How long should a book be?
The moment has finally arrived – more than eighteen months after I first had the idea and knocked out the first draft in late 2021, The Shell Keep goes on sale on Amazon on 17 June.
It’s not my first novel – in fact, it’s my fifth – but it’s the first one aimed at adults (BASIC Boy and Falling Girl are YA; the Danny Chaucer’s Flying Saucer series is for middle-grade kids, with 8-12 years roughly the age group I had in mind). It’s also the longest at around 80,000 words – which I know isn’t long by adult novel standards, but it’s more than twice the length of any of the Danny Chaucer books for example.
Having said that, it started life much shorter, as a novella of around 30,000 words. I’ve always had a liking for short fiction, of compelling stories told economically, and when I finally got around to attempting another novel, I wanted it to be short. However, after having the second draft reviewed, I was persuaded that the novella format is a harder sell commercially, especially when it comes to print where the economics don’t work so well. (There will be a paperback edition of The Shell Keep coming soon, by the way.) I was also advised that several aspects of the book and its characters could be developed further, and the rather (though deliberately) abrupt ending be made a bit less … well, abrupt.
So – whereas with previous books I’ve been more accustomed to cutting down and editing out ruthlessly in subsequent drafts (like in Falling Girl where I reduced the number of characters) – with this one I had to fatten it up! Which presented me with something of a challenge. Because I didn’t want to simply add loads more words for the sake of it, and risk ending up with too much padding.
Well, I added an additional main character, and also beefed up the role of one of the existing characters so that the story is told from two different POVs, not just one. The principal villain of the piece is also given a bigger role and there’s more of a resolution to their relationship with one of the central protagonists, Liam (and a more dramatic ending). So, essentially, I was careful to add new characters and more action – all relevant to the plot and to the development of the characters – rather than just chuck in a load more verbiage. I hope it worked!
