I'm in the process of writing my first novel, and I'd like to gain some sort of sense of scale when it comes to how much I'm actually writing. I try and control the size of what I'm writing, but I feel that the word count is too variable to be an accurate measure of anything. Say I'm writing with 1.5 spacing, 2.0 between paragraphs, with standard MS Word formatting. How many printed pages would one page of this sort convert to? Roughly 1.25? Many thanks.
I'm pretty sure that word count is what everyone uses. You take your word count and divide it by 250, and that gives you a page count. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
Yeah, I'm just a rookie myself; I'd like to get someone else's verification of my method. If you don't mind me asking, how many words do you have so far? Just curious!
Let's say a 1,200 word prologue. Is that too long? I'd like to know when snipping a paragraph here or there should become a priority.
I'm certainly no expert in this area, but I'd count he words per line for maybe ten lines on the written page, find your average number of words per line, count your lines, and crunch the numbers to find a fair approximation of your number of words. I have no clue how many words generally fit on a typed page. If it's 250, I guess you're set.
Most people (and publishers) talk about the length of a story or novel using word count. You should aim for 80-100k for a first novel. Some genres (like fantasy) allow for 120k. But always follow publisher guidelines.
don't concern yourself with page count... the only figure you need to consider is the total number of words and 80-100k is what most publishers want from new unknown writers... as for words per page, if you use the standard format of 1" margins all around, courier 12 pt font double-spaced with indents, you'll come out at an average of 250 words per page... go here for a good format guide: http://www.shunn.net/format/novel.html
lol. fail on my part cuz im fearing i might be going a little overboard with my novel then. I don't count the words cuz i usually end up with around 35,000 words per chapter (and those are the ones that are only ten pages long and not the big ones aka; im more worried aobut the number of pages per chapter). its the first rough draft and im more focused on getting the book finished than anything before i go into editing. roughly at 213 pages now and in part 2 -overall i'd say it deosnt matter about the word count -and the book i was talking about is only the first in a trilogy im planning! lots of work ahead of me and i think this one will end up aorund 400-500 pages. guess sinc ei always read big books i write big books lol
