[Ella]

Hi Mr. Korman 

First off I LOVE your books. I have read Restart, Unplugged, and Mixed Up. I bought The Fort a while ago and can't wait to start reading it. 

Let me skip to the point... 

I love writing, so for my passion project this year I decided to go with the question What Does It Take To Write a Book? Interviews were one of the ways we could get our information so I wanted to ask you a few questions:

1) What is the average word count for the type of book you write? 

- please also include the average chapter word count 

2) What are the steps you take when writing your books? 

- Do you always plan out your entire book? Or do you sometimes just start writing? 

3) How long does it typically take you to get through the entire writing process? 

4) If someone was to go about publishing a book what tips would you give them?

 

5) Also... in my Passion project I have a slide for "Tips from Authors"  What other writing tips would you give to aspiring authors? 

I just wanted to let you know, the fact that you published your first book at the age of 14 has motivated me more to work towards publishing. I hope you have a good day and that this wasn't too much of a hassle for you. 

 

Sincerely, Ella  

Hi, Ella,

Thanks for posting. You've picked an interesting project. Let's see how helpful I can be:

1. The average word count for the type of middle grade book I write is between 75,000 and 80,000. Let's settle on 77,000, OK? Chapters defy counting as some of them are only a page or two long, and some go as long as 10 or 11 pages.

2. Steps: Yes, I plan the whole book before I write a single word. I can make changes, even add and subtract events and people, but the story must be there before I start to write. My technique is to plan the climax of the story and then write towards it. I'm very big on planning. Basically, you can't say anything well unless you know exactly what you're trying to convey. And you can't know that unless you plan.

3. The writing process takes 6 to 8 months, depending on my personal appearance schedule, which can slow down the writing. That's to produce the first draft. Then it goes to an editor, who makes suggestions, highlights the "You can't say that!" portion of the narrative, and sends it back to me for a rewrite. A rewrite can be very short, or long enough to take a month to complete. That is generally the finished project -- it goes to production from there.

4. I can't tell anyone how to write. I only know what works for me. So write your book, polish it well, typed, double-spaced, and on one side of the page only. Write a short covering letter that introduces you and tells a little about your book. THEN -- go to the library and find a book on writers' markets. Look up publishers and the kind of books they're looking for. If your manuscript fits the description, send it to them with a covering letter (and, alas, a stamped self-addressed envelope so they can send it back to you if it doesn't appeal to them.)

There. Hope that's helpful, (or even mildly interesting!)

                                     Regards,                                                              -----Gordon Korman-----

[Ella]

Thanks TONS for this information

I am not sure if I have sent this already, but there is one question I forgot to ask. 

When it comes to character development, do you plan that out, and if so how do you plan it out? 

Yes! Along with the development of the story, the fleshing out of the characters is planned too. But I admit that sometimes the character develops his/her own traits and habits during the writing, and that tends to be uncharted territory that has to be navigated when I come to it. That's a good thing -- when the characters come to life for me, I really enjoy what it does for the story and the dialogue. It can add an aura of reality that otherwise might not be there. When my characters come to life and dictate their own little ways it means I must have done something right!

OK?                                                                                                       ---GK---

[Ella]

Thanks again for your help! 

I hope you have a nice rest of your day and I'll let you know if I ever actually publish a book... 

 

Well wishes, Ella 

[Scott]

Good Evening Gordon Korman! I love all of your books. And your #1 fan. You visited my school recently in  late April and your story has really inspired me. I did not know you published a book in seventh grade! I was inspired to start writing a book  in middle school as well. I have a bit of writer\\\\\\\'s block and am stuck on writing my book.

1. What did you do when you got writers block?

2. What are the best and reasonably priced publishers to publish books?

3. Is there a way for writers in middle school like me to reach out to publishing companies like Scholastic? 

4. so far I have about 2500 words, in a book that is your size and font what is a good estimate of how many pages that would be and is there a website that can calculate this?

5. my writing genre is the same as yours creative fiction writing. how many pages/words should I aim for?

Thank you

Scott 

Hi, Scott,

Thanks for posting. I'll try to answer all your questions.

1. I have never had writer's block, not once in 40+ years. The likely reason is that I plan my story very thoroughly before I start the actual writing, so I always know what comes next. Maybe a lack of planning is your problem.

2. You are talking about self-puhlishing, which I have never done. If you send a manuscript to a publisher and they like it, they buy it from you and pay you an advance on sales, and a percentage of sales revenue. That;s the way professional writers publish, and therefore you wouldn't pay the publisher anything. They pay you. Self-publishing is something I know nothing about. Sorry.

3. First get a book on Witers' Markets. It will list publishers and the kind of material they are looking for. Plus they will tell you if they read unsolicited manuscripts. Some will not. A lot of writers present their work through a literary agent, which is what I do now. But back then, age 12, I sent my work by myself. You select a likely publisher and send them your work, typed, double-spaced, one side of the page only, with a covering letter telling a little about yourself and your book. And include an envelope and postage for them to return your book if they don't want it. Rejection is just a fact of life in  this business.

4. I'm not sure, but I think the average for a book like RESTART is between 75,000 and 80,000 words, and between 175 to 230 pages in length. It does vary.

5. Remember, a story is over when it's finished being told, and not before, no matter how long it takes. I have no idea how to calculate this. Maybe one of my readers will check out this letter and let you know. (Raymond?)

