Does Word Count Matter Anymore?

Happy New Year!

Project Mayhem sends you and yours very warm wishes for a happy and prosperous 2012. May you have many wonderful writing successes.

For this first post of the brand new year, I’d thought I’d blog about a topic that seems to keep coming up lately in my own writing circles: word count. Just recently, I had a conversation with a local children’s writer who was fretting because her middle-grade manuscript was nearly 80,000 words, a length she feared would turn off prospective agents and editors.

We’ve all heard a lot about what the word count should be for a middle-grade manuscript. The numbers vary, but a couple of years ago, it seemed like 20,000 to 40,000 got tossed around a lot as a standard range.

Whoops—guess I’m not very good at following standards. Both of my published middle-grade novels came in well over the high end of that range, IVY’S EVER AFTER clocking in at almost double with 75,000, and sequel IVY AND THE MEANSTALK a leaner but still lengthy 56,000. Guess I don’t follow “the rules” very well.

I was really, really worried that length was going to be an issue for the original IVY. I figured the very first thing my editor would request was that I cut a chapter or two—or ten. Imagine my surprise—and delight—to discover that my editor had a really easygoing and fabulous attitude about the length of a book. “If it holds kids’ interest, they’ll read it, no matter how long it is,” she said. After all my fretting and worrying, tossing and turning at night, telling myself I must cut, cut, cut and trim, trim, trim, in the end, the length of the book wasn’t even an issue for my editor at all.

And really, do old word count “rules” still apply anymore? With the longest of the Harry Potter books, HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, tipping the scale at 870 printed pages, and lengthy middle-grade reads like INKHEART and ERAGON and their various sequels topping bestsellers’ lists, hasn’t it been proven that young readers aren’t intimidated by a hefty length?

Currently, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) lists the market trend for middle-grade manuscripts as 100 – 250 typewritten pages. With one-inch margins and 12-point Times New Roman font (also recommended by current SCBWI guidelines), 200 typewritten pages comes in at about 56,000 words on my word processor, so it sounds like that old 40,000 cap, at least, might be a thing of the past.

What do you think? Is there still an “acceptable” word count for middle grade? What kind of word counts do your manuscripts sport?

-Dawn Lairamore

photo credit: Barry Yanowitz via photopin cc

Fairies, Fairies Everywhere—Tales, That Is

The following was originally a guest post I wrote for Teen Reads last month. I thought I'd share it here at Project Mayhem because it seemed so timely—fairy tales are just really "in" right now. Loving it, loving it!! I mean, you have to admit, the trailer for Snow White and the Huntsman looks pretty cool:

As writers we look to many different sources for inspiration, and I think there is a lot of wonderful material to be had in traditional tales—and a lot of wonderful ways to twist it all up and make it your own.

Have an enchanting holiday season,

-Dawn Lairamore

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With major television networks premiering shows such as Once Upon a Time and Grimm and a number of fairy-tale-themed movies slated to hit the big screen in 2012, including retellings of Snow White and Hansel and Gretel, fairy tales seem hotter than ever. And why not? There’s a lot to find appealing—magic, adventure, romance, fantastical creatures, heroes performing daring feats, good versus evil. Fairy tales are fun and familiar. They entertain, with the added bonus that there’s usually a moral or two thrown in for good measure.

Fairy tales in one form or another have, of course, long been a staple in the world of children’s books. One of my favorite books as a child—and still to this day—is Robin McKinley’s BEAUTY, a lovely retelling of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST with the ironic twist that Beauty isn’t beautiful.

This is the perfect example of a fractured fairy tale, a fairy tale in which some element of the original story has been changed. Fractured fairy tales are right up my alley, because while I love traditional tales, I also love stories that do the unexpected or contain some type of twist. And, as entertaining as stories of old can be, I think it’s quite obvious to modern readers how outdated some of the mentalities behind these tales can be. There’s a delicious sense of rebellion in revisiting them with modern sensibilities in mind. I enjoy how fractured fairy tales challenge the archaic or superficial in old stories—the role of female characters, the focus on wealth or materialism, the emphasis placed on beauty and good looks.

