Episode 71: Story Begets Story

IN THIS EPISODE

This week, Abby's thankful for a lot of things - a sound editor getting the episodes done every week, the fact that Mel writes the show notes (hi guys! WHEN I REMEMBER TO DO IT, which is most of the time but not all the time!), thankful to eek out time to write - and thankful for solid advice from Jennie on how to split up her story into one, two, three books? It's not the first time she's encountered these questions, and it won't be the last - but she's getting there.

Shoutout to Lori Richmond, and all the books Abby tells her to write: Andrew Jackson's duels, children’s chicken books, etc etc. It's a faux pas to tell a writer what they should write (not in a coaching context though!), but we love you, award-winning children's book author Lori Richmond, and you can write whatever you want. :)  

(But Mel would totally buy that Andrew Jackson book.) 

In this episode we also talk about appropriate middle-grades word count - 30-50k, by the way, but there are always exceptions. Abby wonders - if she goes way way over on word count, is it better to turn her book into two, or three books? "What is going to serve my purpose and my readers' purpose in the long run? Is it better to write a series or squish it all into one?" 

Jennie says that she's asking the wrong question - there are no "rules" about writing books. "It's always always always about what serves the story. You always have to have the end resolve the question that was brought up in the beginning. We WANT that resolution, because we don't get that resolution in real life. We want that in a book." Jennie points out that even in a series, each book stands alone - it has too. Ask yourself, even if you're working on multiple books, "what is the thing I want resolved in book one?" The other books will have questions of their own, but each book has to present and solve a problem. children’s

Word count averages in genre DOES deserve your attention, and you can't ignore it - but if the story warrants going longer, look into that, too. Excessive word count has to be earned, but don't let it dictate what you do. 

P.S. We are also thankful for our friend Lori Richmond. So if you have any of her books, will you pretty please remember to go and review them?

Bunny's Staycation (Mama's Business Trip)

By Lori Richmond