My mom got here yesterday, and we started the painting at the new place. I'm starting to have a faint hope that we might be ready to move by next Saturday, after all!
In the midst of everything else, I glanced over my completed children's story, The Magic Garden, the other day and thought, "Why did I stop sending this out?" I remember getting negative responses from all the publishers on my first list, but then I started on the second list, and somehow just ran out of steam.
So here's my question: my heroine is eleven (I actually Tweeted and put up on FB yesterday that she was eight - uh, too many paint fumes, I guess - but I really did remember writing her as eight. I must have aged her up later and then forgotten about it), and it technically would land as a middle-grade novel, based on protagonist's age. However, I wrote it with a simpler, cleaner style than I usually do (shorter sentences, simpler vocabulary, fewer parenthesis), and it's only 18,000 words.
Ought I to stretch it out and jazz it up a bit? I could do that, easily enough - it was really, really hard for me to keep it so simple to begin with! It's a story along the lines of Edward Eager and E Nesbit's fantasies - ordinary children who discover magic practically in their backyard, and have to learn its ins and outs, and thwart it and get thwarted by it. In the end, of course, the children all learn something important about themselves.
Half Magic, by Edward Eager, is around 30,000 words. Five Children and It, by E Nesbit, is a little over 50,000. I'm thinking it might be worthwhile, once I have finished the first draft of my 1920s fantasy-adventure, to pull out The Magic Garden again and see what I can do to make it more truly MG, instead of floating in this nebulous in-between region - not truly children's, but not MG, either.
What do you think?
Do you ever find that even though you believe in a story, you have to make some cosmetic changes to make it work? Have you ever lost steam on sending out a story, only to find it a good thing later, because it helps you make it even better before you send it out to anyone else? Do you agree that the world needs more stories in the tradition of Nesbit and Eager?
I loved Half-Magic as an adolescent. I still have it on my bookshelf. I read quite a lot by Nesbit, too. They're wonderful stories, and it's awesome that you're writing something along those lines.
ReplyDeleteI've found there are times I have to make changes or I have to set aside plans I had because it's better for the story or because the characters lead me a completely different way. And it can be VERY good to set a story aside and come back to it with fresh eyes later!
I read Half Magic as a child and loved it. I think if you set something aside you almost always have better judgement about it when you come back to it, so I'd say you should go with your new idea/insight. The world always needs more stories in the tradition of Nesbit and Eager!
ReplyDeleteLaura and Kirsten - I'm SO glad to find other Eager/Nesbit fans! I've actually started collecting the Eager stories in the original hardcover, and it brings me right back to my childhood. LOVE them!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the encouragement. It's good incentive to finish the first draft of my 1920s story, because now I'm getting excited to re-work this one!
That's a tough question. If you think you can increase the word count in a way that really works with the story, then I guess try that!
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's necessary to increase the word count/complexity. There's a big market for easier reads for older kids (and kids like to read about people a little older than them, anyway). You really shouldn't compare your book, word-count-wise, to books that aren't current, anyway, even if they do take place in the same era or are similar in style.
ReplyDeleteOther questions? I have OFTEN set books aside and come back to them later and made them better, which is why I've been working on some of the same books since I was a kid! I think I'm in a "lost steam and set aside" period across the board at the moment though.
And there is never such thing as too much Eager.
Lydia - thanks for the input!
ReplyDeleteRockinlibrarian - Yeah, the Eager books and the Nesbit books do assume a level of familiarity with the English language that, sadly, is not as common today as it was along children then. Good point to consider!