A very common fairy tale motif features a princess being saved from a dragon by a handsome prince or courageous knight. When I sat down to write my own fractured fairy tale, I thought, what if the princess wasn’t so helpless and was perfectly capable of rescuing herself? What if the dragon wasn’t a ferocious beast but a timid creature with a heart? What if the handsome prince wasn’t a hero but a villain? And what if the princess and the dragon actually teamed up against him? And so, my first novel, IVY'S EVER AFTER, was born—a fairy tale about a princess seeking out her own “ever after,” rather than having one thrust upon her.

The sequel, IVY AND THE MEANSTALK, continues that idea of twisting a traditional fairy tale. JACK AND THE BEANSTALK has always been my least favorite fairy tale, because Jack never seemed like much of a hero to me. He seemed like a lazy, thoughtless boy who stole and did other not-so-nice things. So MEANSTALK is my reimagining of JACK AND THE BEANSTALK with a rather dim view of Jack.

Most of all, I love fractured fairy tales because these new takes on the familiar offer an important reminder: “happily ever after” isn’t one-size-fits-all. There are as many unique adventures out there as there are characters—and readers—to have them.

Making Tangents Work—An Ivy-Inspired Recipe

Recently, friend and fellow SCBWIer Bethanie Humphreys invited me to be interviewed on her blog to celebrate the release of Ivy and the Meanstalk. I was thrilled to be asked—but a little surprised. You see, Bethanie runs a food blog, and what did Ivy have to do with food? But Bethanie made it work. “Since you mention a lot of neat and interesting foods in your books, I’m going to do an Ivy-inspired recipe,” she said. Her interview had a lot of food-related questions as well. And the result was really, really incredible and lots of fun. Bethanie has been kind enough to let me share her recipe and an abbreviated version of her interview below. I hope you’ll check out the full interview and Bethanie’s blog, Kitchen Tangents, at this link. I’ve long admired her amazingly creative recipes, and she has a special interest in kid-friendly food. Bethanie even had the recent honor of being named a finalist in America’s Test Kitchen’s Boston Blogger Cookie Challenge back in May. America’s Test Kitchen actually gave her a private tour of their set!

I also think Bethanie’s recipe is a great reminder of how there are unique and wonderful ways for authors to market their work out there, even in unexpected places, with a little creative tweaking to make their books relevant to the target audience. After all, isn’t being creative what writers do best? Thanks, Bethanie, for this wonderful tangent.

Oh, and if anyone makes her incredibly easy microwavable (yes, microwavable!) Chocolate Fairy Cakes, please let us know how they turn out.

-Dawn Lairamore

Interview with Middle Grade Author Dawn Lairamore, and "Chocolate Fairy Cakes,"

An Ivy-Inspired Recipe

by Bethanie Humphreys

I am very honored to share with you my conversation with middle grade (books for 8-12 year olds) author, Dawn Lairamore. Dawn’s debut novel, Ivy’s Ever After, was released in 2010, and named A Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year in 2011. 

Her follow-up book, Ivy and the Meanstalk, was just released. She describes her books as fractured fairy tales. (I just love the imagery in that expression.) They are fun, spirited stories that whisk you away with Ivy, a fourteen-year-old princess whose love of books and the outdoors inspire high adventure with the most unlikely of friends, Elridge, a rather un-ferocious and smaller than average dragon. Together, they find their fire to help save their kingdom (and themselves from conventions that just don't fit).

Isabella, my 8 year old, liked Ivy’s Ever After so much we read it twice. We had recently started reading the Harry Potter series, but she insisted on taking a break from it when I brought home Ivy and the Meanstalk.

Also, to give you a little background on this latest tangent, i.e. how a food blog comes to interview a children’s author whose books are completely unrelated to food: I met Dawn through SCBWI, a wonderful organization for children’s book authors and illustrators. They organize fantastic conferences and networking opportunities locally, on up to the international level.

Here's Bethanie!

