I think I’ve settled on a goal length – 70,000 words. Two reasons:
- I can’t seem to find a definitive word count for novels. They seem to range from 50,000 to 80,000. Some sites say at least 70,000 for first-time authors to submit for publication, so I’m going with that.
- I’ve got a fair amount of rewriting and “detailing” to go back and do. Once I do that, it will most likely add at another 10K (or more) to the whole book, based solely on what I’ve got in mind for Chapter One.
I know a book is “as long as it takes to tell the story” but I have a lot of story in my head and I don’t see Crystal Tech as your conventional fantasy/sci-fi novel trilogy, more like a series (a la Dresden Files) with recurring characters.
And speaking of Chapter One, I’m going to take another pass at it soon. Probably when I finish the current chapter (#5) to “finish it off.” I want something for people to preview (that’s closer to the finished product) and I want something I can start recording that people can listen to and allows me to practice recording and editing audio.
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Good luck on the novel! For what it’s worth, I’d suggest not setting a word count, because I found that it changed quite a few times. Write until your story is told. If it’s a little shy of 70k, you may consider a rework. Some of the publishing houses I’ve found say that they don’t even accept works under 80k. Fried Green Zombies was ~88k. My first novel was somewhere around 55k. My next one? Who knows… Good luck!
Thanks John. I LOVED F.G.Z. and your advice is much appreciated.
I think I’m using the word count to keep me motivated, maybe a carryover from the two times I tried NaNoWriMo. I’ll keep at it (and you too).