Formatting Manuscripts 



By Wendy C Allen

eelkat_red_scarf.jpgWendy Christine Allen, 2019, able to sit up in a chair for the first time in years, and able to raise up my arm and wiggle fingers. This was when I started playing Witcher 3 on Twitch as part of my physical therapy to regain finger movement. Playing Witcher 3 daily from 2016 to 2019, is how I regained the use of my thumb and two for fingers on my right hand... it is also why I stopped playing Witcher 3 in 2019, once I had strengthen my two forefingers enough to start typing again.

Wendy Christine Allen, Old Orchard Beach's Autistic Author, Artist, Illustrator, & Art Car Designer

Counting Down to the September 23, 2028 50th Anniversary of my first published book (September 23, 1978)

If you are here looking for The Twighlight Manor series, The Crystonite Wars series, The Wild Years series, The White Rock Asylum for the Criminally Insane series, The Twisted Tales series, the Captured By a MerMan series, The Space Dock 13 series, The Kats of Planet Ptarmagin series, the stories about Miss Citten the Eel-Kat, or the stories about Etiole... ALL of those series were combined and consolidated into The Adventures of Quaraun the Insane Pink Necromancer series in 2014, so ALL the different series, are now under one series title.

List of the published titles still in print:

The Index of over three thousand stories in The Pink Necromancer series

What the series is about, for those new here:

The introduction to The Pink Necromancer Series. 

If you want some stories to get you started in The Pink Necromancer series, reading these first will give you a good introduction to the 3 main characters:

My Elves Are JellyFish...and I asked Google AI and ChatGPT 5.6 what they thought of this.

As requested, my daily writing prompt series is now available print paperback editions on Amazon.

There are 20 volumes of this writing prompt series currently planned and in varying stages of finishing, hopefully all 20 will be published by the end of 2026. I likely will do a 2nd series of writing prompt books in 2027.

The first of the Visual Novels/Video Games for The Adventures of Quaraun the Inane/The Pink Necromancer series is published and available on Itch.io, there are 3 more planned for release in 2026, 6 more planned for release in 2027, and the big 60-hour 80k word 150 page one (Quaraun Goes To the Fair) is planned for a 2028 release.

There is a Pink Necromancer card game and a Pink Necromancer board game, as well as a Pink Necromancer table top RPG supliment for Dungeons and Dragons, all in the works, and to be released over the next couple of years as well.

Health update: August 4, 2026 - in recovery for 6 months+ (at least until mid-January 2027...all book and video game releases are pushed back at least 6 months) see video below for why...

@eelkat

health update #maine #disabilityawareness #wheelchairlife #wheelchairvlogger #multiplesclerosis

♬ original sound - Wendy C Allen | 📚 Author
@eelkat Health update: #chickenpox #bellspalsy #RamsayHuntsyndrome #paralysis #recovery ♬ original sound - Wendy C Allen | 📚 Author
@eelkat

I seem to have had another stroke (during the night while I was asleep?) #stroke #paralysis

♬ original sound - Wendy C Allen | 📚 Author

Update Sept 3, 2026:

I am able to get around enough to take Koko to dog park... today is 29 days since getting out of hospital. My diet is still mostly liquid, but im eating some solid food again, but its like rice or soft mushy baby food type stuff because I still can not chew yet, though I can swallow again. My jaw is still not functioning good so im having trouble talking still. So there's been slight improvement to my mouth, throat, and jaw, but, zero improvement to my eye, which is a major concern, be Im almost fully blind right now. im legally blind since birth in my left eye, so I have no ability to fall back on using my left eye. My right eye is the one injured and my vision in it is "40% decreased" according to my doctor, but it wasn't good vision to begin with, and right now my right eye is not much different from my legally blind left eye. Which I why I have to have someone drive my car for me instead of me driving my car myself right now, which is very frustrating, because, being a female, I had to fight for over twenty years to be allowed to drive. I started sneaking out at age 31 and dressing as a man to go to Old Orchard Beach high school to get a ged, because us females are not allowed to go to school. And i was 37 years old when snuck out to the DMV and got a driver's permit and started going to college. I was 42 and 8 months pregnant when my family found out I was going to college and thats when I was punished by the backhoe driving over my house and my spine broken with a golf club and my baby born right then and killed with same golf club. So it's very frustrating now, so soon after finally being able to drive , to now not be able to drive because of an eye injury, especially after 14 years of being paralyzed from the golf club and not being allowed to have a wheelchair, again, because i am female and we females are simply not allowed to do anything. I hate the culture I was born into. I wish I had the freedom to go to school and drive a car the way American women do. I wish having my spine broken with a golf club and my baby killed with a golf club and a backhoe driven over my house was not how men in my family punishment women in my family for learning to read and write. Its so frustrating not being able to to drive again, so soon after 14 years being paralyzed, and being paralyzed by the golf club was the punishment for getting a driver's license back in 2013 after 30 years of men not letting me have one. I hate my family's culture and how they treat us women.

