Coutelier’s Writing Ramble

Coming up on 40,000 words done in the rewrite of The Little Queen. Long enough to be a children’s novel (I think most of Roald Dahl’s books are about 30-40k, IIRC), but of course it’s not a children’s novel. We’re still only really at the beginning of the second act.

Characters are scared and quite a few have died – but no one important to the plot. Although I suppose that goes without saying really. If a character ever dies and the plot goes on without them, obviously they weren’t that important to it, or maybe only their deaths were.

Anyway, things are going well. I’ve made vast improvements over the original, which of course I’m looking at as I’m writing and still finding mistakes. Mostly the odd word that’s missing. More importantly though, the prose and dialogue and characterization are a lot better.

Still need to think about the series title though, but I’ll wait until I’ve got more done.