Best of luck to you, Scott. I hope to be writing you a fan letter one of these days!

                                                                                                                        -----Gordon Korman-----

5.

[Raymond Jardine]

The grey area between "middle grade" and "young adult" novels is a pretty big overlap. Writer's Digest says middle grade novels run 20,000 to 55,000 words, and YA fiction is typically 55,000 to 80,000 words. (Read THIS article for lots more details.)

But GRK and many other MG Lit authors seem to use 50,000 to 75,000 words as a benchmark for the middle grade genre. So maybe the goal posts have shifted. (Maybe Harry Potter had something to do with that: The first book in the series was "short" at almost 77,000 words, and the longest title was well over a quarter-million words. J.K. Rowling loves to write books you just can't read in a single sitting... I've finally caught up on her Cormoran Strike series for adults, which have been hovering at around 1,000 pages apiece for the most recent stories.)

Like GRK said, the perfect length for anything is exactly the number of words it takes to tell the story well. The goal is not to add words, it's to use words wisely. Most authors will cut 10 percent of unnecessary fluff after their first draft. (And their editors may cut another 10 percent....) It actually takes a lot more time to be succinct. A great quote about writing sometimes attributed to Mark Twain or Abraham Lincoln is: "I would have written a short message but I didn't have time, so I wrote a long one." 

Microsoft Word, Scrivener, Grammarly, and dozens of other writing tools offer a "word count" function. You can see the total number or calculate by paragraph or chapter to help guide you. I suspect @Jade would have better suggestions than I do as she is actively writing and using author tools.

There, Scott -- you've now heard from the best! Thank you, Raymond, I had a feeling you would come through.      --GRK--

[Scott]

Good Afternoon Gordon Korman

1. can I get a sneak peak or small paragraph from your upcoming book

Thank you Gordon Korman and Raymond Jardine for all of your help

Thank You

Scott

Hi, Scott,

Please don't be disappointed and don't get mad at me, but I can't! The book is FAKER, and it's almost ipossible to find even a short paragraph that doesn't give away something I need to keep secret because of the nature of the book. Plus this is an open forum, and I don't want to give away anything that will spoil FAKER's debut, which is coming up in July.

Sorry.                                                                                                        -----Gordon Korman-----

[Jade]

Hi, Scott! I know you already got your answers but I wanted to say a couple more things, in case it would help.

Never forget that it's your story, and you can write whatever you want, in whatever style you want, for whatever length you want.

But if you're trying to be a published author, especially traditionally published, you ought to be aware of what your market (the people who will buy your book) would like. That's why, before writing, Gord gave this advice to plan out everything before you put a word down. I took that pretty personally to mean you ought to plan out how long you're going for too.

To look for the "right" amount of words in a book, don't look at successful books. I mean it. Like Raymond said, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is a good 25k words longer than the average middle grade book. You have to be aware that you are not a famous, published author. You are going to be a new author and this will be your debut book, so it'd generally be easier to get more traction if you made your book fit into the categories of the average book length in that range.

Look at your genre and then your category (age range.) Middle Grade books land between 25k to 50k words, Young Adult books generally land between 55k and 80k words, and Adult books land around 90k. These aren't rules, they're stats.

Now, here is a quote from a literary agent, Kelly Peterson:
"MG: Fantasy/Sci-Fi - 35k-65k, with Upper MG only hitting the 50k-65k.

YA: Fantasy/Sci-Fi - 80k-99k (sweet spot = 85k-95k. Don't hit that 100k mark!)"

I'm not sure what realistic fiction looks like, but it can also help to look up "average debut novel (genre) (category) word count" in your search engine.

For formatting: Generally agents like Times-New-Roman, double spaced, 12pt font, but this can change for everyone! (Make sure you format correctly,  don't use tabs!

Now, this is me piggybacking off of what Raymond was saying with "Microsoft Word, Scrivener, Grammarly, and dozens of other writing tools offer a "word count" function"

1. I don't recommend using Google Docs for "writing", or at least formatting, because it doesn't translate well with other writing resources. I said that strangely. Basically, Docs has a really weird indention feature that jacks it up when you format it in Word, or Scrivener, or literally anything else. 

2. Everything Raymond just said was awesome. Grammarly is quite good. Personally, if I want to check small WCs I use "https://wordcounter.net/", but for big ones, Word and Docs will tell you the WC. 

3. More writing resources. I recommend Sonovel, it's basically Scrivener except it's free (and constantly updating). I can also recommend you some more writing resources if you want. Some that I would die for:

a) The Most Dangerous Writing App (It's wonderful for getting you out of writer's block or just into writing. It requires that you write non-stop for any certain amount of time, and if you stop for more than a second or two, it deleted all your previous words. So cool!) 

Sorry, I had to go. HMU for more resources! Hope I could be helpful!

And don't forget, this is YOUR story!

Be blessed,

Jade

[Ella]

Hi, I'm back again. I just wanted to say that I had no idea there were more aspiring middle school authors out there! I really hope I can someday read your books. 

I did want to touch on the writers block aspect if you even still look at this page, Scott. 

One way you could try to solve your writer's block is to describe your book to someone else, or write a summary going into as much detail as you can think of. (This very much resembles planning) 

Happy writing, Ella