I get so sick of Americans telling me how they wish they could be a Gypsy… they are either misogynist woman hating pigs, or delusional idiots who haven't got a clue how shittily we Gypsy women are treated by Gypsy men, because no one in their righ mind who knows anything about Gypsy culture would ever want to be part of it. I hate that I was born a Gypsy. 

update sept 7, 2026

"You would not make a good teacher"... what does that mean, and why are there so many people on Railroad Ave and Western Ave and Cutts St why walk up to me and say that to me?

I find it very confusing. I have low functioning Autism (the Rain Man type) and so i have very little understanding of words beyond the basic ones, and i never went to to school, so I never learned maths or sciences, and I only had remedial classes at Southern Maine Community College, because I did not have an education to enroll with regular, I was there taking every reading and writing class they had to learn how to read and write, and also took speaking classes to learn how to talk (i spoke Shetland Scottish language because that was language my grandmother spoke but she died when I was 8 so I only knew that language to speak and write, and I was 37 when I went to college and 42 when I learned English speaking and I still cant speak English good yet), all the other classes I took were art painting and cooking.

So the phrase "You would not make a good teacher" makes no sense to me because it seems to imply that I am trying to be a teacher, but I don't have anything close to the education ti be a teacher, and im not trying to be a teacher. So I don't know why people keep saying this phrase to me and I assume it must have some sort of a slang meaning, but I can't figure out what it could be of why do these people keep saying it to me.

see video below for more information: 


@eelkat "You would not make a good teacher"... what does that mean, and why are there so many people on Railroad Ave and Western Ave and Cutts St why walk up to me and say that to me? I find it very confusing. I have low functioning Autism (the Rain Man type) and so i have very little understanding of words beyond the basic ones, and i never went to to school, so I never learned maths or sciences, and I only had remedial classes at Southern Maine Community College, because I did not have an education to enroll with regular, I was there taking every reading and writing class they had to learn how to read and write, and also took speaking classes to learn how to talk (i spoke Shetland Scottish language because that was language my grandmother spoke but she died when I was 8 so I only knew that language to speak and write, and I was 37 when I went to college and 42 when I learned English speaking and I still cant speak English good yet), all the other classes I took were art painting and cooking. So the phrase "You would not make a good teacher" makes no sense to me because it seems to imply that I am trying to be a teacher, but I don't have anything close to the education ti be a teacher, and im not trying to be a teacher. So I don't know why people keep saying this phrase to me and I assume it must have some sort of a slang meaning, but I can't figure out what it could be of why do these people keep saying it to me. #mainelife #biddefordmaine #maine #disabilitytiktok #Biddeford ♬ original sound Wendy C Allen | 📚 Author

update Sept 15, 2026:

I have some slight movement in some my fingers again again after over a decade being paralyzed

you remember how I used to be a professional doll making, pattern designer, and embroiderer, back before I became paralized and before my son was murdered and being the backhoe drove over my house?

all my equipment, sewing machines, ect were all destroyed by the backhoe driving over my house, and I have been quardepelegic for over a decade because of it so could not use my hands to sew or draw or embroider, and so only continued to do my writing of novels since then because I could do that with dragon dictation software,

well, since 2016, I been playing Witcher 3 and don't starve video games on twitch livestream, one hand two fingers, as part of my therapy to regain nerve and muscle use of my fingers, and now after 10 years of that, I have somewhat more movement in my fingers and im thinking maybe I can try to do embroidery and doll making again, but not sure, anyways, now im rebuying all of my sewing and embroidery equipment that the backhoe destroyed when it drove over my house, and hopefully I can use my hand enough to embroider again.

waiting for stuff to arrive in mail, so soon I should find out if ten years of twitch gaming has given me enough muscle strength to use my fingers to embroider again.

update to the previous video, answering viewer question about lack of hospital vs broken spine

Wheelchair Fundraiser... I need to upgrade to a power wheelchair, the manual one just isn't enough anymore. But the power wheelchair is $25k. Yes, twenty five thousand dollars. Wtf? I can get a car for a quarter that price, why are wheelchairs so damned expensive? That's more money then I make in five years, so I need to start a fundraiser for it.

Formatting Manuscripts 

What format do you write your novel in? Not manuscript format.



What format do you write your novel in? Not manuscript format. from writing

What format do you write your novel in? Not manuscript format.



Formatting Manuscripts 

When I was submitting to publishers, I just used standard format of 8.5x11 with .5 margins


However now that I primarily self-publish via Kindle Paperback, I use the template they provide, which is 9x6, with a lot of presets. It's specifically for their printers, so I'm not sure if it's standard to others or not. I just downloaded the ,doc file they gave me and saved it as "book template" then make a copy of it everytime I start a new book.

