Does Size Matter? - how long should your novel be?

“I know size of a book can be daunting but don't be afraid” – Robin Williams

How long does your 
novel need to be?
by John Fagan

How long should your novel be? How many words are you aiming for? Well, many writers look at length from the industry standpoint – they focus on writing at least 40,000 words for it to be considered novella, at least 55,000 for a YA, 60,000 or more for a standard novel, and at least 80,000 for a fantasy or publishers will reject it. While this is somewhat true, this is the wrong way to look at writing if you want your work to be the best it can be.

The best way to look at length is simply aim to avoid writing a story that is too long. This is not about word count – there’s nothing wrong with writing a long story so long as there’s enough variety in the plot to keep it interesting. However, allow your story to be as long as it should be but not a word more.

So what needs to be taken out? Here are five things to consider taking out of your novel.

1. Take out detailed descriptions that are irrelevant to the novel

Detailed descriptions of scenery or characters are fine as long as they are important to the story. This does not mean five pages on a sunset or a field that was common in 19th century novels is the way to go. Over description or unnecessary description is where you will bore your reader. This is especially true with characters. Don’t waste time detailing every item of clothing your protagonist is wearing and mention every aspect of her face. It’s fine to leave some room for your reader to imagine them and fine for readers to imagine characters looking slightly different from what you imagined.

2. Take out research that doesn’t belong to the novel

Yes you will need to do research if you are writing historical fiction or any novel set in a real place, but stopping the flow of a story to describe a bridge a character can see from the window and going on about that bridge’s history could kill your novel. The reader probably doesn’t care about any research you stumbled upon and squeezed into a scene for no particular reason. A simple rule to follow is this: if it doesn’t advance the plot or reveal a character you can take it out of your novel.

3. Take out the part that readers tend to skip

When you read novels, what parts do you skip over or find yourself slowing down and getting bored? No doubt long paragraphs that go on and on is one of them, as are irrelevant paragraphs. Think about what the writer is doing with these – is she describing the weather again or scenery that doesn’t need to be described, hopping into another character’s head to get a take on a situation the reader doesn’t care about, or perhaps going into some backstory that brings nothing to the story? Don’t copy this method of fleshing out your story as it will only make it worse.

4. Take out unnecessary words only there to make the story meet a specific word count

If you can say something in 10 words that has the same effect as it would with 20, then go with 10. If you are dragging out your word count to meet a specific number, you will test your reader’s patience and they may give up, or if they don’t, they won’t want to invest in any of your future novels. As long as the story is not boring it can be as long as it wants. 

Simply put, don’t overwrite your story because when it’s done, it’s done. Paul Auster, author of The New York Trilogy, said you should leave some space for your reader to take a breath in and this is great advice. You don’t need to kill your chapters by overflowing them with needless words.

5. Take out adverbs

While you are at it, you might want to think about taking out your adverbs. In particular ones you have added after a character’s dialogue. Why? Well, they stop the flow of the writing, and they generally show up any modern writer as an amateur who hasn’t learned how to write. And ignore any advice that says you need a long list of words to indicate dialogue – asked, whispered, or said is more than enough. Almost all of the time you should stick with said and if you do so, you’ve improved the novel and cut out some needless words. 

Adverbs - modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Here's how to spot adverbs, they end in -ly.
Let's take a look at a few examples:
Abruptly: I thought the movie ended abruptly.Beautifully: The beautifully painted landscape is a wonderful addition to my living room decor.

You should actually aim to have your characters written so well that you hardly need any dialogue indicators at all.

Writing using adverbs like: 

“I hate you,” she lied somewhat nervously.

“Why?” he asked somewhat anxiously. 

“You ruined my life,” she admonished greatly.

do nothing except probably make your reader want to throw the book out of the window.

