So, when I thought of the idea for “Adventures on the Amur,” I thought for sure I had a book on my hands – at least a pulp fiction style book, which I have read would be about 40,000 words. After completing NaNoWriMo and coming out with “My Life in the Projects” A kid’s-eye view of HUD housing in the 1980s,” I was fairly confident that I could convert the story in my head to at least 40,000 words in the computer. Additional sections relevant to the story would easily take it to 50,000.
What I forgot was an issue that I ran into while completing NaNoWriMo? I don’t write enough words. The story may be finished, but no one will publish it if it’s (By the way, congratulations if you made it this far, you have read more than 200 words!) fewer than 50,000 words, and most publishers want 80,000 to 120,000. That’s a lot of words, especially if you consider the approximate word counts of classics like “A Christmas Carol” with 28,000 words, “Animal Farm” with 29,000 words, and “Alice in Wonderland” with 26,000 words. Of course, it’s a pittance compared to “War and Peace’s” more than 500,000 words.
Fortunately, I am not finished with the story, yet. There are still at least 3 chapters to go, and those might take me to the required word count. I can also look at my current writing as an outline and fill out some things that may be missing. The important part is the process – getting the bones of the story written out and then making revisions so that it meets a particular criterium related to the book printing industry without sacrificing the story for the sake of detail.