Just went and checked to see what the KDP template settings were. The one I am using says:

6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)

Inside (Gutter) Margins 0.5” (12.7 mm)

Outside Margins (no bleed) 0.25” (6.4 mm)

Outside Margins (with bleed) 0.375” (9.4 mm)

Font: Garamond 11pt, justified

They have a bunch of templates you can download, with all the standard manuscript formats used for each trim size:

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834230

The template sizes they have listed as available to download a template of are:

5" x 8" (12.7 x 20.32 cm)

5.125" x 8.25" (13 x 20.92 cm)

5.06" x 7.91" (12.85 x19.84 cm)

5.185" x 8.16" (13.15 x 20.44 cm)

5.25" x 8" (13.34 x 20.32 cm)

5.375" x 8.25" (13.64 x 20.92 cm)

5.5" x 8.5" (13.97 x 21.59 cm)

5.626" x 8.75" (14.27 x 22.19 cm)

6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)

6.125" x 9.25" (15.54 x 23.46 cm)

6.14" x 9.21" (15.6 x 23.39 cm)

6.265" x 9.46" (15.9 x 23.99 cm)

6.69" x 9.61" (16.99 x 24.4 cm)

6.815" x 9.86" (17.29 x 25 cm)

7" x 10" (17.78 x 25.4 cm)

7.125" x 10.25" (18.08 x 26 cm)

7.44" x 9.69" (18.9 x 24.61 cm)

7.565" x 9.94" (19.2 x 25.21 cm)

7.5" x 9.25" (19.05 x 23.5 cm)

7.625" x 9.5" (19.35 x 24.1 cm)

8" x 10" (20.32 x 25.4 cm)

8.125" x 10.25" (20.52 x 26 cm)

8.5" x 11" (21.59 x 27.94 cm)

8.625" x 11.25" (21.89 x 28.54 cm)

8.25" x 6" (20.96 x 15.24 cm)

8.375" x 6.25" (21.26 x 15.84 cm)

8.25" x 8.25" (20.96 x 20.96 cm)

8.375" x 8.5" (21.26 x 21.56 cm)

8.27" x 11.69" (21 x 29.7 cm)

8.395" x 11.94" (21.3 x 30.3 cm)

8.5" x 8.5" (21.59 x 21.59 cm)

8.625" x 8.75" (21.89 x 22.19 cm)




Courier and TNR are both not recommended for print as they are now considered fonts for web screens and don't print well.

Times New Roman is actually considered one of the worst fonts to use because it is hard on the eyes in print. Most publishers say in their submission guidelines, to specifically NOT use either Times New Roman or Courier or Comic Sans, as they are the "most amature" fonts. Palatino Linotype is the one most publishers recommend.

Standard fonts publishers use are

90% of the paperback books you buy in stores use: Palatino Linotype

Any not using Palatino Linotype are usually using one of these:

Garamond

Georgia

Book Antiqua

Hoefler Text

Caslon

Sabon

Tahoma

Verdana

Goudy Old Style

Bookman

Baskerville

As for what I use, it is always stated in the copyright pages of the books, because this is what ALL professionally trade published books do, you should open a few books and read the copyright pages once in a while. You might find it rather illuminating.

#1 way to tell a trade pubbed book from a self pubbed book is the info, or lack thereof, found on the copyright pages.

Here's the copyright page from volume 1 of the Quaraun series:

Text copyright EelKat Wendy C. Allen 1997 – 2014

The Twighlight Manor Universe, EelKat, and all related characters and elements are copyrighted to The Twighlight Manor Press & Wendy C. Allen. All rights reserved.

Published by The Twighlight Manor Press


Paperback edition ISBN: 9781521030844


Volume 1 or 3 of a continuing 130 part serial is a Novel 95,002 words (305 pages) long.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher and author.


Volume 1 of the series (or Volume 3 depending on how you look at it), this is the story which introduces both Quaraun The Insane and his unnamed Phookan Fae lover, known only as "The Unicorn."



THE NIGHT OF THE SCREAMING UNICORN: After a tiring week of battling monsters, Quaraun is tired, hungry, wounded, and looking for a place to sleep, before both darkness and an oncoming storm arrive. Led on by a map with a mind of its own, Quaraun The Insane finds himself lost in a forest, standing before a tavern named "The Screaming Unicorn." Too tired to think about checking for traps, the wizard walks through a portal to the Realm of Fae, where he encounters an Elf-eating Phooka, who is more psychotic than he is.



TYPE: Novel

WORD COUNT: 131,110 words

FONT: Garamond 10pt

PAGE COUNT: 307 printed paperback pages according to LibreOffice

POINT OF VIEW: third person limited; Quaraun's point of view

HAPPY EVER AFTER? no, this volume does NOT have a happy ending; character death ending 

CLIFFHANGER ENDING: Yes. Sort of. Almost. This volume ends with a sort of “To Be Continued...” that doesn't actually continue. All the Quaraun books have open interpretation style endings.

CONTINUING SERIAL? Yes; this is volume 8 of 130, but the stories can be read in any order and do not continue, each stands on it's own as a complete story (beginning/middle/end)

INTERRACIAL COUPLES? Yes; a white skinned cross-dressing male Elf and his black skinned male Asian Phooka lover

LOCATION: The Forest of No Return (real name Reclaim Blueberry Plaines, Ross Forest, Old Orchard Beach, Maine

YEAR: 1400s maybe, could be 1800s, you never know with Quaraun

GENRE: Dark Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery > Bizzarro > Literary>Absurdist 

LANGUAGE: Crude> Very, BoomFuzzy’s from Biddeford, Maine, if you’ve ever been to Biddeford, Maine, well, you know what to expect


LITERARY FICTION WARNING: This entire series is Slice of Life Vignette Literary Fiction, meaning there's a lot of dialogue, a lot of talking, a lot of thinking, a lot of monologue, and a lot of emotional introspective, but not much action going on in this heavily character driven series. Each story is a narrow focused look at a single event (often a single day or hour) in Quaraun's life.


