young adult fiction

Chronicling The Craft: 45,000 Words

/ saraletourneau / 9 Comments

Identifying Your Target Audience and Age Range – A Daunting Task

Chapters Completed: 11

Chapters In Progress: 9

Chapters Left to Start: 14

“Chronicling The Craft” is an article series where I share my experience with writing my current work-in-progress (WIP), which is a fantasy novel. Every 5,000 words, I let readers know what I’ve accomplished since the previous article and share advice, discoveries, techniques, etc. Besides the word count in each article title, a “chapter ticker” at the top also tracks my progress as I use the skip-around / “writercopter” method to write the novel. Today’s installment celebrates the book reaching 45,000 words in length.

Wow! Even with taking a weekend off from the WIP recently to attend WANACon, I managed to crank out another 5,000 words in 4 weeks. Considering I have a day job and other commitments, I have to say I surprised myself once again. Then again, this winter has been a good period for writing. I’ve turned into a sort of hibernating bear with all the bitter cold and frequent snowstorms we’ve had here. Hibernating yet productive and happy. Can’t complain about that! Continue reading →

Recent Reads: “Bitterblue” by Kristin Cashore

/ saraletourneau

I remember the day I first heard of Kristin Cashore. It was the 2010 Boston Book Festival, and the YA fantasy author was one of four speakers at a young adult fiction forum. My interest in Cashore’s work immediately pricked up when I found out which genre she writes in. However, what convinced me to buy her two previously published books (Graceling and Fire) on the spot was the moment she opened up for the audience a notebook where she was writing the first draft of her third book. I thought, “YES! She writes her first drafts by hand, too! We have something in common!” I read Graceling and Fire back to back shortly after the Boston Book Festival, and adored them both. So I was eager to read Bitterblue, the novel Cashore offered a “sneak peek” of during the festival, as soon as it was published. Continue reading →