Novels With 60000 Words

[Bartolome Beacham]

Ifound word count advice in several writing/editing books and they agreed that a first-time novel should run on the shorter side. So, I wrote a 60,000-word novel. That seemed like an okay length to me, because the submission guidelines for the smaller publishers in my niche market asked for 55,000 to 75,000 words.

But Ally is correct, write the very best story you can without consideration for word count. Just remember two recent National Book Award winners: The Hours by Michael Cunningham and Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. I doubt either writer concerned himself very much with the picayune details of market.

Some of it comes from when 20 or 30 years ago when shorter novels such as 50,000 were more acceptable. If you pick up an old pulp novel it tends to be short. But the general length for novels has been growing. And romance in particular tends to be one of the longer genres, with counts often around 100,000.

Like Jennifer Jackson said, there will always be exceptions but when I look at all the debut fantasy novels being published this year by first time authors, most of them appear to fall within that 100-150K bracket.

My project is actually a projected 350 000 words total, and just today I spent three hours rearranging the chapters I have already written according to character rather than chronology. Believe it or not, even at this stage of the game, it seems like it might work. It brings my WC down to about 130 000 for the first book, maintains the suspense at the break, and allows for a meatier second and third. Now, if I can just get an agent to commit to three books?

WOW! It is interesting as TJ Murray commented. I read very long books and I find that they have so much description in them that I have to skip a page or two here and there to get back to the story. When I wrote my book it was somewhat short but kept getting longer. As I let folks read it and comment they wanted more information around the characters, the places, more description. So my first novel ended up being right at 200K words and 624 pages.

I do think that shorter books may in fact begin being promoted as a way to reduce costs to publishers because as we know the industry has a distinct wobble going and until the dust settles every thing about it is changing in different ways so fast the mind boggles

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For me the focus has to be on writing less not more . . . of capturing what you want/need to share in the least amount of words possible. I often use the analogy of someone telling a joke that never seems to get to the punch line, worse still it might not have one. Writing for the sake of it will leave the reader in a similar place to the listener, disappointed.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that because you're only going to publish your book as an eBook you can write away till your heart and fingers are content. It's quite the opposite, (unless of course you're writing the next fiction blockbuster). Just because it won't cost you so much to 'print' your book, don't for a moment think this gives you latitude to be unstructured or verbose in your book. Business eBook reader want and need you to be more concise and get to the point. Less is more.

If you don't know what a Lead Magnet is, that's OK. Three years ago I had no idea either and I thought it might have something to do with my school science experiments with iron filings and magnets. Do they even do this any more in school?

Quick note on using AR Book Finder: You will be asked to say if you are a parent, teacher, librarian or student. All answers lead to the same thing. I said I was a student, because that felt the least like lying. To get the word count you have to click on the title for the more detailed summary. Enjoy!

My point is to not worry about word count prematurely. Write what you think is a good way to tell your story, and make it fit within the general guidelines (very roughly 50K to 75K for YA first novel). Have people test read it, and if they complain about the length, or lack thereof, then fix it.

I just read a blog by Veronica Smith. Her first draft of Divergent 56K words. Later she added about 30K on the advice of her agent. Finally, she added about another 20K words after a book deal with the publisher.

Nearly sixteen years ago I attempted to write my first novel. Like most first novels, it was basically a glorified autobiography. And in many ways, I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t know what I didn\u2019t know. It might have scared me too much to try. Ignorance can be bliss.

One of my favorite writing maxims is from Stephen King\u2019s ON WRITING: Write with the door closed shut, edit with the door wide open. This is what I did (I hadn\u2019t yet read his book). I wrote and wrote and wrote. I set the buzzer for one hour during the baby\u2019s nap time every day, with the baby monitor on and the door metaphorically shut tight, letting no seed of criticism or self doubt get planted.

