My Novel's got 'The Shrinks'

[Lorna]

I'm currently in the editing / redrafting process.

Following cutting two insignificant chapters and doing a heck of alot of 'de-wording' and focusing on clarity my novel has shrunk from 120,000 words to 68,000. And is still shrinking as the edit continues.

This is the first novel I've written so it surprised me.

Has anybody else had a similar experience?

I know the expected word count for a new novelist averages 80,000 (although some publishers I've looked at state their range 50,000 - 120,000) but I also read that a novel should be as long as the story. Do you think it might be a problem when it comes to publication if I end up with a 65,000 word novel?

 

[Chime85]

If the story runs for 65,000 words, that's fine, word count should not be the be all and end all of writing. When editing, consider any passages you may have missed or left out due to your original draft being too long. As you know, my stories tend to be on the higher range when it comes down to word count, but that's due to the lengh of the story (3 books) and my descriptive style. That said, I know VERY well that shorter stories are just as good and indepth as longer ones, being tighter in their writing and focusing more on the story the author is telling. Take Terry Pratchett as an example, some of his stories are about 65,000 words and they are brilliant.

As for your concerns regarding publishing, you are in the range of "optimum" publishing requirements. I believe the most popular for publishers are within the 60,000-90,000 range, so you're comfortably in the middle there

x

 

[Jabrosky]

My stories suffer from the opposite problem. Reviewers usually say that they don't have enough words and need expansion and less terseness.

 

[Penpilot]

I tend to have the opposite happen. All the redundant stuff I cut out tends to get replaced with new stuff like more fleshed out subplots and backstory. So there's a slow creep.

From what I've read min novel length is 80k but that's not definitive. It changes with genre and phases of the moon and if your name is Alfred E Newman or not.

Good on you for being so wickedly badass with the cutting and slicing. But don't worry too much until you're done with the pass. Sometimes you find stuff you're missing and the word count jumps.

 

[BWFoster78]

I usually have the same experience as Penpilot. I remove poor phrases and redundant words and then add whole scenes to replace something that was telling.

 

[gavintonks]

I chopped from 140 to 115 and it was worth it, tighter more action and took out what I wanted to say, for letting the story speak for itself

 

[Zero Angel]

Mine usually grow with the editing process, but I have a very ejaculatory approach to writing where I try to get everything down as fast as possible.

My first novel went from about 164K to 200K from first completed draft to published eBook.

Word count is interesting. I have always heard that anything less than 50K is defined as a novella, but fantasy novels usually run long. I've read from many agents and publishing houses that they will not accept much over 100K words for a first novel (you have to remember for traditional publishers more words means more paper and higher costs--although it is marginal with offset printing), but they may accept up to 120K words for a fantasy novelist.

It depends on what they are looking for and how attractive you and your story are to them. I'm sure Brandon Sanderson's publisher is not overly thrilled with the 300K+ word behemoths he turns into them, but he has built up an audience that has come to expect that length of a novel.

In my 200K word novel, I have about three major story arcs that each come to a satisfying conclusion, and it has been recommended to me once or twice that I break it up into a trilogy by itself and expand more for each story arc. But I am planning another 11 novels in this storyline and if I broke each up into a trilogy I would have 36 novels and probably never finish.

ANYWAY, as long as the words are satisfying, I don't think the length matters. If the words aren't satisfying, then more is less and if they fill you up, then less is enough.

 

[BeigePalladin]

a small word count dosen't really matter all that much, and I personally would rather read something short and good than longer but drivvel/overstuffed.

If you are worried about your wordcount however, maybe try and weave in an additional subplot or two, or expand upon others. also, if this is planned as the first part to a series, you could also possibly bring in elements planned for later as inor points now?

or you could expand some description etc, mayhaps?

though 68,000 words is a fine lenght

 

[Shockley]

While that's a huge cut, most big-name writers are quick to point out that their manuscript shrinks extensively after the revising process. Stephen King in On Writing (which is about the only book of his I can stand) says that 12-20% (if I recall correctly) is good. You're more than that, but this is probably a good thing.

 

[Lorna]

The way I'm looking at the editing / redrafting process is through Michaelangelo's answer to how he managed to sculpt an angel. An onlooker asked him how he did it. He replied that he took away everything but the angel. (That's probably not the precise words but you can see the idea.)

I'm trying to find my angel, or perhaps with this book 'fire breathing monster' would be a better analogy (!).