YA Fiction

Lots more research done - surfing the web is one of my true skills - and I've discovered a couple of things.

There is no definitive word length for YA. Books have been published from 20k up to and past 100K. The majority of sources quote 40-60K as the norm. Surprisingly few suggest checking with the guidelines on prospective agents or publishers websites (I would suggest this be a step set in concrete).

Secondly, a good YA story will take as many words as it takes to tell the whole story so write the manuscript, polish it till it shines, and then worry about word length.

Doesn't that second one sound like good advice for all fiction?

So if you take care of the second point, the first point will take care of itself, and don't believe everything you read on the web. There are a lot of uninformed people out there who are either guessing or purposely spreading bad information...150K as the norm - as if!

Back to work...

WIP

I know it's not Wednesday, but it's been a while since I've been able to post any sort of progress on anything substantial - and it is only 5 minutes till midnight here in Australia on a Tuesday night so it's not far away.

My WIP doesn't have a title at the moment.

It does have:

a 1400 word outline
a 500 word bio on the two main characters, the antagonist, and five other characters so far.
Pictures (lots of them) to help me get a mental fix on one of my characters. Strangely enough, I have perfectly good mental pictures of all the others.

And the beginnings of the first chapter. Can anyone tell me if there is a suggested size and number for chapters in a YA novel. I know many of you have done this before so I figured I'd get it straight from those in the know. Cheers in advance.

I think I'm right in thinking YA tends to be between 45-60,000 words...

I shall set the bar at the bottom and work my way up - until told differently ;c)

Is 45k and 15 chapters, making that around 3000 words per chapter for those of you without enough toes and couldn't be stuffed getting out the calculator, too short for a YA novel?

Take That

Now I think I said something about writing less and not worrying so much about things...and then my muse came back from vacation - with the full outline for a YA novel - for boys (which are apparently in demand). And it's not a horror, it's not even dark, or paranormal. There's only two dead bodies in the whole thing. There's not even any sex - only two kisses, and chaste ones at that!

God help me.

It might even be Middle Grade! I need to find out what the rules are for defining where it sits.

So tomorrow I have something to contribute to WIP Wednesday.

I've already outlined all the chapters! I themes, I have plants and payoffs, I have cute heart felt moments and lots of tension and conflict. Now if I can just find the right words.

No more talk. No more hints. Just WIP progress reports as they come to hand. May have to break out the bean counter again ;c)

Devoid

Yesterday I wrote a long post on how I felt devoid of anything even closely resembling enthusiasm for writing at the moment. Then I deleted it because I thought it would be taken as a little bit of a whine as opposed to a thoughtful consideration of where I'm at.

I'm not writing as much, and therefore I'm not blogging as much. It's as simple as that really.

I'm biding my time at the moment. I'm struggling with a couple of writing concepts that must be truly understood for me to be able to move forward. I need to nail down the central question, and I need to be able to define a tight central plot around that central question. If the light finally goes on and I figure out how to do this consistently, it'll be a watershed moment and I'll move forward again. Hopefully it doesn't take years to get there.

I think I'm winning the 'Rejected from Necrotic Tissue Club' as I received another knock back from them last night (that's two in the last week). This one was the nicest personalised rejection I've ever had, but still, in the end, a no. A rose by any other name...

Still not up to Danielle's great heights of five rejections last week but I've had four in the last nine days so I'm not far behind.

Now I need to find another market to send 'Worth the Wait' to. Fingers crossed.

Speak soonish...

BT

Slow

Not a lot to report on the writing front at the moment. Still reading the Dexter omnibus which has a nasty habit of putting me to sleep every few chapters - not the books fault. I'm just ultra tired. May have something to do with staying up late and watching the cricket...

Still haven't done any writing.

I've received a total of 3 rejections and no acceptances this week. Last night Worth the Wait, which was long listed for a Xmas antho, became the third. :c(

All three have since gone back out to market.

I'm really just not feeling it at the moment. The muse has not only left the building, I think she sold the house and left the general area. I have no drive and no passion at the moment. It's quite sad.

Hope things are better in your writing endeavours.

BT

In First Gear

I outlined a new short story yesterday. I'm targeting Issue #3 of Emerald Tales. The outline stands at nearly 1500 words so getting it all in under the 4K mark may be difficult.

Then two things occurred yesterday to stop me from working last night.

First, I left my USB key at work. All of my work is on that little flash drive. I back it up to my work PC and to my home laptop, but I do all my work directly from it. Leaving it plugged into my work PC left me hanging. I couldn't work on editing anything and I couldn't send out Spoilt Rotten. I couldn't work on my new outline either.

Second, the first test of The Ashes series began last night. Most of you won't be interested, but I love cricket, and for others like me, this is the ultimate contest between traditional rivals which has been going on for 127 years. I'm guessing there isn't many other sporting rivalries anywhere in the world which have been going that long. Yes, test cricket can be boring, but for a passionate player of the sport, and a patriotic Aussie to boot, I can waste days watching it.

In the end, I checked my email a couple of times (which was very quiet), flicked through ME2 again, watched the cricket, and did no writing.

Tomorrow I have a day off from my normal job. Whatever I don't get done today (editing, finding a market, working on new outline) will be done tomorrow. I also need to continue my reading and finish a project with my youngest (can't really call her my little one anymore).

So far today I've written up the review of Darkly Dreaming Dexter, the first book in the Dexter Omnibus so I can move onto the second book with a clear conscience. Now - to find a market for SR.

