What Are You Doing?

It's because tomorrow is a major holiday here in the US (our biggest summer holiday in fact) so a lot of people have today off and are out having fun.

 

Well, he left discord saying he needed to do some writing, and then I found him on here!

 

Getting irked by 2 different individuals, for 2 very different reasons. You know who you are!

 

Sorry Flawed, . I am writing, finished one scene and working on the second of the two short ones before the next chapter. However it turns out I did need the Rough to revise it since there was some specific dialogue I did not want to forget about.

 

Busted...

 

Ok then, you are off the hook.

CT, on the other hand!!

 

Hey I am almost to 94k in my WIP, so...I am already past 'novel' length by approx. 14k.

 

Yeah, my issue with you was you not being on discord for about 3 hours, and I was sat here waiting very (im)patiently!

 

I thought it was 90k?

Uh oh, im currently having lunch

 

According to the word count thread base novel length is 80K.

 

Really!!! Sweet. I ca

 

Watching the old Addams Family show (the B/W one).

 

cool

 

Sitting down. Rubbing eyes that seesaw heavily as the mind tango's with work in progresses progress. Faults, like small cracks in a building made of flimsy stone. The hands of a uncertain construction worker.

 

Whoa, seriously? Are we talking average saleable novel length, or the official definition? Because according to what I wrote in my notebook from something I saw on this site shortly after I joined, (I don't use other writing forums) Novel length was "officially" 40K . I celebrated going from "novella" to "novel" based on these numbers from that piece. If it's 80K, I'm not gong to clear that. I'm probably ending up at 70-75K max. 70, most likely.

Here's what I wrote in my notebook:

Novel over 40K
Novella 17,500-40K
Novelette 7500-17,500
Short Story under 7,500

 

That's it, sweet. I can achieve that easily.

Good to know, I had someone say my short story was too short to be a short story.

 

Yeah, I'm sorry I can't attribute the exact post. I wrote it on the inside cover of my notebook, but I'm positive it came from here.It was during my first week here, or may have been during the period when I was still lurking but hadn't joined. I want to say it was an article or a sticky post.

 

I think you should be fine. I don't set the standard on word count to what makes it what.
So you can call it what you feel it is. I was merely parroting what I had read around here
as far as what those with more seniority have said about it.
I just poked around a bit, and according to Laurin Kelly's post in How Short Can A Novel
Be thread, it is right around 40-50K range for it to be considered a novel. Though I could
have sworn I remember that being more Novella-ish territory.
Beats me, so don't take my word as official cannon since there clearly seems to be a bit of
evidence indicating that it will vary by whom you talk to.
No worries.

 

Cool. Thanks for checking, CT. That makes me feel better. I'm remembering a certain member's name as the author of the post / article but since I was new here at the time I don't want to attribute it to them incorrectly in case I'm remembering their name wrong.

Market trends do change, so it's very possible we could both be right and the number may have been updated. In the past ten months I've never re-checked those numbers, having planned to when I finished the first draft.

 

You may find these links useful in what you want to know.

https://thewritepractice.com/word-count/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_count

Hope this helps you get things sorted.

 

Here are lengths from the Science Fiction Writers of America website, regarding rules for their Nebula Award:

This is the only "official" definition I know of. Personally, I think 40,000 words is very short for a novel, but that's just me. It probably comes from what science fiction magazines publish as novels.

 

If it's 40K, I totally can split my back burner novel into 3 novels. Lol, just kidding. 1 full novel and one collection of novella, i guess?

 

That is interesting. From that first link I looked at YA is the shortest at 60k, and Sci-fi the longest at 110K.
The whole thing is a confusing mess.

 

If that is going to be our base measure then I have already written 4.5 novels worth out of my two.

 

My one novel is two, then (both undergoing serious revision), and a series of novellas I've been working on is about two novels.

For comparison, here is a list of famous books sorted by their word counts.