Working Writer Wednesday [6]

Working Writer Wednesday is a weekly meme based on the Wannabe Writer meme hosted by Sarah at Confessions of the Un-Published. This meme is what prompted me to start Writer Quirk, so I am thankful to Sarah for creating it and allowing ANYONE (even a quirkster like me) to join up. So go visit her site and the others who participate. Do it.

Where I am in the writing process:  Feels like nowhere.  Planning on finishing my re-write by October.

My current problem(s):  Still not been able to write much.  Between work, wedding, blogging, and trying to actually read, I've not gotten anything new written in a while.  I was able to implement some of my epiphany in my first and second chapter, and sent some of that off to an open critique in which I labeled myself as a coconut, basically asking for a very blunt and thorough critique.  We'll see how that goes when I get it back.

Sarah's ???: Length?  How long do you like your YA novels to be?

My answer:  When I finished my NaNo project, it came out at about 67k words.  I thought that was a pretty decent number.  I feel for what goes on in my story between 60-75k is about right for me.  I think stories with a fantasy, supernatural, sci-fi, or paranormal element tend to be longer because there is stuff that has to be explained or shown to the reader where contemporary or normal historical novels don't really have to do that.  I do feel a little besieged when a YA novel is 100k or more.  The story has to be pretty darn good to warrant all those pages and keep me from moving on.

My ???:  What is the longest YA book you have read?  Did it need all those words or could it have been cut down?

That's it for this time!

Thanks for visiting!