I remember way back when I first started writing a novel. It was just this random thought that had sprung into my brain. I ended up setting that story aside and started on something that was closer to my heart...a story that flowed from my finger tips much easier....a story based on my own life and experiences. I finished that story and I was so so proud of myself. At that time I counted it in pages...it was double spaced and over 500 pages. Then I learned that novels are counted by words. I was so new back then and so not familiar with word processing software that I picked a few random pages and counted the words on each page and added them and divided to get an average word count per page.....I was at about 225. I multiplied that by my page count and holy $%^@ I had a lot of words!!!!!!! I finally figured out an easier way to do my word count and my original number was around 135,000.
I worked on that story, I perfected it as much as my green self could and whittled it down to 120,000. I learned that was a reeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaly long story compared to most commercial fiction. Most fiction in my genre ranges between 80,000-90,000. I tried to cut out more but realized I couldn't without hacking off major limbs of the story. It takes place over 2 years....it's a long story!!
The story has been shelved for a while now....I was such a newbie back then and once I learned more about the craft of writing, it just wasn't worth it to spend the necessary time on it to get it where it needs to be to submit anywhere. I may go back to it someday though :)
But I learned a lot about word count and story pacing. I don't think I'll ever write a story again that takes place over such a long period of time, unless it skips a chunk of time in the middle.
What are your thoughts on word count?? Do you try to stay within a certain range? Do you just write and where it ends, it ends???
When you edit does your count go up or down??? I've gone both ways in the edit process.....For A Bitch Named Karma, it's official word count was 69,000 (up from the 64,000 when I originally finished writing it) when I submitted it to my publisher...which is short compared to other chick lit/women's fiction novels. (But not a big deal for my publisher because they publish works of all lengths from 5,000 to over 120,000) I'd tried in the past to bump it up but it just didn't work. Once I started my last self edit, per my publishers guidelines, I did manage to bump it up a few thousand by working more on eliminating adverbs and the infamous- show don't tell.
Wow...this post got kinda long!!!
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My word count always goes down after I edit! I am notoriously wordy. It feels great to go back and revise sometimes so I can get rid of all the unnecessary adverbs and dialogue tags. :)
ReplyDeleteI have the opposite problem. My manuscripts are always short 30-40,000 words. Luckily I write MG so those counts are okay.
ReplyDeleteI try to hit 1K a day but in November for NaNo 2K which I hope will stick. FOr my series MS I need about 50K and for novels I shoot for 100K or under.
ReplyDeleteI go up and down, but I always try to stay under 90k. Under 80k is even better. I think I should be able to tell my story in a decent amount of space, and 75k - 80k is the sweet spot for me.
ReplyDeleteI KNOW my stories will be in the 40-60K range, so I aim for 50 and am good with that goal. When I edit I add alot of layering but I take away a lot of filler, so it usually evens out.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was writing my first novel I was really worried about words at the beginning. Then I decided to not worry about it because, for me, its easier to go back and take a section out than it is to fill in...needless to say, every idea I had for my characters went down to paper. I ended up with a 134,600 word manuscript. The thought, "oh crap" ran through my mind a lot. I ended up scraping it down to 97,000 which is still long for YA. I didn't think about going through and taking out adverbs, I'll have to try that. :)
ReplyDeleteThe first book I wrote, I didn't think about it. Fortunately, it landed right at 85k which was in the range. However, for my romance, I wanted it to be category length, which is 55k-60k so I had a window I had to hit. It made me plan the story out in a different way so that I knew I had the right amount of story to fit that length.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I do to an extent. not at the beginning of the story. When I'm first starting a manuscript, it's all about getting words down. I've become a plotter, so I'm pretty sure my story won't be over 90-100. It's usually much less, closer to 60-80, BUT after edits and revisions and whatnot, it goes up. Still, because I'm not writing for a catagory publisher, word count is NOT my first concern.
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