60k and counting

I never thought my middle grade book, The Glimmerlings & The Book of Sleep, would get to 60,000 words. I thought I was done at 30. Yeah, right. It's gotten a lot tighter in the past few months, thanks to my awesome critique group: Elise Murphy, Michele Thornton, Juliette Dominguez and Janet Krusi, who has yet to enter the blogosphere. Come on, Janet!

They're all awesome writers and I encourage you to visit their blogs.

So what's the length of your latest WIP? And is it what you imagined it would be?

9 comments:

Sarah J Clark said...

My novel, Glory B, is just over 54,000 words. It's finished and in the hands of my agent now. Hopefully we'll hear good news before Christmas.

Michele Thornton said...

Mine is hitting the 85,000 mark. Some trimming is no doubt due, but my original idea was to write a chapter book. It soon became a YA novel. Sometimes the story dictates a different path than the one you imagined!

Your 60K words sparkle.

Elise Murphy said...

Agent of O is up to 14,500. I'm happy with it so far . . . new chapters coming your way soon!

And FG finished out at 92,000.

When do we get to see the next chunk of Glimmerlings? Huh? Huh? No pressure . . . really.

Ronald L. Smith said...

Thanks for coming by Sarah and good luck with the agent!

Michele--thanks for the compliment. Mark of Courage is no slouch either.

Elise--Fortune's Girl is 92K! Wow, I thought it was a little shorter. I wouldn't mind reading the whole thing in one sitting.

K. M. Walton said...

The End of Normal originally "ended" with 34,000 words but after 15 rounds of revision it offically ended at 60,100. And the 2nd book in the series, The Origin of Normal, ended at 74,000.

Still working on landing an agent...

Ray Veen said...

My latest book is freaking 120 k.

It's YA, almost twice as long as any of my other books, and my agent actually has me adding stuff.

Son I'm counting on wordcount still being secondary to story-telling.

Elise Murphy said...

It's all yours, if you want it. I can't bring myself to read it right now . . . not in the midst of waiting.

Juliette Dominguez said...

Thanks for the big-up, PB! I think both my WIPs will tap out around the 100,000w mark...looking fwd to a little more Glimmer in my life...

Cate Gardner said...

I love the name of your book.

My current WIP 'Theatre of Curious Acts' is a little shorter than I would like, but I'm hoping the 2nd draft will remedy that.