THE BIG QUESTION …
How long, how thick, how thin they ask?
As if this was an easy task,
To answer … and to tell them true,
The size of book you’re bound to do.
Take heart dear writer from this tip,
Delivered to you from the hip,
Just write until you can no more
But leave no blood … on kitchen floor!
Being a Writer : How many … how long?
Tip 17: How Many Words?:
Historically, most agents and publishers would look for around 100,000 (100K) words or more in a good length novel. Within the psycho of the publisher is firmly engrained the all important ‘cost’ of a printed book, especially the first edition which would normally be a hard cover version. He needs to get your book out there with the lowest production costs and the best selling price. Publishers are always playing this juggling act and that’s one of the reasons they employ highly paid editors whose job it is to slash as many words as possible out of your novel, without losing the storyline or affecting the style of writing. If, of course, you are self publishing, then you can plan the length of your novel to suit you. In the twentieth century, it was generally common for a regular reader of books to buy a printed work in hard cover or paperback and read at home during the weekends, in the bath and on the train to the office. If it was a particularly appealing book, many would read it from cover to cover in one session … and some still do! However, in this modern world where readers look to finish a novel much more quickly by reading it in small, regular slices on electronic media, a novel will now be regarded as a work of around 60K or more; a Novella at between 20K and 40K with a short story clocking in at something below 20K. These figures are not cast in stone but are simply an accepted average. You would therefore be well advised to make the length of your novel part of your plan; it will save you lots of time at the edit stage and stop you getting ‘carried away’ at the writing stage. Remember, less is more and is it better to produce a fast paced 60K novel that readers will flock to purchase … or a 150K epic work that possibly lacks pace, and will probably lack readers?
Tip 18: How Long To Complete?:
This question is an important one and an answer lies in the combination of how many words you plan to write, what time you have available and what percentage of that time you can spare to write your manuscript. The calculation is a straightforward one. If you can write for two hours a day at a rate of 300 words an hour, you can produce around 3,000 words in ten hours, 30,000 words in 100 hours and a full length 60,000 word novel in around 200 hours.
If you can commit to five writing sessions of two hours each in a seven day week, then your book or novel is going to take 20 weeks to complete. If you have been doing a first edit as you go along, you can add another five weeks for the final edit and you will then have a finished manuscript in around 25 weeks … or approximately five months. By making sure you have a timescale in your plan, it will give you a target to aim for. This therefore becomes part of a plan to succeed … and not part of a plan to fail!
Tip 19: Producing A Sketch?:
If you want an easy life; if you want to finish the work you so desperately started as a fiction novelist, try not to leave your writing process open to abuse. If you do, the person who will abuse it most will be you. You will blame the corresponding result on just about everyone else … of course, but the offender will actually be YOU! Do yourself a big favor and write a detailed sketch ‘before’ you start on your five or six month writing journey.
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