Mary J. McCoy-Dressel

Sensual western romance. Heartwarming stories. Strong family ties.
Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
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  • Tag: word count

    • Week 23~ Whoa, That’s A Long Book! #MFRWauthor Blog Challenge

      Posted at 8:10 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on June 9, 2017

      Here we are at Week 23 in the #MFRWauthor 52-Week Blog Challenge Blog Hop.

      I missed last week because I had my youngest son and daughter-in-law’s belated wedding reception to prepare for, and my oldest son visited from California. They all kept me pleasantly busy. Some of you might remember my youngest was married in October with only parents at the wedding, but the reception was for EVERYONE! Later this year, they’ll have their Official/ Unofficial honeymoon in Ireland.

      On to today’s topic: Word Count Matters… How Much? How Often?

      I’m not sure how to respond to this topic about word counts. Let’s see what I can come up with for Word Count…How much? How Often?

      As the Author:

      How Much: To me, a large word count matters in the cost of editing, formatting, and the cost of delivery in eBook format.

      I have one eBook that has a delivery charge, which is Hey, Cowboy, Bull Rider Series #2, my largest book to date. In fact, I almost split it up into two books, but instead, I made Part One and Part Two within the same book. In revisions a few years later, I cut down the word count. The original word count was around 129,000 words. The revised edition is around 118.000. This was also the most expensive to publish regarding editing and formatting.

      Update: Secret Santa’s Rundown Sleigh: A Holiday Romance Novella is my shortest to date and can be read in two hours or less.

      Word count matters when it comes to publishing houses. I don’t know if they all have word count guidelines, but the ones I’ve looked at do. Anthologies have word count guidelines whether they count full stories or excerpts only.

      How Much: When I start a book, I have a word count in my mind, but I’m not disciplined enough, apparently, to adhere to it. Sure, I could stick to an outline or a strict guideline, but truthfully, I don’t want to.

      How Often: It’s my goal to stay under 80,000 words in future books. After this one → My current Work in Progress (WIP) is longer than I wanted, and I’ve tried cutting, cutting, cutting, but to tell the story that needs to be told, I’ve gone way over the word count I wanted even at the top end. Many revisions are ahead of me on this book. I’m excited to see where it takes me since I wrote The End three days ago.

      With a shorter word count on some books, I’ve heard authors mention reviews stating their books were too short or the reader wanted more.

      As the Reader:

      I don’t buy books by word count. The cost factor matters sometimes. I catch myself looking at the size/ word count at a higher priced book, but if it’s a book I really want, cost or size doesn’t matter.

      How Often: Once in a while I prefer a shorter book—a novella or mid-size. At Christmastime, I purchased some shorter holiday stories and read them quickly. I was happy with the stories because at the time all I wanted was a short read.

      How often might also depend on an author writing a short-story or novella between larger works or as a prequel to a book or series. In my opinion, this benefits the author by keeping a steady flow of new books coming out. It benefits the reader because they get to read another book by one of their favorite authors. Readers might also want to sample an author’s writing, and picking up a free or discounted, shorter, book is a good introduction.

      I don’t know if this prompt pulled out of me what was intended, but this is my input on the topic of Word Count Matters… How much? How often?

      How about you, blog readers? What is your word count preference as a writer and reader? Does it matter?

      This is a blog hop. Please visit the other participants to see what they have to say.

      Have a nice weekend. Stay cool! Thanks for reading.

      Top Image: Pixabay

      1.
      Whoa, That’s A Long Book!
      2.
      Why Do Writers Have to Do Math?
      3.
      Too Many Words? Too Few?
      4.
      How Many Words?
      5.
      We’ll Be Countin’ Words
      6.
      One word down. . . Ahahaha Cathy Writes Romance
      7.
      I’m Not Counting
      8.
      I’m a word banker. . .
      Posted in #MFRWauthor, 52-week blog challenge | 15 Comments | Tagged #Cowboy series, #MFRWauthor, blog challenge, blog hop, contemporary romance, Full Length Novel, mary j mccoy dressel, Romance Novel Series, romance series, That's A Long Book #MFRWauthor Blog Challenge, western romance, word count
    • Nineteen Thousand and Counting ~ NaNo 2012 Update

      Posted at 11:54 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on November 8, 2012

      It’s been a week for NaNoWriMo, and it’s time for a quick update. I’ve been on a roll with this sequel. It’s full of surprises. I have followed my outline, but those ideas brought new ideas. This is one thing I love about writing—the surprises. I’m excited about this second book. (But I can’t get my heart away from the first book, yet.) A little suspense appeared, and I have no idea where it came from, or if it will turn into anything. It follows one of the ideas in my outline, so there’s a good chance this part will remain when all is said and done, and editing and revising takes place. One thing I can honestly say—it absolutely kills me when I have to put a hero or heroine through hell. My characters are strong enough to take it.

      But am I?

      Each day, I write over the daily word count. Election Day was the only day I didn’t because I was engrossed in watching election happenings all evening. Most of my writing is during the day, but on Election Day I wasn’t home to write. I’ll catch up. LOL, I’m way over, what am I worried about? My advice has always been to Wrimo’s to write while you can, what you can, when you can because many times the “Oh no!” comes into play and something happens where you can’t write for a day or two.

      The instant I started this novel, I knew I had a title. Now, I have mixed feelings. To see these two books side by side, yes, the title fits as part of the series, but there are parts in the book I like, and I might have to change titles. When I

      Credit line: © Margojh | Dreamstime.com

      choose a title, I like to take a phrase from the book. Does it make sense? I dunno. It’s just me. There is plenty of time for this.

      Now, a simple breakdown of where I am with this NaNoWriMo 2012 Novel:

      • Word Count: 19,014
      • Pages:              59
      • Chapter           15
      • Not as many strikethroughs as last year
      • I have deleted words.
      • I have written other scenes as they came to me, and stuck them at the end of the document so the words get counted. O_O exciting scenes!
      • I had to go back and fill in a brand new scene to match one of the surprises that popped up. Fun, really!
      • I have used contractions this year.

      Last year I didn’t use contractions throughout part of the novel. Better to have two words counted instead of one. The editing in the end was frustrating. This year I’m trying to avoid all that. Yes, it breaks some rules. Rules I suggest to others. M’bad. Turns out my inner editor didn’t go on a long vacation.

      Once again I’ll don my black leather jacket, because, yes, I’m a rebel. Again, m’bad.

      The * NaNoWriMo stats page says at this pace I should be finished on November 21st. Last year I finished on November 29th and averaged 1,942 words a day. This year so far, I’m averaging 2,376 words a day. It was past 3K in the beginning, but with one day of not making the daily count, it dropped down.

      Back to writing. Last night when I couldn’t get into it, I buckled down and wrote over 2K words, and had to get the count added to NaNo before midnight. I got in with two minutes to spare, and wrote twenty more words, and lost my Wi-Fi connection. Whew! At least my words were counted for yesterday. And the muse is still in a good mood. Yay!

      *My stats page.

      Miss Sexy Innocence *rolls eyes* comes from Glitter-Graphics.com (Don’t tell her, but I think she will be my next tattoo. I’m not sure about her wings though. Maybe she’ll lose them by then.)

      Posted in #AmWriting | 4 Comments | Tagged bull rider, contemporary romance, Howdy Ma'am, mary j mccoy dressel, muse, Nano, nano rebel, nanowrimo, romance novel, series, word count
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