How Long?

One of the most common criticisms my book has received in the reviews is that it's too short.  Honestly, I'm not unhappy with that criticism.  I'd much rather hear "I wish it were longer" than "It should have ended long before it did".  I've always had difficulty stretching my stories out to a decent length.  There's a part of me that just wants to hurry to where I know it's going.  It's something I'm working on.

So where am I now?  In Microsoft Word, "Best Laid Plans" was 145 pages long (including title page, table of contents, etc.) which translated to approximately 125 pages on Kindle.  In book two, I am at about 122 pages (without the extra pages at the beginning) and at chapter twenty-two.  I'm starting to wonder if I can pull it off and make book two longer than book one.  I'm hoping to reach about 150 to 160 pages in Word.  The challenge is to stretch it out without making the story weaker because of it.

I've given myself a deadline to finish writing and it's looming.  I may be sending my husband and children out for a long dinner so that I can focus on getting it done.  Then I'll send it to my team of "editors".  Hopefully, all will go smoothly and there won't be too much rewriting.  I'm getting excited about the book.  I think it's better than the first which is what I always want to accomplish.  It'll be interesting to see if I feel that way when I do the read through and if my team agrees with me.

As always, I would love to hear from you if you have any questions, comments or advice.  Book one can be found by clicking the link below.

Best Laid Plans by Courtney Lyman