Monday, September 25, 2006

Word Count Revisited

Digging around on the web, I found more information about word count for various genres.

Sci-Fi and Fantasy are never less than 80,000, but are usually more.

An "adult" novel is frequently 120,000 words according to Writer's Digest.

The novel may vary from 45,000 to 150,000. The 45,000 is romance, those thin little wisps of nothing that you see in the supermarket, although some look much more bloated. We discussed genre mysteries already at 75,000 - 85,000 words.

Now I am feeling somewhat better about my tendency to write 120,000 and then chop. At least I am writing adult novels. Nothing the matter with genre novels, but that ain't what I seem to be producing. Ah well.

Last night we had the wine snafu, but we also had an excellent dinner of Morroccan chicken with curried couscous. Ground my spices to make a "harissa." It's a good feeling both physically and mentally to grind spices by hand, add oil and garlic and pulverize some more. You feel a kinship with how the third world cooks. And it really tasted good. I have a mortar and pestle from a chemistry supply place, nothing fancy, but serviceable and it goes into the dishwasher. Yay for anything that goes into the dishwater. Please don't put your cutting knives in; it makes them dull. The recipe was from Epicurious, ( I think) an old Gourmet recipe and definitely worth the work. We grilled the chicken in a light drizzle. Just can't get enough of grilling season.

Made blueberry pancakes from sour milk and diet bisquick this a.m. Good taste, good loft and generally yummy. Topped with apricot syrup from the 'cot king in the flavor zone. I do admire and appreciate the apricot king in California. Isn't the web great? A lazy shopper's dream.

http://www.apricotking.com/

Onward,

Grapeshot

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