Montse. 16. Spain. I post things I like here
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Everyone worries about word count. Whether you’re writing a first draft, trying to reach a daily goal, or revising, you’re probably worrying about your word count.
When You Shouldn’t Worry about Word Count:
- Writing your first draft. All first drafts suck. Everyone can cut from their first draft, taking away thousands of words at a time. Don’t worry about your word count during this stage.
- Reaching a daily goal. It doesn’t matter how much you write in a day. Some days you may write two thousand words and some days you may write five hundred. I’ve gone from zero one day to five thousand or more the next. Having a daily goal is fine, but don’t beat yourself up if you don’t reach it every day.
- Writing chapters. Some chapters are one page long. Some are fifty. While different age groups have different chapter lengths (usually to keep the reader’s attention), you shouldn’t worry about chapter length. You can fix this later by splitting up scenes in to chapters.
When You Should Worry about Word Count:
- Final Revisions. Different genres have different word count boundaries, and for good reason. Knowing your genre is a must, and the word count for that genre comes along with it (unless you’re a famous author or a celebrity). Do all you can during your final revisions to get the word count within range.
- NaNoWriMo. You don’t have to worry too much about this, but the winners get some pretty good deals on writing software.
- Contests. There are contests for several genres, but those have word count limits. These word counts are often within the short story range, sometimes in the novellete range. Don’t go over these word counts. The judges will not make exceptions no matter how good your story is.
How to Lower your Word Count
- Adverbs. Writers don’t often realize how many adverbs they use. Using the “find” feature on Microsoft Word can really help with finding all these adverbs. Delete them. If you can’t delete them, rewrite the sentence. That can also get your word count down.
- Unnecessary Words. Words like to, through, under, at, onto, into, under, up, and down can often be omitted and the sentence will still work. Instead of saying She entered the room through the door say She entered the room or instead of saying the cat jumped up onto the bed say the cat jumped on the bed. Other unnecessary words include: adjective, articles, and pronouns.
- Scenes, Dialogue, and Information. Get rid of anything that is not needed. If a scene, a piece of dialogue, or some information does nothing to help plot or character development, get rid of it. I don’t care how much you love it.
- Redundant Phrases. Odds are you’ll find some redundant phrases in your writing. A big one in query letters is “fiction novel”.
- Transitional Phrases. Your high school English teacher probably pressed you to use these, but skip them in creative writing. Don’t use them in dialogue either, unless it fits the character’s personality (like the tenth doctor from Doctor Who, who often used “well” at the beginning of his sentences).
- Description. Don’t over do the description. No one cares what the store clerk looks like or what color your protagonist’s brother’s room is.
- Active Voice. Writing in active voice cuts down your word count a lot…if you weren’t doing that already.
- Dialogue Tags. Not every line of dialogue needs a tag or an explanation of the character’s action. Their words alone can give off a tone and the reader will be able to pick up possible body language and facial expressions.
How to Raise your Word Count
- Subplots.Add subplots. These help flesh out your characters and your world. It gives more opportunity to introduce new ideas and relationships between characters. Here is a subplot resource post.
- Introduce a New Character. But this character has to be relevant. This character may come along with a new subplot or even the main plot. Odds are, they’ll add a few thousand words.
- More Conflict. Raise the stakes for your character. Make them take a wrong turn (literally or figuratively). This will add more relevant scenes and keep your reader interested…as long as it’s interesting.
- Add Description. I know I said to cut description, but some of it can be helpful. Put your reader in your character’s place. Use all five senses, not just sight.
- Revise. You may find plot holes or missing information. You may even add a scene for clarity.
Word Counts* by Genre:
- Adult: 75k - 95k
- General Sci-fi: 100k - 115k
- Hard Sci-fi: 90k - 110k
- General Fantasy: 100k - 11k
- Epic Fantasy: 90k - 120k
- Contemporary Fantasy: 90k - 120k
- Urban Fantasy: 90k - 100k
- Paranormal Romance: 85k - 100k
- Romance: 85k - 100k
- Horror: 80k - 100k
- Mystery/Crime/Thriller: 75k - 90k
- Middle Grade: 25k - 40k
- Fantasy/Sci-fi Middle Grade: 45k - 65k
- Upper Middle Grade: 35k - 45k
- Young Adult: 50k - 80k
- Picture Book: 300 - 1k
- For All Debut Authors: Try not to exceed 100k
*There are exceptions to word count. These are just guidelines.
(via worddocs)
“I want to protect you but… it is so hard. To be strong. I don’t always know what I should do. I must know, though. I am all they have. I am the queen… the… the…”
“…mother,” whispered Missandei.
“Mother to dragons.” Dany shivered.
“No. Mother to us all.”
(via requipping)
“One girl, who is not Nephilim, is not, cannot, be our priority.”
“She is my priority!” Will shouted.
(via linetteherondale)
history meme: 1/8 objects - The Molotov Cocktail
The Molotov cocktail, also known as a petrol bomb or alcohol bomb, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary devices. Due to the relative ease of production, they are frequently used by amateur protesters and non-professionally equipped fighters in urban guerrilla warfares. They are primarily intended to set targets ablaze rather than instantly destroy them.
The Molotov cocktail traces its origins to an improvised incendiary device that was used in the 1936–1939 Spanish Civil War in which General Francisco Franco had Spanish Nationalists use the weapons against Soviet tanks.
The name “Molotov cocktail” was coined by the Finns during the Winter War in World War II. During the war, the Soviet air force made extensive use of incendiaries and cluster bombs against Finnish troops and fortifications. When Soviet People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov claimed in domestic propaganda broadcasts that the USSR was not bombing Finland, but merely delivering food to the starving citizens, the Finns - who were not starving - started sarcastically to call the air bombs Molotov bread baskets. Soon the Finns responded by attacking advancing tanks with “Molotov cocktails”, which were “a drink to go with the food”. Molotov himself highly disliked the name. [read more]
(via sansasrose)
GUYS I WAS AT THE LEAFS GAME WHEN THIS HAPPENED I WAS CRYING
(Source: jhermann, via herondaleinstitute)
all the ladies meme → favorite female leader/ruler/royalty → daenerys targaryen
(Source: jamiedornans, via herondaleinstitute)
(Source: lespez, via muggleland)
I love this woman.
And this is why I have the up-most respect for her.
she’s like a really sweet supportive mom
Actually, people don’t give her enough credit. Instead, they assume she’s “stupid” because her costumes and makeup used to be pretty out there. She is so obsessed with education that her fans will show up to meet her just so they can impress her by showing their grades on their report cards or their diplomas or degrees. She makes a really big deal out of it too, especially when they understand how and why education is important for them personally and isn’t just a means to an end.
It’s kind of amazing that for some people, they managed to find enough resources such that their love of a celebrity inspired them to find alternate paths for themselves where our education system failed them. And yeah, that celebrity also performed “Stupid Hoe.”
I’d always liked Nicki’s music and badassery but the moment that made me really like her was after seeing the Ellen episode where she meets the British girls, Rosie and Sophia Grace, and she was so amazing. She offered to take them shopping for school supplies and told them to follow their musical dreams but to also stick with school. When she sang with them, she cleaned up the language of the song (they were 8 and 6, I think). I was blown away. She is so kind and gentle and graceful. I will always appreciate Nicki Minaj.
I love her so much. She’s beautiful. She’s smart. She’s kind. She’s talented. She’s bad ass. She’s perfect!
(Source: fistopherbrown, via hazelfuckinglevesque)
