11.27.2023

Projected Word Counts

I think one of the first questions new writers ask themselves is: how long should my book be?

The easy answer is: however long you want it to be!

Believe it or not, there are not hard and fast rules to writing a novel. There is no set number of chapters, pages, or words you novel has to be. I remember my novel writing professor in community college give us an example as a short chapter by William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. It reads "My mother is a fish". That's it. That's the entire chapter. On the other hand, J. R. Tolkein wrote a chapter in The Lord of the Rings with other 16,000 words. Actually, you don't even need set chapters. Just look at Cujo by Stephen King. No set chapters, only scene breaks. [Fun fact: King wrote a one word chapter in Misery that simply reads "Rinse".]

It best to remember that writing is an art form. And your novel is your masterpiece. Like all good art, form and structure are up for interpretation and only limited by your imagination.

But if you've never written a novel before, it's best to have a goal in mind. That is where industry standards come in. Please remember, that industry standards are NOT hard and fast rules. They ARE great benchmarks to keep in mind though.

Here are a few ranges to know!

Short story: under 7,500 words

Novelette: between 7,500 and 17,500 words

Novella: between 17,500 and 40,000 words

Novel: over 40,000 words

Picture Book: 500-600 words

Children’s Book: 1,000-10,000

Middle grade Book: 20,000-50,000 words

Young Adult Novel: 40,000-80,000 words

The average fiction novel is about 90,000 words!

Once you know what type of book you are writing, then you can take a peak at word count averages by genres:

Fantasy: 110,000 words

Sci-fi: 98,000 words

Action/Adventure: 96,000 words

Mystery/Thriller: 91,000 words

Horror: 100,000 words

Romance: 91,000 words

Historical: 100,000 words

As for my epic fantasy novel, I project my word count to be around 200,000 words (each chapter is expected to average between 4,000 and 4,500 words and I have plotted out 46 chapters). If my daily word count goal is 2,000 words, then I should hit my goal in roughly 3 1/2 months. That doesn't mean my book will be finished. I might still have several chapters to complete when I hit my projected word count. In that case, the ranges I listed should be used for benchmarks for final drafts since the editing process typically lowers total words counts.

Final thoughts? 

Don't worry about your word count, just write and see there the story takes you. You will find, even when you plot out your story, some things occur in the moment and you won't know it until you are writing.

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11.14.2023

So Far, So Good...

It's been two weeks since I started the first draft of my first novel and I feel...pretty good. I've completed 4 chapters out of my plotted 46 (subject to change). Already I can tell that no matter how much world building I did before, I am still world building as I write. Sometimes it's little things like background events that play no role in the main story, but add depth to characters or new plants and creatures my characters encounter. Other times, its quick interactions with unnamed side characters.

I plotted out most of my story. All the major events and the focus of each chapter are preplanned. It isn't until I sit down and write do I realize there is still so much I don't know about my own world and it's inhabitants. While writing from the father's perspective for a scene, I had the opportunity to tell his background but I hadn't thought of it until then. I didn't think about it before because I didn't think I would need it. It's the little details I am creating on the go.

I've hit my daily word count of 2,000 words every day (Woohoo). It's not too big, but not too small and I'm completing a chapter about every other day. At this rate, I should finish my first draft within my deadline of February 1st. I'll share a post about my thoughts on writing goals and self-imposing a deadline later, so stay tuned for that.

I'll be sure to keep posting little updates like this as well as posting about other writing related topics.

Until next time,

R.E. Jaymes


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11.01.2023

Let's Get Started

Well, the day is finally here!

After weeks and weeks of world building, character creating, plotting, and more plotting, I am finally ready to sit down and start writing my first novel. And is it going to be a doozy.

Think Tolkien meets Martin.

There's a fellowship, magical creatures, a (by Mr. Sanderson's definition) hard magic system, violent, sex, and yes, dragons. Multiple different types of dragons too. I've did a lot of homework to put my own twist on the genres and the tropes that we love to hate.

For the next four months, I am going to put everything I've got into writing the first draft. I project a 200,000 words count when completed. (Got that by multiplying the number of my planned chapters with the estimated chapter length!) That's about 1,600 words a day, but I'm going to challenge myself a try for 2,000 words a day with 1,600 being the minimum I'm allowed.

You can follow my progress with the progress bars on the right side of the blog. I hope to share excerpts and maybe a few whole chapters once I start the writing process (slightly dreading that), so be sure to stay tuned for that next year.

You read right! Next year, I can start editing my novel with the hope of publication by the fall of 2024. Let's cross our fingers and hope all goes well.

Until then, follow my writing journey along as I try not to crash and burn.

Sincerely,

R. E. Jaymes

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