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Showing posts from August, 2011

More words

I read on twitter that Harlequin Romantic Suspense is changing their writing guidelines by increasing the word count for submissions from 55k-60k work to 70-75k words. As a reader, I am not sure I like this. 75,000 words is near main stream romantic suspense, usually 80-100k. One thing I like about Harlequin novels is the length. I don't have as much time to read as I'd like, and the shorter format means I can get to the happily ever after in a night or two of reading. As a writer, my heart dropped. I have three completed manuscripts written to the 60k word count requirement. Could I edit those to be longer? If I did, would the story be as good? How can I use the extra words to have the most improved impact on my story? Should I start over with a fresh manuscript? Thinking about the manuscripts I've written, there have been times when I delete massive chunks of writing or feel rushed at the end to tie up the story neatly and stay under 60,000 words. So as the initia