a few chapters relating back to the school where plots are starting to occur. During the first book i answer some mysteries surrounding the characters are they good or evil, are they related to someone important to the plot etc but some mysteries unfold into all five books with an almighty battle in book 5 when the biggest mystery is solved, what my main character turns into. Each land they travel too has a puzzle/dilema/mystery to solve and the reader is invited to look back over clues in other chapters to join in the thinking which my charaters are doing. i am very new to this but i am in love with my book so much i never want to leave the adventure once i start to write, please let me know your thoughts good or bad on the book. Please let me know if you have any advice.... Thankyou very much
50,000 words... You may want to up that goal to maybe 80,000, just to be sure that publishers wont get the wrong idea. 50k could be a novel, but it'll probably be very short. Not that that's bad, just that the publisher may want something a bit thicker. Oh, and your plot looks very interesting.
yes to be honest it possibly will end up to around that as i seem to be writing more and more though i was originally worried about 12 / 13 year olds attention spans??
I see what you're saying. But I believe, and you may have to check this out on Google, but 50,000 may be considered a novella, which is not necassarily a full novel. And I understand your worry about short attention spans, but, most of the time, kids that age either read a lot or don't read at all. So take that as you will and I wish you the best of luck. Writing a novel is never an easy thing. Trust me. When I first started my novel, I thought it'd be simple. I mean, how hard could it be to write a story? But there was a lot going into it, and I quickly became overwhelmed. So just keep the first book simple, something I had a LOT of trouble with.
Well, fifty thousand words is very small even for that age group and, I'm sorry, but that plot and format sounds for younger kids than teenagers. Perhaps ten and eleven year olds would like it but I very much doubt many thirteen year olds would whoop at the idea...I sound really mean but I assure you I don't mean to. The plot sounds good but to try and span that even with many sub-plots into five books may be a challenge but if you triumph in it you will be well known and adored by children everywhere...cheesy hehe.
I wouldn't worry about attention spans too much. Most kids, if willing to read in general, will read books longer than 50,000 words. If you can lengthen the story without ruining it, go for it. Even if you can maybe take some of the parts from future books and place them in this one to lengthen it a little bit. But, if you feel like trying to make it longer will mess it up, just don't worry about it. It's better to have a high-quality novella that people will enjoy reading in comparison to a lengthier story that nobody wants to read.
Thanks for the advice, i would rather you tell it how it is, as i say i am new to all this and think the advice on here is great, if you think this would suit a younger audience..fantastic that helps me greatly. i can easily make this book longer without padding it out so will take that on board
if it is for the 'tweens' market [pre-teen to early-teen], as it seems to me to be, then 50k is no problem, since most of the hundreds of 'tween' books i have on my donation center's bookshelves are around that size...
I think most teens who will actually take the time to find a book and read it (lol) probably enjoy reading unless they are being forced to read. I'm 13 and love to read, and have NO problem with long books if they are interesting and I just can't put the book down until I find out "What happens next". IMO don't worry so much about the length of the book, just as long as it's interesting, "tweens" won't mind the length. Sorry if I totally have the wrong idea... lol
