It’s far too warm in the house to work on the book in any capacity. But, I looked at the outline set up for book 3 and I came to understand exactly where I came up with 84 chapters in my first calculations. These are ball park estimates based on how many chapters Act 1, Part 1 already has set up in the outline…This is a semi-visual representation of single spaced, size 12 font, not full published copy. I used Words Per Page for my calculations.
3 Acts per Part x 7 chapters per act = 21 chapters
21 chapters x 4 parts = 84 chapters
7,000 average word count per chapter x 84 chapters = 588,000 word count
I had an odd feeling that book 3 couldn’t handle be crunched into 200,000 words. There is far more in this book that could never be showcased effectively in book 1 or 2.
For those who may wonder, “Then why not get the third book published first since it has most of the material in it?”…first time published authors are a risk in the market. A smaller book is an easier risk to see how the market reacts to the material. Only until an author is established will the publishing company handle the printing of a larger book like that of nearly 600,000 word count. Paper is expensive and digital file size is also difficult (sort of) in how it’s presented to the reader. Not to mention the price tag attached to a smaller book compared to a much larger one.
I wish we had air conditioning in this house. THEN I could get cracking on this book. I hate summer. Oh, I’d love to stay at Starbucks to work using my tablet and wireless keyboard, but the internet has been difficult in this heat. Plus, it’s too damn hot to walk back to the house, even if I stayed at Starbucks from 4am til 8pm. Until it’s overcast and cool again, THEN I’ll stay at Starbucks to work. But I must remember to bring my ear plugs and headphones. I can’t stand some music they play.
Tara B. Dobbs 