The Writers' Circle

This is a part of my reply to a comment for my submission *The Blue Folder- Twenty-One* (just go to the article to read the full reply).  I think this would be beneficial to all writers here and therefore, I'm posting it under Discover your Resources.  

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If you use the *MyNovel* software by Carl (the founder of WC) (btw, kudos for a great software), there
is a *progress* or *readability* button one could use to check on the ease of readability and the age
group that would be able to comprehend your style.  It is based on the  *Flesch Reading Ease Score*

The breakdown is as follows.
0-29 very difficult
30-49 difficult
50-59 fairly difficult
60-79 fairly easy
80-89 easy
90-100 very easy

I (for personal preference) would target a 50 to 79 score which would put my reading age group from 10
to 18 years old. This is not to say I'm targeting this age group as my readers.  No.  For me, I'd like
to target the mentality of this reading age group for the adults that might read my book because my target
readers are adults since my book is about spy/thriller/action/adventure and a bit of rumpy-pumpy. This
happens to be the *coming-of-age* group, the most curious, and it's fairly a mainstream mentality even
for adults.

After running the *progress* report off of MyNovel, I'm given the exact reading age that I wanted.  Sometimes,
I tweak it to match it and sometimes I'd leave it as such.  The chapter 21 here falls under  a score of
59.65 or  14.44 years old mentality which is fairly mainstream (I'd say).

You will notice Chapter 8 as 48.86 or 17.74 age group.  I was even afraid that this chapter would be a
little more advanced and might not be well accepted.  However, I posted this as a *separate* from the
*The Blue Folder* series to see how it would be perceived as a stand-alone (see Jan 13).  It got an editor's
choice star (entitled "The Chief" on WC . . . actually it should be "The Blue Folder - Chapter 8").  So
I know it's okay and readable so it stays the way it is. (BTW, a score of 90-100 would be a children's
book. :-)

Here's a breakdown of my new book "The Blue Folder", thus far:
Chapter		Readability		Reading Age
Chapter 1		65.5			12.93	
Chapter 2		55.16			15.23
Chapter 3		63.42			13.22
Chapter 4		68.87			11.88
Chapter 5		65.88			12.44
Chapter 6		59.51			13.81
Chapter 7		55.59			14.62
Chapter 8		46.86			17.74
Chapter 9		53.19			15.10
Chapter 10		71.58			11.68
Chapter 11		69.82			12.03
Chapter 12		75.09			10.43
Chapter 13		73.7			10.85
Chapter 14		68.61			12.24
Chapter 15		71.49			11.3
Chapter 16		72.89			11.59
Chapter 17		56.77			13.86
Chapter 18		72.06			11.08
Chapter 19		76.6			10.36
Chapter 20		67.5			12.18
Chapter 21		59.65			14.44

And I'm now at 60% of my target of 130,000 words.