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This extract is part of an online interview which was undertaken with members of the Writers Retreat at the Institute of Children's Literature in September 2008. For more than thirty five years, the Institute has offered the premier writing course for adults interested in learning how to write and be published for children and teens.
Q: Many of the fantasy novels that I've seen for teens are very long. Is that a kind of requirement for teen fantasy? I have a novel that I'm working on but it's probably not going to be very long when I'm done and I worry that publishers are looking for those heavy tomes.
A: It seems that the Harry Potter series changed things in this regard and novels for both teens and middle grade readers got longer as a result. However, don't consider these longer fantasy novels as a benchmark of how long a book should be. Making a story a certain length just for the sake of it is a mistake. You still have to have a good story, which must flow properly, move along at the right pace and keep the reader engaged.However, having said that, it is far easier to write too much and then cut it down, than have to add in entire sections in the middle, or introduce entirely new characters and subplots.
Yes, many fantasy novels may be very long, but not all of them are. I'm not sure of the exact statistics, but most may be around 250 or 300 pages when in printed form, rather than possessing the mammoth word counts of the later Harry Potter novels. You should perhaps ask yourself if you are sure your story is for teens or is it middle grade, which are usually shorter, say around 150 pages at the most.Your novel may also well need to be tightened up during the editing process, which obviously reduces the size of the finished product.
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