I joined SCBWI because I’m developing a kid’s cookbook that encourages picky eaters to explore fruits and vegetables. My obsession with produce stems from my own pickiness. At 18 months old, my daughter started refusing to eat anything green. I challenged myself to find ways to prepare a greater variety of vegetables so that I actually like them as a way to provide a better example for her. It has been quite effective! She gets just as excited when I make artichokes as she does when I make cookies.

To celebrate Meanstalk’s release, I thought it would be fun to create a recipe inspired by Ivy. “Oh, fairy cakes!” is a charming little expression used throughout both books (in the same way as one would say, “Oh, darn it!”). My kid-friendly recipe for “Chocolate Fairy Cakes,” made in a magical, most unconventional way (in the microwave), will follow the interview.

Dawn’s books are not about food, but in true kitchentangents style, I couldn’t help but ask her about my favorite subjects: writing, food, and the little things that make life sweet.

On Writing:

kitchentangents: In both of your books, you’ve taken a familiar fairy tale and turned it on its ear. In Meanstalk, (a riff on Jack and the Beanstalk) rather than Jack being a lucky boy who gets his hands on some magic beans and treasure from a kingdom in the clouds, you tell the story with more sympathy towards the giant whose treasure was stolen. What inspired you to write this kind of story?

Dawn Lairamore: I love fairy tales, but I also love stories that do the unexpected or have some sort of twist, which is why I’m often drawn to retellings of traditional tales. A very common fairy tale motif features a princess being saved from a dragon or other monster by a handsome prince or courageous knight. I thought, what if the princess wasn’t so helpless and was perfectly capable of rescuing herself? What if the dragon wasn’t a ferocious beast but a timid creature with a heart? What if the handsome prince wasn’t a hero but a villain? And what if the princess and the dragon actually teamed up against him? And so, Ivy’s Ever After was born—a fairy tale about a princess seeking out her own “ever after,” rather than having one thrust upon her. 

Ivy and the Meanstalk continues that idea of twisting a traditional fairy tale. Jack and the Beanstalk has always been my least favorite fairy tale, because Jack never seemed like much of a hero to me. He seemed a lazy, thoughtless boy who stole and did some other not-so-nice things. So Meanstalk is my revisitation of the Jack and the Beanstalk tale with a rather dim view of Jack.

kt: Writing is very much about painting a picture in your reader’s mind with specific, meaningful details. Your stories are very easy to visualize, and yet move along at a nice clip (as a good adventure story should). Are there any editing secrets you can share that you use to strike a nice balance between action and detail?

DL: This is a tough one because some readers–like me–love detail, but some find a lot of detail distracting and would rather a story focus on more “urgent” components like action or dialogue. I think, as a writer, you have to do what feels right for the story. I felt that the Ivy books, being fantasy/fairy tales with some rather fantastical and magical settings, warranted special attention to setting and detail. But, yes, you have to be careful not to overdo it. Description and detail shouldn’t overpower other elements of the story.

As far as action, young readers often have a shorter attention span than adult readers, so I think stories for young readers especially need to move at a good pace. When writing for this age range, I think it does help to focus on the external (actions and events) over the internal (thoughts and emotions). Don’t get me wrong–the internal *has* to be there, emotions and conflict have to be part of the story, but perhaps not at same level as you’d expect in an adult book. Long internal monologues or scenes where characters reflect upon their feelings probably isn’t going to fly too well with a middle-grade audience.

On Food:

kt: There seem to be a fair number of pies, cakes, and giant gooseberry tarts in your stories. What was your inspiration for the food you describe?

DL: The Ivy stories are fairy tales at their core, so they’re not meant to take place in any real-world, historical time period. That being said, Ivy’s world felt very medieval to me, what with the castles and swords and suits of armor, so I researched medieval recipes and used a lot of what I found for inspiration. And, of course, I think food in a fairy tale should have an appropriately fantastical and feast-like quality to it.

kt: If you could try any of the food in your books, which would it be?

