Wednesday, July 20, 2016

A Short YA: Potential Change of Plans

Ha! Well, looks like after only a few days of writing that last post, I'm having a bit of a change of heart regarding The Castle in the Girl, and the reason for that is twofold.

One of them is that, upon doing more research, I've discovered that a 30K-word YA book might really not be allllllll that marketable. I mean, there are definitely fairly short YA books on the shelves, but The Castle in the Girl is VERY short for speculative fiction (it's sci-fi). If I leave it as planned, I might more accurately be looking at a novella versus a novel.

On the other hand, I just had a random idea that would extend the length of the book a considerable amount. If it indeed winds up making sense and working out, then that means that what I THOUGHT would be the entire book is really only Part One, and the new idea I had would constitute Part Two. I think it only makes sense, overall, not only in terms of beefing up the length of the book, but also in terms of the story.

It's funny how stories work. Just when we think we've got one all figured out - or mostly figured out - something comes along and surprises us, giving the story a whole new/different trajectory. And usually when we least expect it. I feel like that's happened to me at least once per book I've written.

Anyway, so that's the new plan. I'm going to have to do a lot of brainstorming to flesh out Part Two and see if it truly makes sense and will work, but I have a strong hunch that it will, and that my story will be all the better for it.

So, if you need me for anything, I'll be brainstorming - so BUG OFF!!! JK. But I'll definitely keep you in the loop on The Castle in the Girl's evolution. Given its sudden departure from the original plan, there may yet be more twists in store...(How's that for a cliffhanger?)

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