Struggling with word count

Hi,

If you are set on going the trade route and finding an agent etc, than yes, to an extent you are restricted by what publishers require. However, they are often flexible for a good work. And 100k is nothing in epic fantasy.

If you are looking at indie publishing, your word counts are completely open to you. I have novels ranging from 47k to 255k.

In any case, from what you've said it's far too soon to be worrying about word counts. Finish your draft. Make it the best you can. Ignore all thoughts of word counts. The book should be as long or as short as it needs to be to tell your story the way you want to tell it.

Cheers, Greg.

 

Well, Fantasy tends to weigh in at around 120,000 words, so going over 100,000 shouldn't be an issue.

Settle your mind... Here's a link to Tor and their submission guidelines. They are looking for completed Fantasy, Sci-fi or Horror books of between 95,000 and 150,000 words. Means you have room to manouevre.

SUBMITTING A NOVEL TO TOR UK « Tor Books Tor Books

EDIT: Every publisher will have their own guidelines on an acceptable word count.

 

As someone who just self-published a 160k fantasy, I can tell you that when you edit you will probably find yourself trimming rather than expanding, especially if you're sticking to your outline, so that will shave off a few K easily. I'm glad you're not worrying about word count now...it's not worth the mental stress! Just finish, edit, rinse, repeat ;-) Best of luck!

 

The advice I've heard from professional writers is to write the first draft from the heart, as the story and characters come to you. Then its a big task of editing for the second draft and there you can think about what you want to keep out. I agree with what the guys have said above, by the end of the first draft you've done a lot of writing and will have learnt a lot so you'll have a much better perspective of what needs to stay and what needs to go.

 

I'm not sure how others do it, but my experience has been that once I've finished a story I discover I should have started 2-3 chapters into it. I take a big pair of scissors and voila!.... new beginning.

 

See I have trouble cutting things out of my novel. I've cut out scenes, sure, but that's about it. I've completely re-done some chapters to make sure they go well with the novel, fix up the plot holes in them, etc, but still yet to completely remove a chapter.

All my chapters seem to contribute to my novel in a big way, and I just can't see myself cutting entire chapters away from it.

As for the words, for the OP, just write. The main thing is to finish the book . Once that's finished, worry about your word count.

 

I think you should keep writing and only use the word count as a way to see how much you have written or to measure how much story-time each of your prominent characters is given. I don't think you should worry about the amount of words since some parts you think will be long may turn out to be short or not needed. Fantasy stories, especially those set in a different place need more words to establish the world to the reader.
I like to edit at the end of every chapter, as it makes it less frustrating when the novel is done. But only for basic grammar, lightly for punctuation and making sure that things make sense. I will have someone help me do a more thorough edit at the end when I know the final tone of the novel. When I finished my first published novel it was 84 000 words. After the first round of editing it dropped to 82 000 words. In the end, it was a little over 86 000 words. Work on how you want things to sound and the message/emotions you are trying to get across to the reader...let the number of words it takes be much less important.