PRONUNCIATION GUIDE:


Quaraun: Quay-Rownn A name I made up, for one of my player characters while playing RPG games. Pronounced like in Quaking Quaker, named Que-Que in an Earthquake rescued by a RoNin in a row-boat made of Rowan wood. Merrily they sail away as Que-Que the quaking Quaker sings Row, Row, Row your boat. Quaraun = Quay-Rownn. Quaraun is a cross-dressing albino Elf.


Phooka: Foo-KA, Like phooey foo-fighters and kakapo birds. A Phooka, pronounced with a soft “f” and spelt with a “ph” is an evil blood thirsty type of Faerie, related to a Kelpie, and is a type of Unicorn, not to be confused with Pooka (poo-ka – pronounced with a hard “P” like Winnie the Pooh Bear and spelt with no “h”) also not to be confused with invisible rabbits named Harvey. This is not a race I invented or created. Phookas are a little known but powerful shape shifter race of water horses and among the most feared of all races of Welsh and Scottish Fae, said to be feared even by RedCaps.


Thullid: th-ooo-LID, like you was thinking of thick goo on a lid. th-ooo-LID. Thullid. A race I created specifically for this series. A Lovecraftian creature, similar to a humanoid version of Cthulhu; basically a pink or purple or sometimes green skinned squid/octopus/jellyfish headed humanoid alien type thing, with lots and lots and lots of tentacles wriggling all over the place.


I hope you will enjoy reading these stories as much as I have enjoyed writing them for you.


~Many hugs & kisses From EelKat


NOTE ABOUT THE NUMBERING OF THE VOLUMES:(Several readers have asked, what order to read the books in. The answer is whatever order you want to. The series was never numbered, prior to it's Kindle re-release. From 2007 til 2014, no volume ever had a number. Amazon Kindle requires that the volumes have “volume numbers” if they are part of a series, thus why the Kindle editions ONLY have numbers. The series jumps all over the place looking at all points of time in Quaraun's life. Quaraun has lost his memory and is trying to piece together the events of his life that brought him to become person he eventual became. The series is thus, the Elf looking back at various points of his life, never in any sort of order, and his memories are not always matching events accurately. Events are seen as Quaraun remembers them, which may or may not be how they actually happened, thus resulting in any story can be read in any order, without the need for any other story before or after it. Each story in this set stands on it's own, not actually connected to any other. It was not written in any chronological order, nor was it intended to be read in order straight through his life. ~EK)


NOTE: The “narrator” of the series, all 130+ volumes, is an elderly 750 year old Quaraun, a patient of a mental institute, telling a psychiatrist his life. 

Quaraun IS in fact clinically insane and is an unreliable narrator. 

In every volume, not just this one, do not believe everything the narrator of this series tells you. 

Never trust anything Quaraun says. If you pay attention, you'll notice he contradicts himself often.

Know that Unicorn often changes his version of the truth to match Quaraun's, even if he knows Quaraun is remembering events wrong. 

If you need to pick a character to believe – pick GhoulSpawn/Gremlin – he always tells the truth...GhoulSpawn, however is not in this volume.



Okay... so... today is June 18, 2021, this page hasn't been updated in nearly a decade, and so here is an update.

I still do the stuff above, unchanged after all these years, this is just more info on the topic of formatting, specifically, it is dealing with how I format my chapters in my drafts.


Should i worry about chapter length in the first draft? 


>>>Should i worry about chapter length in the first draft? I am working on a fantasy novel right now, and i want to make the word count exceed at least 110k when i finish the first draft, but I’m noticing my chapters are short, and the longest chapter i have so far is only 3k words. Should i worry about this now, or try to add more filler details later in the second draft?

First off, I know this is Reddit, but that's no excuse for not having enough self respect to at least TRY to use even a little bit of grammar skills. Please. Consider trying to correct your grammar as much as possible before posting ANYTHING online, especially if you are looking to get published. Publishers DO look online to see what your posting history is. They like to deal with people who can act like professionals in public.

A typo here and there is one thing, but, your lack of use of grammar is a bit concerning, when you are posting on a forum for writers and asking professional career published authors for advice.

Published authors do tend to be quite an arrogant lot, sad to say, and about 90% of the published career authors here on this subReddit ARE quick to brag that they won't give the time of day to any "newb" who doesn't have enough self respect to use proper grammar when asking for help. They are often quick to brag that if you can't at least take the first steps to learning your craft, than why should they bother wasting their time on you.

I feel that your question would have received far more answers, had you made at least a little bit of a smidging of an attempt to try to use some level of basic grammar.

