I've broken my promise of not touching the book for a week.
As I pondered sending it to a friend to read it I accidentally, sort of, looked over it myself. I'm questioning the need for a Prologue. But, after speeding through the first 177 pages of Tony Diterlizzi's 'A Hero for Wondla' I began to question my chapter length.
"Life does not happen in regular chapters, nor do movies, and Homer did not write in chapters. I'm blessed if I know what function they serve in books for adults." - Terry Pratchett
A friend had admonished me ages ago about the length and I did a lot of work on the first few chapters to trim them which is why the number went up from the initial outline. He said (and rightly so) that with children's writing you want it to be smooth and quick. You want your young readers to feel like they've accomplished something by finishing a chapter, especially when they want to read 'just one more' before the mom switches off the light.
I definitely think getting all the information out to start for me is far more important than getting it right out the gate. But, I definitely see the wisdom in going back and pairing things down. So, I had a quick flick through and figured out where I can keep chapter length to a minimum. It's quite funny because I realised how much I break up chapters in the middle anyway. So, it was actually quite easy to just change where the 'official' chapter breaks happen.
Although, is it worth it to just go for a Terry Pratchett and just scupper the idea of chapters all together?
Enjoy!
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