DL: I’ve never tried a gooseberry tart–or a gooseberry anything–so I’d go with that. I love experiencing new tastes! Elderberry is a flavor mentioned in the book as well, and I had never tried anything elderberry until recently, when a friend of mine brought me a bottle of English elderberry cordial back from her vacation. Delicious!

On The Little Things:

kt: What were your favorite stories or authors while you were growing up?

DL: The Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Secret Garden and The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper, Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry.

kt: What smells or tastes remind you of childhood?

DL: My dad was in the military when I was growing up, so my family moved a lot and lived in a lot of different places. We moved to the Philippines when I was a year old, so my earliest memories are of our time there. I associate many tastes of that region with my childhood. I remember getting my face and fingers all sticky with mango and guava, and sucking on fresh, raw sugar cane.

And for our final course, Dessert!:

Fortunately for us topsiders, this dessert fit for the fairy realm is almost as easy to make as waving a magic wand. This bit of domestic magic is performed entirely in a microwave. It properly serves two princesses or princes. If a dragon guest comes to call, it may do to conjure up at least twenty.

It’s particularly important with this recipe to always level your measurements!

Chocolate Fairy Cake:

2 Tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips

1 Tablespoon butter

1 Tablespoon milk

3 Tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 egg

3 Tablespoons sugar

¼ teaspoon vanilla

1) In an oversized teacup (or cereal bowl, but something with high sides is best), melt chocolate chips, butter, and milk in the microwave for 20 seconds. Don’t stir it quite yet, just let it cool while you work your magic.

Bethanie's beautiful daughter Isabella.

2) In a separate bowl swirl together flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda.

3) In yet another bowl whisk egg first till uniformly yellow, then twirl in sugar & vanilla until golden brown.

4) Now stir melted chocolate chip mixture until dark and glossy. Add egg mixture to the chocolate (use a spatula to get all the eggy goodness out of the bowl), and stir till smooth. Sprinkle in dry ingredients and blend with a fork till there are no lumps in sight.

5) Microwave for 1 minute, possibly another 10-15 seconds, but stop once about half of the cake top is dry. Don’t worry if the edges are moist, it will continue to cook even once it’s removed from the microwave.

6) Immediately loosen the edges with a knife and turn the cake upside down onto a plate. Eat while still warm and steamy as the Isle of Mist. To make multiple cakes, just wash out the baking bowl and repeat.

The cake is delicious on its own, but if you wish to feast in true fairy style, top the warm cake with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Winners - IVY AND THE MEANSTALK Giveaway

Congratulations to Andrea Mack, Janet Johnson, and our own Mike Winchell for being the lucky winners of signed copies of IVY'S EVER AFTER and IVY AND THE MEANSTALK. If you haven't done so already, please e-mail me at dawn.lairamore@yahoo.com with the address to which your books should be sent. And many thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway!

Yes, We Are Real Writers—An IVY AND THE MEANSTALK Giveaway

IVY AND THE MEANSTALK is here—hooray! In the year+ since Ivy’s first adventure (IVY’S EVER AFTER) made its way out into the world, I’ve been blessed with some pretty incredible experiences. Getting a starred review from School Library Journal was pretty darn cool, as was having IVY’S EVER AFTER named a Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year this past April. And, of course, being invited to be a part of Project Mayhem, because let’s face it—one of the best things about middle-grade writers is what a wonderful sense of community and camaraderie we have.

I’ll be celebrating MEANSTALK’s release with a giveaway below, and please don’t forget that you can read chapters from both IVY books—and watch the book trailer—at my newly updated website, www.dawnbooks.com.

But first—on to my blog post:

“When are you going to write a book for adults?”

I get this question a lot. I bet many of you do, too. It’s not that people think that writing for children is bad, but often there’s a mindset that writing a book for kids is somehow less of an accomplishment than writing a book for adults. After all, writing a children’s book is easier, faster, and less work, right? You get to use smaller words and less sophisticated vocabulary. Your chapters can be shorter—your entire book, too, for that matter. And aren’t most children’s book writers only using it as a stepping stone to break into the more substantive, more important realm of adult literature, anyway?