**Update**

I can't do anything with Spoilt Rotten until I get home. I have a strange inclining that I sent it out and didn't update my spread sheet - need to check. It turned out that Digging Up The Past wasn't currently out at market either so I've found somewhere for that. At 6170 words, it's a slightly more difficult piece to find a home for.

If SR has gone out as I suspect, then all of my currently completed pieces are in the market place awaiting an editors stomp...er...stamp of approval.

My new piece is well outlined so it can wait a week or three before I do anything further on it (although chances are I'll play with it well before then - do shorts count as WIP Wednesday?) which leaves me with just reading.

And waiting....

Isn't this writing game just mega fun?

B

***Updating the update***

Spoilt Rotten had not been resubbed anywhere - it has now. I now have all of my current batch of short stories out in the wild. New goals for tomorrow:

To read the second book in the Dexter Omnibus and to read Issue 7 of NT.

And wait for those acceptances to roll in ;c)

Back to the cricket...

Alan Baxter Blog Tour

Sometime back I did a review on two novels (RealmShift & MageSign) for fellow AHWA member, Alan Baxter. Alan labelled my first review as honest and thorough and my second as, well, he's using that one to promote the book so I'm guessing he was quite happy with that one.

Since that time Alan and I have struck up somewhat of a cyber-writing-type friendship so I was honoured when he asked if I'd consider being part of his book blog tour - obviously I said yes.

He's been working feverishly behind the scenes to sort everything out and we now have the following announcement:

Alan Baxter takes his dark fantasy novels RealmShift and MageSign on the virtual road with a 10 day Blog Book Tour. Follow the tour each day to a different blog and learn all kinds of interesting things, not only about Alan and his books, but also about what dark fantasy really is, indie authorship, where to find demons and so much more.

Not only that, but for the duration of the tour you can buy ebook versions of RealmShift and MageSign from Smashwords.com for just $1 each.

Here's the itinerary of the tour:

Day One: Guest post: Dark Fantasy – What is it exactly? - Monday 20th July at The Creative Penn http://www.thecreativepenn.com/

Day Two: Interviewed by Leticia Supple - Tues 21st July at Brascoe Books Blog http://www.brascoebooks.com.au/newblog/

Day Three: Guest post: Writing a good fight scene - Wed 22nd July at David Wood Online http://davidwoodonline.blogspot.com/

Day Four: Interviewed by April Hamilton - Thurs 23rd July at Publetariat http://www.publetariat.com/

Day Five: Guest post: Demons and where to find them - Friday 24th July at Joan De La Haye’s blog http://joandelahaye.wordpress.com/

Day Six: Wily Writers publishing my short story “Stand Off” (featuring Isiah, the protagonist from RealmShift and MageSign) as both text and podcast - Sat 25th July at Wily Writers website http://www.wilywriters.com/

Day Seven: Ruthie reviews MageSign - Sun 26th at Ruthie’s Book Reviews http://ruthiesbookreviews.blogspot.com/

Day Eight: Pat Bertram interviews Isiah, the protagonist from RealmShift and MageSign - Mon 27th July at Pat Bertram Introduces... http://patbertram.wordpress.com/

Day Nine: Guest post: Indie authors and the future – Tues 28th July at Musings Of An Aussie Writer - http://musingsofanaussiewriter.blogspot.com/

Day Ten: Guest post: The inspiration for RealmShift and MageSign, what they’re about and what’s next – Wed 29th July at The Furnace http://www.lordshaper.com/

Watch Alan's blog at http://www.alanbaxteronline.com/ daily for direct links to these articles as they're posted.

Introducing...

Please allow me to introduce to you Ashton Nicholas, my grandson.

Ladies - feel free to melt.

He has apparently been a wonderful baby since arrival, managing only to be a pain to his overly tired mother, but absolutely charming to everyone else.

Amie, sweetheart, I may not get the chance to tell you anywhere near enough how much your mother and I love you, but I take this opportunity to say how proud we are of you and how over the moon we are that you and Ashton are safe and well. I would still have preferred you to wait a few more years, but it's not likely he's about to be put back so we may as well move on.


I'm also going to take this opportunity to say how proud I am of Ashton's father, John. From all reports he really stepped up to the plate during this stressful time and has been wonderful in support of my eldest daughter. Thank you, John, for everything you have so far done for Amie and my grandson (don't muck it up or I will come looking for you).


Just so you can all see that I'm not completely useless when it comes to being a grandad - here's a pic of me with the newest addition to our family. Can't wait till he's a teen and causing his parents a similar amount of grief they caused us ;c)

On the writing front, I've managed to finish reading the first Dexter book in the Omnibus and penned a whole zero new words. I haven't even managed to finish editing my last story, or resend out Spoilt Rotten - maybe tomorrow - definitely before Friday...


I hope things are moving forward with all your own writing exploits. Good luck with your submissions.


BT

Links

I've finally caught up on my feed reading and now present some of the gems for your viewing pleasure.

Thanks to Ellen for putting me onto this article about pacing over at the Enchanted Inkpot.

Josephine Damian alerted me to an article from Robin Hobb that is so scary every blogger should read it. It is so me it's scary!

Apart from the great pictures which accompany this article from the Mystery Man on Film, it is also a great discussion about the misconstrued adverb. As does Steve Harper Piziks over at the Book View Cafe (but without the nice pics).

And Kate Nash and the infamous Rejector have both posted articles about the dreaded synopsis in the vain hope that it would shed a little more light into our dark brains. Go see if it helps you out.