When starting a new project....

Do you plan out how long it will be? Just curious.

I follow a ton of writer's blogs and a lot of times I see the little WIP meter on the sidebar. So, it appears that they know when starting a project, how many words it will be once completed.

I usually have a round about number I want to be in. For example, A Bitch Named Karma is rather short, only 72,000 words. I never planned it that way...that's just where the story ended. But I knew when I wrote my next book, Spellbound, that I wanted it to be more of a commercial length- between 85,000 and 90,000. After all the edits and rewrites and such, it's complete at 92,000.

I am now writing a sequel to A Bitch Named Karma and I would like it to be around the same length as the first, because I don't know...it's a sequel and it feels like it should be that way.

"That's Too Much!"

While reading an excerpt from an erotic romance the other day, I was reminded of the game on The Price is Right called "That's Too Much". The prize for the game is usually soemthing big, like a car, and prices are revealed one at a time. When the player thinks the price is too much, they have to yell "That's Too Much!" and if the actual price is in between the price they chose and the one before it, they win. As I was reading the erotic excerpt, I found myself yelling "That's Too Much" when I had reached a certain point.

Now, I do not consider myself a prude at all. It did take me some time to feel comfortable writing sex scenes and find the balance in terminology between clinical and corny. I don't shy away from erotic novels that I read for myself either. BUT I do have a line and this excerpt crossed it.

The line is one tiny little word...only 4 letters in length. I can't even type the word and I have never ever said it in my life. All I'll give you is: See You Next Tuesday. You should have gotten it by now.

Language normally does not bother me...my novel is titled A Bitch Named Karma...and karma isn't a female dog. My MC uses the f-word numerous times. Sometimes there are just situations where that 4-letter word is needed, at least with this character and her personality.

But in the sample excerpt, as soon as I read that word, I lost any and all respect I had for this book. That word just gets me...that is my line...that is when I say "That's Too Much!"

So....is there anything that turns you off from a book??? Any genre, not just romance.