Hi all, I've attempted to write a novel which unfortunately it appears I might not be ready to do. Each time I start it ends up finishing far too soon. I've heard word count is part of what defines a novel from a short story etc. Is this true? And if so does anyone know what the word dounts are for each? Also does anyone have any tips on how to properly go about my novels without them ending far too soon? Thank you in advance.
Kind regards Victoria
I agree with all the above but I also think that what you write should appeal to you- its not to other people about what they think it should be like that goes. If you think that it should be short and you like it like that then its absolutely fine and that's what goes.
Hi VC.
Bethany, Carla and Malcolm have pretty much nailed it. I would add that a novel can, in some cases, be as few as 50,000 words - see the NANOWRIMO site - but generally is 65,000 - 80,000 words.
Fantasy does tend to be longer, as people reading this genre expect generally to have a greater number of characters, plots that take longer to twist and turn their way through, and of course there will be the necessary descriptive sections regarding strange creatures and/or landscapes. This can sometimes go far higher than 100,000 words, but you usually need to have a following first before anyone will jump into a book of such length.
The other genre that really takes up a lot of trees or data bank space is historical sagas. These can take about three years to read they are so long.
If you are writing romance or thrillers, anything from 65,000 to 80,000 should be fine, though I have recently read some new works that seemed far less than this. Very hard to find out how many words in a book sometimes, so I have done my bit of counting and multiplying by pages, et-cetera. One was barely 50,000.
Cheers
PabloJ
Novel Word Count Genre Guidelines.
I copied this off an earlier post by ASG.
Picture Books -200-500 words
Early Readers - 500-2000 words
Chapter Books - 5,000-10,000 words
Middle Grade - 25,000-45,000 words, most averaging 35k.
Young adult - 55,000-90,000 words
- YA contemporary tends to be on the shorter side, 60-70k
- YA fantasy, sci-fi, and paranormal tends to fall on the longer side due to world building, 70-90k
Adult - 70,000-115,000 words
- Romance - 85,000-100,000 words
- Cozy Mysteries - 70,000-85,000 words
- Mysteries, Horror, Crime - 75,000-95,000 words, most averaging 90k
- Sci-fi and Fantasy - 80,000-120,000 words, most averaging 100k-115k
- Literary and Women's Fiction - 80,000-100,000 words