You'll get more answers from pro-writers on the career of writing, when you present yourself as viable competition and not a someone who doesn't take the craft seriously.

I'm looking at the snarky spit fire comments and the utter lack of any helpful advice in the comments of your question here and I am reminded of how dismayed I am to be part of a career that prides itself on it's prim and roper arrogance and ability to squash competitors simply by snubbing their nose at you and refusing to give you a civil answer.

You'll have to excuse the pretentious self righteous jackasses who couldn't be bothered to do anything other than post snark at you, but I'm telling you why they did it so that in the future, you can post questions and get actual answers.

Had your question not been a jumbled mess, riddled with endless grammar errors, they would have answered you with a plethora of how and why they make chapters like they do. But they just posted snark at you instead because, well, did you even pre-read what you wrote before you posted it?

Read your question again and, see if you can't edit out a dozen or so of the grammar errors.

And if you can't see the grammar errors... uhm ... find a REALLY good, PROFESSIONAL copy editor for your manuscript, because you kind of need one.

Anyways, let's answer your question, seeing how no one else can be bothered to act civil tonight.

>>>Should i worry about chapter length in the first draft? I am working on a fantasy novel right now, and i want to make the word count exceed at least 110k when i finish the first draft, but I’m noticing my chapters are short, and the longest chapter i have so far is only 3k words. Should i worry about this now, or try to add more filler details later in the second draft?

>>>Should i worry about chapter length in the first draft?

Everyone has their own method that works best for them, so if it's bothering you enough to cause you to have trouble getting the 1st draft written, than maybe you should think about chapter lengths during the first draft, just so you can move passed that worry and get back to writing?

Personally, I don't worry about chapters at all. As in, I just write the first draft, straight through and there are no chapter breaks at all. The whole thing is just one big long text, with no divider points aka no chapters.

Probably not a conventional way of writing. I know a lot of writers I've talked to in local offline writing groups, find my method a little strange, and most of them say they like to write each chapter as a completely separate doc file within in the novel's folder (on their computer). 

And years ago, I used to do that, but, I started fussing over the chapters too much and just slowed me down and interrupted my work flow. So I just started writing the entire 1st draft all in one big file and completely avoided even considering where chapter breaks should go.

Because I publish in the Epic Length Fantasy genre, my end goal is 120k to 130k for my novels. (I aim at an 80k end goal for my Harlequin Romances, and a 70k end goal for my Horror and Sci-Fi, so there's quiet a big difference in word counts depending on what market my goal is for; but most of my work is for a single long running Epic Length Fantasy series, and everything else is just one off random stuff I do only rarely, so, for my answer here, I'm focusing on the Fantasy lengths not the other genres) 

Usually my 1st draft will end around 50k to 70k, which is not close to the end goal. But that's fine, because during the 2nd draft, I will expand scenes, add scenes, delete scenes, move scenes, rewrite scenes, change character motives, add characters, remove characters, ask myself questions like: "Well, what would happen if Character A did this and Character B said that and Character C went there instead of here...?"

So for me, a LOT gets added in the 2nd draft, usually doubling the word count, and it's during that phase that I start thinking about where chapters should be and writing the "chapter end cliff hangers" and "chapter scene transitions" and stuff like that.

The 1st draft, that is just me getting the entire story idea out on paper in as much detail as possible. Kind of like if I was sitting around a campfire and telling a story to the gang, so it's just full on stream of consciousness without worrying about chapters and scenes and such. 

I like to get everything out on the page, during the first draft, and than worry about the details in the 2nd and 3rd drafts. I usually don't even start thinking about formatting (page breaks, chapter breaks) until after I've fully edited and polished the story a few times, so chapters usually don't show up in my drafts until the 4th or 5th drafts.

>>>but I’m noticing my chapters are short, and the longest chapter i have so far is only 3k words. 

As for how long each chapter is... I have no idea. I've never done a chapter by chapter word count. I have no clue how long my chapters in my published novels are. I know some chapters are long, spanning 50+ pages and other chapters are short only 2 or 3 pages, and most seem to be around 10 or 12 pages, but, I've never checked chapter by chapter word counts, so who knows how many words are in each chapter. As long as the total end word count meets with publisher requests, I don't think it matters how long or short each chapter is.

I just write each chapter until that section ends. I don't add more words just for the sake of adding words. I don't delete scenes just for the sake of reducing words. I let each chapter stand on it's own, as it's own "mini-story" with beginning-middle-and-end within the bigger story as a whole and let it end as long or as short as it needs to be to say what it is that it needs to say. That's how I do it at least.

Others may do it different. But again, it's all good. We each work differently, and it's going to be different with each genre, and with each publisher as well.

Just try different methods and figure out which works best for you. That's all any of us really can do. Trial and error until we find the best fit to match our personal writing style.

>>>>>i want to make the word count exceed at least 110k

>>>Out of curiosity, why? That's a 440 page book. And you want more?


My guess is they want to trade publish through some big house like TOR or something, where the MINIMUM required word count for Fantasy is 120k and preferred is 180k, and up to 230k is welcomed.