Decision time on novel length

So how long does your novel need to be? Well, as long as the idea carrying it lasts. Don’t force a good short story or novella into a 100,000 word novel. It won’t work and agents, publishers, and writers alike will pick up on this. On the other side of the coin, you can always lengthen a shorter story if it has the legs for it. You’ll be able to tell from experience if the story is cooked and you’re just forcing words into it.

Come and Meet John Gerard Fagan 

A Scottish writer and Creative Writing Assistant Professor. He writes in both English and Scots and in a number of genres, including Japanese historical fiction and crime noir. He moved back to Scotland in late 2019 after being in Japan for the last decade.

Do you have a point to make about literature?
Join our community 

On Twitter @HappyLDNPress 

& Instagram @happylondonpress

www.HappyLondonPress.com

Are you in need of a weekly fiction fix
Subscribe and get it sent straight into your in box

* indicates required

Email Address * 

First Name 

Last Name 

Email Format

• html
• text

Here is some more advice from other writers

Nick Travers

, studied Novel Writing

Each chapter is a mini story in its own right, so to work properly, just like any story, each chapter must have, as a bare minimum, a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Or to put it another way every chapter needs a three line plot. This consists of:

• A premise – what is the scene about.
• A complication (one per scene) – (But) what difficulty do the characters have to overcome and how do they overcome this complication.
• A trigger – How overcoming the complication triggers the next complication that needs to be overcome in the next scene.

Each chapter may be a single scene which follows a simple story arc, or may comprise of several simpler scenes, each with a beginning. Middle, and end, that together form the story arc. I prefer to use a variation on the classic eight-part story arc.

However, unlike the overall Story Arc, most chapters do not end with a Resolution, but with the trigger for the next scene in the flow of the story. This keeps the story moving and the reader turning the pages. The trigger would normally by a consequence of the complication or difficulty tackled in the scene/chapter. If it is the last scene in a chapter, then classically the trigger could be a cliff-hanger to the first scene in the next chapter or the next scene involving that character.

Here is a Scene Flow infographic I devised for my website that applies equally well to structuring chapters.

So your issue is not, ‘how long can I make a chapter’, but whether your chapter makes sense as a story in its own right and within the larger context of the novel. Unless you are really trying to hammer home a point, it is usually best, to manage reader expectations, to keep chapter about the same length.

As to the overall length of the story, concentrate on telling the story and see what it comes out like, then compare it to the lengths of other similar stories in your genre. The general rule, though, is it’s much easier to edit stuff out then add in new storylines as fillers.

Rachel Neumeier

, Author of 15+ adult and YA fantasy novels

As long as they need to be. But that’s not helpful, so:

Chapters that are shorter will give the impression of a faster pace. If you are writing a YA novel, you may want to shorten your chapters to about ten or twelve pages. If you are writing literary or epic fiction, you may want to lengthen your chapters to 30 pages or so in order to give a slower feel and allow your reader to “sink into” each chapter.

Chapters that end in cliffhanger situations give the impression of a faster pace, especially if you switch point-of-view characters with every chapter break. If you set up your cliffhangers badly, you will drive your readers nuts. I just read a murder mystery that did a good job with this. Let me think. Okay, it was One Grave Less by Beverly Connor. That is the ninth book of a series, but you will see what I mean about the chapter breaks even if you are not familiar with the series.

A Young Adult novel will be, in general, shorter than an adult novel, faster paced, with less backstory, less description, and less complicated political manoeuvering or whatever. YA novels tend to run abut 80,000 words, but all of mine have been longer. Even my debut novel was 92,000 words.

An adult novel will often run above that, especially fantasies and historicals. That is primarily because the world building takes up more words than would be the case for any kind of contemporary setting, no matter the genre.

My average length is 120,000 words, but my two most recent adult fantasies have been longer. My longest, Winter of Ice and Iron, is 197,000 words. My editor didn’t quibble one bit about this length, but I would suggest that for a debut novel, if you want to be traditionally published, your chances are better if you aim for no longer than 120,000.