I was wondering how long peoples novels are in terms of number of words. I have tried to do some research into how many words I should be aiming for but there seems to be a lot of disagreement about how long they should be! Some people suggest 60,000 -70,000 and others suggest 100,000 - 150,000.
How long are your pieces? It would be interesting to know what I should be aiming for.
I want to just keep writing my novel until I feel that the story has been told and then either pad it out in places or remove some words but it would be interesting to know whether any of you have written towards a 'goal' of a certain number of words or whether you just write and write until you feel that the story has come to its natural end.
I've read that the guidelines were, generally, 70-90k, longer for historical and shorter for YA. Particularly for a 'first' novel. Whether they're still relevant in the digital age I've no idea.
If your book has the legs guidelines don't really matter: they were more relevant to production costs than storytelling. My two historical action-adventures ended up roughly the same length after editing, at 113k and 112k, though I cut more of the first and added more to the second, strangely enough :?
Being confident your story is as well told as you can make it is more important than word count, IMO.
that is right; write till u are done, try to keep it beautiful & engaging, that is the real thing.
I wanted to ask the same question the other day too!! i looked on the net and the best advice was.. write until you have finished your story!!:)