Pretty standard actually. Most big house publishers won't even look at Fantasy under 120k and will only go that low in word count if they've published you before.

While self-pubbed Fantasy has small word counts, big mass market pubs still want 150k to 180k mega bricks, so if the OP is aiming for one of those types of publishers, than yeah, 110k ain't gonna cut it. They need a lot more.


So, I was over on Reddit, you like I often am, and found this question. And answered it, like I do. However, the answer I initially gave was a simple generic answer. If you want to read my original answer unaltered, simply click on Reddit's embed feature links which Reddit provides for webmasters to be able to post their answers on their websites, while linking back to the original thread on Reddit (if you didn't know Reddit offered and encouraged the use of this feature, look for it in the "share" features underneath every post, comment, and reply on Reddit).

I am answering random questions today about world building, over on Reddit and decided to take my answers from there and expand upon them even further over here. So that's what this page is. Me rambling on about various aspects of world building techniques I use when writing the Quaraun series. The questions I am answering are embedded here. Clicking the link in the embedded question will take you to the original Reddit page where you can see the original answer along with other people's answers. If you wish to comment, you can do so on the Reddit page where a place to do so is provided.

In any case, as with all of my Reddit answers found on my site here, my original post on Reddit is much shorter then the article here.


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While there are around 20k pages on this website, most of them are blocked from search engines, with only around 800 of them available for appearing in Google/Bing/etc search results. The remainder can only be accessed via the various links found throughout this site. This was done deliberately on my part, and I did it because the bulk of the pages on this website are chapters from 138 novels and 423 novellas, so only the first page of each novel and novella indexed by search engines, and the remainder are linked in order, one page at a time, via clicking "next page" at the end of each. So if you are looking for a specific page from a specific novel, Google can't help you.



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Wendy Christine Allen 🌸💖🦄 aka EelKat 🧿💛🔮👻

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Wheelchair Fundraiser

@eelkat

i just found out there is yet another bizarre rumour going around. where are these wild rumours coming from? who is starting them? and why?

♬ original sound - Wendy C Allen | 📚 Author
@eelkat

since I've been flooded with hundreds of messages the past two weeks asking if I still own "the world's most haunted car", yes, and here it is, filmed today May 18, 2026… but my son Xavier is dead, i am crippled and given that people are AGAIN showing up calling my Dodge "haunted", calling my friend "an alien", calling me "transgender", and spreading wild defamation slander connecting me to Stephen King, I think I need to start taking down the contact information of every blogger, podcaster, youtuber, and social media account spreading these rumors, and sue every single one of them for CAUSING my car to be cut in half May 10, 2010, for CAUSING the backhoe that drove over my house August 8, 2013, for CAUSING my son's murder November 14, 2013, for CAUSING me to be crippled and in a wheelchair November 14, 2013, and for CONTINUING to CAUSE harassers to show up in person to harass me near daily, STILL now in 2026. EVERYONE telling you my car is haunted, telling you my friend is an alien, calling my car "the goldeneagle", calling my friend "Etiole", or trying to connect me or my car to Stephen King, is lying to you. They crippled me when I was 8 months pregnant, and a woman with a golf club, severed my spine and bashed my baby's head in, I spent 9 years relearning to walk, and the FBI is 13 years into the murder investigation and not yet identified the attacker who crippled me and killed my baby, both violently with a golf club and the FBI believes that it is friends and family of the woman who did it, are the ones who started and spread the rumors saying my car is haunted, saying I'm an alien abductee, saying all kinds of similar bs about aliens, ufos, ghosts, witchcraft, demons, and Stephen King connections, even though I don't believe in ghosts, aliens, ufos, demons, and had never heard of Stephen King before 30k of his fans showed up in my yard trying to find my car! FBI believes the backhoe driver and the murderer are the same person and it is a developer who wanted my land and so started the Stephen King, ghost, and alien rumors all in an attempt to drive me off my land, and when it didn't work they drove a backhoe over my house, and when that didn't work they crippled me and killed my son. Why are they doing this? How do I get them to stop?

♬ original sound - Wendy C Allen | 📚 Author






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Get an email whenever Wendy Christine Allen 🌸💖🦄 aka EelKat 🧿💛🔮👻 publishes on Medium.

I also write on these locations: | Amazon | Ao3 Blogger | GumRoad | Medium Notd | OnlyFansTumblr | Vocal |



Do you know who drove this backhoe over my house at 146 Portland Avenue, Old Orchard Beach, Maine on August 8, 2013? If you have any information, please give it to FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322 of the Portland, Maine FBI office.

My house at 146 Portland Ave, Old Orchard Beach, Maine, July 4, 2013, photo taken because we had just finished building a baby room on the back. vs My house August 8, 2013, when the same group of people (yes group, the golf club woman was not alone when she attacked November 14, 2013, nor was she alone with her second attack July 2016.) who murdered my son on November 14, 2013 at Southern Maine Community College and crippled me July 26, 2016 at scarborough WalMart,... they arrived the first time with a backhoe on August 8, 2013, that they used to drive over my house, during a time of day that I normally was home asleep... I had to work a different shift at the Waffle Cone Pizza Food Truck at George's Parking Lot by Bill's Pizza at the OBB Peir, that day, otherwise, I too would be at the bottom of a landfill, along with my house and everything I owned that was also in the house. I was 5 months pregnant at the time and have been homeless for just under 14 years, homeless ever since....