Such attitudes don’t give us children’s writers enough credit. We face definite challenges that writers for adults do not. Writers for adults are writing for other adults. They’re a member of their own target audience. Writers for kids, on the other hand, must attune themselves to an audience that they’re not a part of. This means we have to be particularly imaginative and creative. We have to find a way to connect to young readers, to put ourselves into the shoes of characters far younger than ourselves. We have to have very rich inner children.

And yes, we are more limited in our choice of vocabulary. And sometimes—but not always, especially with the ever-increasing length of children’s fantasies—our books must be shorter. This means we face the added challenge of economy of language and length. We have to tell an enticing, fully developed story in less space and with less word choices than are available to adult works.

And I wish the people who think being a children’s book writer is easy would realize that we, like those who write for adults, face the same long publication journey. We write the same query letters, get the same rejections. We have to have the same dogged persistence in the face of very challenging odds.

Yes, we are “real” writers—give us the credit we deserve!!

Your thoughts? I’ve got a couple of signed copies of IVY AND THE MEANSTALK to give away. Ah, heck, I’ll throw in a signed copy of IVY’S EVER AFTER to the winners, as well. Please leave your comments below for a chance to win.

All my best,

-Dawn Lairamore

Yes, You Have to Use Punctuation

That's no April Fools' Day prank—it’s the brand-spanking-new cover of Ivy and the Meanstalk, which I got to see for the first time a little over a week-and-a-half ago. I love it and just had to share! I especially love that Ivy looks a little older on this cover. Perhaps, in spite of all her efforts, she's starting to grow up, just a little :)

Now on to my blog post…

I've being hearing a lot of stories like these recently:

For many years, a friend of mine worked at a local high school. One day, an English teacher came up to her and wanted her to look at a student’s essay. “It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” she said. My friend thought so, too. A ninth-grade student had typed the essay entirely in lower case letters and hadn’t used any punctuation—none whatsoever. Not a single period, comma, or quotation mark in the whole paper. When the teacher asked the student about this, he gave a very self-assured answer. “I’m going to be a writer,” he said, “so I don’t have to bother with punctuation. Someday I’m going to have an editor to handle all that for me.”

Another friend of mine was recently talking to a woman in her writing group. My friend was excited because she had just launched a snazzy new website to promote herself as a writer, complete with gorgeous artwork by a graphic designer pal. When she asked if the other woman had ever considered creating a website for herself, the woman replied, “Oh, that won’t be necessary. When I have an agent, they’ll take care of that for me.”

As writers, we often encounter individuals like these. Aspiring authors who, while I'm sure they're perfectly nice people, have some pretty big misconceptions about how the publishing industry works. Often these misconceptions center around the belief that writers have loads of people just waiting around to do things for them. Your sentences need punctuation? No problem—an editor will take care of that. Need a website? Bam! An agent will make one magically appear for you.

Don't get me wrong, I think my agent, editor, and publisher are pretty magical, too, but no one has yet to volunteer to pick through my manuscripts and insert periods at the end of my sentences for me :)

I'm always a little amused by aspiring authors who think that because agents and editors work hard, writers don't have to. I remember back when I worked for a small publisher specializing in non-fiction titles. One of our editors suggested to an author that a chapter would make more sense if he added a little background information at the beginning. "That's a great idea!" the (first-time) author was quick to reply via e-mail. "Let's do that." Of course, what he didn't do was actually send a revised chapter or supply any of the requested background information—he had just assumed the editor would "handle" this, even though he was the author and this was his book!

I know no followers of Project Mayhem would fall prey to this line of thinking. They understand that writing is hard work, and while there will be many wonderful, invaluable people who help on their journey to publication, much of the work falls squarely on the shoulders of the author. There are no shortcuts. So polish that manuscript carefully. Put in the time necessary to hone your skills. Want a website? Get one up there! No one is going to do it for you. Agents, editors, and publishers appreciate authors who are willing to put forth an effort.

Yes, this means you have to use punctuation.

-Dawn Lairamore