Top Posts Tagged with #wordcount

i have a bad habit of overthinking every sentence instead of actually writing.

so i made a little website that punishes me if i stop typing.

it's free, and if you have the same problem, you can use it too.

I call it... Write or Die!

•18+ Adults Only

Watch Anya Live on Cam

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.

✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions

Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming

For illustrated mg and chapter books, since illustrations can take up a lot of page space, what would the lowest acceptable word count be? Especially considering kids have less attention span these days and some are struggling with reading. Like is 10,000 too low?

MG books and Chapter Books are different species with different norms. If you don't know the difference, I've answered MANY questions about that, look in the pinned FAQ! But basically: MG books are for 8-12 year olds who are fluent independent readers. Chapter books are for about 6-9 year olds who are still gaining confidence with independent reading. MG books can be standalone or series; Chapter books are pretty much always part of a series. 10k words is quite short for a MG novel (whether or not it is illustrated). It's long for a chapter book.

I would suggest you figure out what it is you are trying to write. Then look up popular books that are sorta like the kinda book you are imagining, see how long they are, and aim for something about that length. Really. It's that easy.

So for example, let's say you want to write a MG novel with a lot of illustrations, such as Katherine Applegate's POCKET BEAR. Go to AR Book Find, look it up. It's about 29k words. LAST KIDS ON EARTH is 21k. STUNTBOY is 29k. LOST EVANGELINE is very short for a MG: 14k. There might be some MG books that are 10k words, but that would definitely be quite low for a MG.

IF, on the other hand, you are writing a chapter book such as IVY AND BEAN, that's more like 7,800 words. DORY FANTASMAGORY, likewise, is in the 7k zone. There probably ARE some Chapter Books that are 10k words, but that's definitely on the high side.

Everything I have ever known about Word Count is in my EXHAUSTIVE WordCount post, which I have updated over the years -- most recently JUST NOW. Go forth and read it.

#wordcount #i hate questions about word count #shhhhhh don't ask me word count questions

TMatB book IV wordcount today:

66,471 words!

#I finally moved from “pre-draft” to “draft A”#which means the hardest parts (planning everything out and figuring out what the fuck is even happening) are pretty much done!#now comes the actual bulk of the writing stuff which can be challenging for different reasons #but is usually less existentially terrifying #I'm thinking I have written about one third of the total novel at this point #which doesn't mean I'm 1/3rd done I think I'm more like half to 2/3rds done #at least as far as time and effort goes #because it took me a long time to sort some plot stuff out but I'm happy with it now #95% of what's in there in the draft is prose that I'm probably keeping #the last 5% is bracketed outline stuff like [then they go to the place]#anyway I'm excited!#tmatb #tmatb iv #the moth and the bear #wordcount

Bookstore down the street

October 9th, 2025

Words Written: 269

Mood: pleased for no reason

So in general, I recommend that if you have a piece of writing that's too long, you first look at content and decide if there are specific scenes, events, or topics you could take out. Only once you've made these larger changes should you start tinkering in quest of more concise sentence structure.

However. Just about any time I've made substantial cuts, I begin by doing line-by-line trimming. It gets me into the mindset of deciding what's less important to keep. It also requires me to read closely, so I refresh my memory of what exactly is in the story/essay, which helps me decide what needs to be in it. And sometimes, word-trimming alone can take me pretty far.

In practice, it's usually an initial word-trimming close read, then a content-cutting pass, then a final read-through to make sure everything flows okay in the shorter version.

#on editing #wordcount #overwriting #writing long

•18+ Adults Only

Watch Anya Live on Cam

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.

✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions

Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming