The 1,000-Word Dilemma

 

I’m still dedicated to writing middle-grade historical fiction, but every now and then I like to challenge myself with something different. I have just started a historical novel for adults. No, there is nothing R-rated in it, or anything in fact that is inappropriate for my regular audience. It does, however, have three things that mark it as an adult novel. First, the protagonist is an adult, which is rare (although not unheard of) in children’s books. Second, this one will include a romance (but no sex even offstage). And third, although the vocabulary won’t be complex, some of it may be beyond my normal audience.

Another difference between this book and my previous historical novels is that they have all taken place in the U.S. This one takes place in England during World War II.

The format is also new for me. My protagonist is a newspaper columnist, and I am writing this novel as fifty-two weekly columns.

Since each chapter is a column, one of the challenges has to do with chapter length. Newspaper columns have to be a prescribed length, give or take a few words. I have given Jane a one-thousand-word target, with a ten word allowance on either side. That means she isn’t the only one who has to meet that target. As the person who is actually writing the columns, I do, too.

When I write a chapter for my middle-grade books, the length varies. With my readers in mind, I do have a minimum and maximum length, but they are significantly different. That means I can put in everything I think belongs and not worry about how to add more without making the chapter too wordy.

Meeting a tight target is much harder.

Three years ago I was given an assignment to write the February 2025 devotions for Portals of Prayer. Coming up with a month’s worth of ideas for daily devotions was challenging enough, but the hardest part was to keep them at “approximately 1,325 characters with spaces in Microsoft Word (. . . approximately 245-250 words).” My “approximately” and their “approximately” didn’t quite match, and I missed the mark on five of the 28. Fortunately, the editor sent them back to me to rework so I didn’t have to worry that the editor would make the changes himself and misinterpret what I was trying to say. (I had that happen with an article once.)

I wouldn’t mind writing a real newspaper column one day.

But it is hard even in fiction.