... which means it is now only a few weeks from the 14th anniversary of my son's murder. I was 8 month pregnant November 14, 2013, and a student ay SMCC, and coming out of the Buglight Lighthouse art studio after art class, when a still unidentifiedwoman wielding a golf club attacked me, severed my spine, while I was 8 months pregnant, triggered early labour, then killed my son minutes after he was born.

While accusing me of being transgender, screaming "transvestite freak" and "look at that thing, that's Ken's son in a dress"... while I was 8 months pregnant.

eelkats_house_before_after.jpgMy house at 146 Portland Ave, Old Orchard Beach, Maine, July 4, 2013, photo taken because we had just finished building a baby room on the back. vs My house August 8, 2013, when the same group of people (yes group, the golf club woman was not alone when she attacked November 14, 2013, nor was she alone with her second attack July 2016.) who murdered my son and crippled me, arrived the first time with a backhoe that they used to drive over my house, during a time of day that I normally was home asleep... I had to work a different shift at the Waffle Cone Pizza Food Truck at George's Parking Lot by Bill's Pizza at the OBB Peir, that day, otherwise, I too would be at the bottom of a landfill, along with my house and everything I owned that was also in the house. I was 5 months pregnant at the time and have been homeless for just under 14 years, homeless ever since.

The backhoe driver returned November 14, 2013, armed with a golf club, used it to break my spine and smash my baby's brains out on the ground

On November 14, 2013, my son was murdered. I was 8 months pregnant, leaving my college classroom, and just getting into my car, when 3 strangers, a man and two women, armed with golf clubs leapt out from behind my car screaming "kill or be killed, kill the transvestite freaks, kill them all before they kill us! look at that thing! That is Ken's son, look at how it's dressed! kill the transvestite freaks! kill or be killed"... while the bald man and the red haired woman chanted this over and over, the blonde woman, lunged with the golf club.

She severed my spine, I am now a quadriplegic, and been paralyzed arms and legs, and in a wheelchair for 13 years now. She broke my hips, my knees, my legs, ruptured most of my discs, and shattered three of my vertebrae so bad that the shards of bone acted like glass and embedded themselves into my spinal column nerve bundle.

The attack also triggered labour.

My son was born in that parking lot, and he lived only a couple of minutes, before the deranged blonde woman, beat his head in and smashed his brains out, with the same golfclub she had just used to sever my spine and leave me crippled for the rest of my life.

Realizing that I was not transgender, and they'd just murdered a baby, the man grabbed the 2 women and forcibly dragged them away to a 4 door white pickup truck, and they left me there to die.

The FBI told me later, that a few weeks before this attack, and transwoman, had murdered a cis woman, in a parking lot, abou 20 miles away from where I was attacked. The FBI, believes that my attackers, had somehow found out I wrote transgender fiction, connecting my real name to my penname, (my father's name is in fact "Ken", and I do have a brother) and believed that I wrote transgender fiction, because I was myself transgender, even though I'm not transgender. The FBI, believes the attackers, thought I was my brother, pretending to be a woman.

The FBI investigation, into my son's murder, has dragged on for 13 years, and still now in 2026, continues on, with the FBI, still not having yet identified my attackers, and only guessing at what their motive was.

Thus we come to 2014, and the full swing change of the series I write. WHY my series, went from just a transman main character living life, to the full blown Mpreg genre series that it now is today.

Before the attack, I had a chance of having a baby. I don't know. And because I'm in America, I'm too old to adopt. You have to be under 45 years old to adopt a baby. That is the law in America. I was informed this, when we tried to adopt, now that my injuries leave me unable to get pregnant a 9th time.

Thus began my obsessively writing, my transman main character, pregnant. Always pregnant now. Every time. Every story. Stories that now fully focus on pregnancy, labour, miscarriages, babies dying, babies living, raising babies... the whole series, since 2014 has devolved into an outright baby obsession.

Meanwhile, reborn baby dolls were suggested to me by my therapist, and have also become a deeply obsessive part of my life. Because 13 years ago my son was murdered minutes after he was born, because a transphobic bigot mistook me for being transgender, I'm STILL in a wheelchair, struggling to relearn to use my arms and legs, now 13 years later, and I'm still DAILY dealing with police officers and FBI agents who while they are trying to find my son's killer, they are also daily reminding me... oh, yeah, my son was murdered, literally ripped out of my belly, by a transphobe. Who still has not been located and walks free to kill again.

The golfclub woman as she looked during the golf club attack at Southern Maine community college November 14, 2013. She is about 20 to 30 years older then me and would be around 75 to 85 years old now in 2026.

