Writing the Main Message of a Book
By bloggeroo
@bloggeroo (2167)
Philippines
May 23, 2010 12:41am CST
If 20,000 words cover the main message of a book, how should those 20,000 words be subdivided further? I should probably answer two types of questions with regards to the main ideas of the book: what and why. So, that will translate to 10,000 words for answering "what" questions in the reader's mind and another 10,000 words for answering "why" questions.
10,000 words. How can I subdivide 10,000 words even further? Hmm. How many ideas do I have to cover? That should do the trick. Assuming I need to cover five different ideas, each idea will require 2,000 words to develop. It's probably more efficient if I start with ten different ideas and consolidate them if needed.
Okay. 10,000 words. 10 ideas. That's about 1,000 words per idea. Can I proceed with this? 
Why not?
Why not?1 person likes this
1 response
@Transformed (1259)
• United States
23 May 10
It sounds like an efficient plan because of how the text will answer the reader's questions and potential questions as things go along.
@bloggeroo (2167)
• Philippines
23 May 10
Thanks for activating this discussion. Now, I can write a few more words for chapter 1 of my book.
Word count is the key to controlling both time and space in a book project. It is a unit of measure that can be used to determine the amount of work to be done and the resources needed to produce such work.
What else can I say about word count? Hmm. I should just keep writing whatever comes to mind.
@gladread (30)
• United States
28 May 10
This sounds like a good plan for nonfiction. But for my planned novel, I cannot conceive of counting words. I will use exactly as many words as I see fit to tell my story my way. I used to be verbose, but my writing is now much more spare. I am confident, therefore, that I can get the length right without any detailed plan.
@bloggeroo (2167)
• Philippines
2 Jun 10
Hmm. I've been thinking about it and in my opinion, applying the "word count technique" is possible for works of fiction. But first, I need to finish my non-fiction book before I venture into writing stories and novels.