I wrote until I began to think maybe I really am writing a novel. I wrote until the story was over, at nearly 76,000 words. It took me about three months to finish. I typed The End and thought where\u2019s the literary agent?!

One of the first books I read for the purpose of paying attention to story structure was Jodi Picoult\u2019s MY SISTER\u2019S KEEPER. I wrote all over the book, kept a yellow legal pad for notes, and did much pondering on \u201Cwhy and how\u201D the book worked.

I read more books, googled \u201Cstory structure,\u201D read \u201Chow-to\u201D books from authors like Larry Brooks and literary agent Donald Maass. I made posters to keep track of rising and falling action in an attempt to understand the three-act structure.

Now that you have the magic number of 10,000 in your head, you can divide that into chapters. You could have ten chapters from the Hook to the Inciting Incident that are each 1000 words each. My brain likes this way of thinking. It\u2019s organized, but not confining. The structure is how I feel freedom to write. Those 1000 words are a small chunk that can be written in one writing session. Of course your chapters can be longer or shorter - you get to decide what to do with those 10,000 words inserted between two major story pillars.

When I\u2019m first starting a new story idea, I will often just plunk down a few words in each chapter. Or maybe we know what needs to happen at the midpoint (Mr. Darcy proposes to Lizzy!) so we plunk down that sentence and now we have something juicy to head toward.

Does every book follow this exact story structure? Well, this is very interesting. Could this be true when Jane Austen didn\u2019t have K.M. Weiland explaining story structure to her? If you read Pride and Prejudice, you will see each and every plot point where it should be. The story is so satisfying to readers because the story hits the major and necessary structural elements, AND of course Austen knew how to craft exceptional characters that we either love or detest in the best way.

There is a formula that leads to a satisfying story end. The plot points land well and keep the reader engaged. This does NOT mean \u201Cformulaic.\u201D It means that the bones are good, the structure is solid, the ending pays off.

Is there any wiggle room? Yes! Let\u2019s say The First Plot Point (where everything changes for the hero, launching him/her into the adventure) is \u201Csupposed to be\u201D at 25%. That\u2019s just something to aim for. If it lands at 20 or 30%, that\u2019s okay. But launch your story too early with the First Plot Point and your readers might not be invested in yet; launch it too late, and your readers will start to get bored, wondering what the point of the story is.

THE HUNGER GAMES: the hook is Katniss\u2019s world of hunger and hunting and a fragile mother and little sister to care for. The inciting event is Katniss volunteering as tribute for her little sister. The First Plot Point is when a fake romance between Katniss and Peeta begins and they enter the games. We are totally invested. There is no turning back now\u2026not for us and not for Katniss, Peeta, and Gale\u2026

How about STAR WARS? (look for story structure in film!) The First Plot Point is when Luke discovers his home has been torched and his aunt and uncle are dead. There is nowhere to go but embrace the new world he\u2019s been thrown into. A hero must embrace his destiny\u2026

Isn\u2019t this just the hero\u2019s journey? YES. It\u2019s just explained in a slightly different way that makes sense to my brain. What if you don\u2019t know what each story element means? What\u2019s a First Pinch Point and what should happen at the Midpoint? What is the 3rd Plot Point? Click and start readin\u2019!

If you want to see a breakdown of movies and books according to story structure, have a look at this link. Once you start seeing the structure, you\u2019ll start paying attention to everything you read and see on the screen - it\u2019s fun and enlightening.

Know this: at the end of it all, you\u2019ll still have a very rough and terrible first draft, but you\u2019ve written a novel! And editing is much more fun than the blank page. It\u2019s also a whole lot better than getting to the end of 100,000 words and having a gigantic mess with zero structure.

Are you a visual person like I am? CLICK HERE for infographics. You can print and hang above your writing desk like I do (scroll down the infographics page and you\u2019ll find the three acts with a brief explanation of each story structure element). The photos below are cut off due to Substack\u2019s photo \u201Cgallery view\u201D feature.

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