Clairescreenshot.pngIf you have any information about the identity of this child murderer, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322

The golfclub woman as she looked during the shopping cart attack at Scarborough WalMart July 26, 2016. She is about 20 to 30 years older then me and would be around 75 to 85 years old now in 2026.

zzzz999ClaireRed2016-screenshotIf you have any information about the identity of this child murderer, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322

The 2nd woman as she looked at both attacks, her hair goes all the way down to her knees. She is about 20 to 30 years older then me and would be around 75 to 85 years old now in 2026.

Kendrascreenshot.pngIf you have any information about the identity of this child murderer's accomplice, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322

Do you know who these two woman who crippled me and murdered my baby, at Southern Maine Community College at 10PM on November 14, 2013, are, and what their connection to the backhoe that drove over my house is? If you have any information, please give it to FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322 of the Portland, Maine FBI office.

I am a legally blind quadriplegic, and low verbal, I have also published 138 novels in the last 48 years. It's not as impossible as people think. The problem being blind and quadriplegic, medically have different meanings then how those two words are used medically.

Fewer than 3% of all blind people see nothing. While 97% people who are classified as fully blind are able to see up to two feet in front of them. Legally blind means I can see more then two feet in front of me but not far enough to see twenty feet in front of me. In my case I can see about eight feet.

Quadriplegic, has varying levels, it means having a damaged nerve bundle in the spinal column causing limited mobility of all 4 limbs, (in my case this was done by a women wielding a golf club, who also beat my 8 month infant's head to pulp on the parking lot tarmak, at the same time she severed my spine with the same golf club; both on November 14, 2013; the FBI investigation into my son's murder and my being crippled has gone on now for 13 years, a few weeks away from 14 years now, and the FBI has still not identified the killer or her motive). Contrary to popular misconception, quadriplegic does NOT mean ZERO movement, it means means limited movement, specifically in means unable to lift arms over head, unable to grip fingers around objects to pick them up, and unable to stand for more then 5 minutes to a time. Because there are so many thousands of nerves in each limb it is actually very rare for there to be 100% no movement, but how much, and to what extent varies by patent depending upon the specific point of injury to the spinal column.

Meaning typing is still possible for over 60% of all quadriplegics.

In my case, it was the lower spine that was severed, cutting off completly my ability to move my right leg, leaving limited feeling in my left leg, and an ability to stand but not walk, with crutches, for the first 9 years. I regained enough nerve growth in my legs by the 9th year to be able to take ten or twelve steps allowing me to get out of bed for the first time since the golf club attack; This in turn lead to me being able to start using a wheelchair, as I was able to sit upright for the first time as well.

Because the shattered vertebrae bone fragments are broken off completly and embedded into the nerve bundle just above my tailbone, doctors were saying I would never walk again, but now at 13 years, I am able to push mu wheelchair like a walker, a distance of almost a thousand steps a day. Though doctors are still doubtful I will ever walk "normally" again, I have proven them wrong, when their said 13 years ago, that I would never walk again at all.

But because of the placement of the damage to my spine, regaining hand use, was always thought possible, it was just a matter of waiting long enough for nerve regrowth, along side daily finger exercises. I was able to continue writing, after becoming quadriplegic, because I still have use of my right thumb, and 2 fore figures of my right hand. And can type 90 words per minute with those 3 fingers.

I however have no wrist strength, elbow strength, or shoulder strength, so I am not able to form a fist, or lift objects, or brush my hair, or my teeth, all thing I have to have my caretaker do. But, those things are not needed for typing. Unfortunately, my pinky and ring fingers are "nerve dead" and drag over the keyboard, and cause horrific spelling errors and typos, which are incredibly frustrating to deal with.

Unfortunately trying to edit errors myself, just makes the errors worse, because those same two fingers drag over the keyboard yet again. Prior to the golf club attack, I rarely had spelling errors; now I got more spelling errors then someone is learning English as second language. Editing is a challenge, that I've had to accept, I simply can not do myself, and I have to hire several editors to help with that.

Low verbal means sounds can still be made, sounds that software programs like Dragon can be trained to recognize and translate, and type into full words. More then half my novels were typed with this method.

I still have a long ways to go before I am anything close to being able to do the things I could do before the golf club woman beat my baby's brains out and shattered my spine. And you know what's more frustrating then how slow mu medical progression has been? The fact that it's been 13 years and the police and FBI are still coming up at dead ends as to who the woman who murdered my baby was, or why she even did it.

My son's 14th birthday is only a few weeks away, but he didn't even get to live long enough to celebrate his 1st birthday, I don't even know why. And I can't wait to regain my ability to walk again, because regaining my ability to walk, means gaining the ability to go outside and start looking for my son's murderer myself instead of sitting at home trapped in a wheelchair waiting for the police and FBI to to find her. So, writing isn't a big priority for me anymore. I only write now, as a way to exercise my hands, in between relearning to walk.

Never let a disability stop you. Plenty of writers, artists, athletes, do not let either blindness, speech impediments, or limited mobility hold then back from perusing their careers.

Do you know who these two woman who crippled me and murdered my baby, at Southern Maine Community College at 10PM on November 14, 2013, are, and what their connection to the backhoe that drove over my house is? If you have any information, please give it to FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207–774–9322 of the Portland, Maine FBI office.

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