Novella vs novel lengths

Dune was too long. Could you cut the Stilgar sections?

Too long. Cut the Bombadill dance

Just looking at those thick tomes made me sneeze. btw what happened to the weird living car and why isn't it in the final battle?

Cut 30k words by not repeating each character's profession and attributes in each paragraph
https://onehundredpages.wordpress.com/2 … dan-brown/

Hello.

One concern of mine as an unpublished author (in the traditional world, anyway) was the 129K word count for Sister Bevenlee and Mother of Pox. I learned from an actual agent that for a fantasy novel, that's actually within the acceptable limits. I worried Mother of Draglins would be too short for a fantasy novel as at first glance it clocked in at around 79K words. It's since hit the 91K word mark, so no worries there.

The beauty of self-publishing is that word counts can go out the window. Publish what story you want at whatever length covers the story. You aren't beholden to anyone but your fans. Give them a complete story and they'll flip the pages willingly. You may have to initially gauge the pricing, but you'll learn what works through trial and error.

So I wouldn't stress at all about word counts if you don't plan on seeking traditional publication. I've looked at doing that and decided it's not for me, as it comes with expectations and obligations I do not wish to participate in. My goal now is to get through my backlog of revisions, then focus on new material. My word counts for some of that new material will be all over the place, from short stories to short novellas. And since I'll be at the helm, word counts aren't much of a concern.

One thing to consider if your shopping around for a publisher, many have specific word count requirements for unknown authors, usually around 99K.

Or you could make it a two-volume series.:)

Saving Connor (now The Rise of Connor) has become painful to write because it's taking so long. I'm only 2/3 of the way through the first draft. At the rate I'm going, it could take fifteen years to write the full trilogy. I'll be sick of the story long before then. In the meantime, my other trilogy languishes. I'm leaning heavily toward making both stories into long three-part books. That will allow me to finish both and move on to something new before I'm ready for a care home. Of the two trilogies, Rise of Connor will definitely need sequels (i.e., I'd rather not abandon it after one book, which is another option).

Guidelines are just that, guidelines, much like all rules of writing for publication. Agents/publishers will tell you if the story is too long or in some instances too short. I would not waste time worrying about the number of words until an agent/publisher told me to do so. Each category has guideline ranges to serve as a, you know, guideline. If you go beyond a novella range, then you merely have a novel or vice versa. I've read guidelines which want more than 100,000 words for a novel and many do, both oldies and newbies. Dune just happens to be the best novel I've ever read and didn't for a second seem too long. Folks are too hung up on numbers which will sort themselves out during the publishing process. It the project isn't finished, the last thing you need to worry about is the length. Just the way I see it. Take care. Vern

Thanks, Dagny, but the level of research I'm doing is necessary to give fairly realistic settings and an accurate portrayal of Christianity and Catholicism. Given that Catholics are a major part of my target audience, there's no faking it. You either get it right or it will stand out like glaring errors, of which I've already made several. And given that my memory is s--t, I frequently have to re-research the same information more than once. Besides, the research is not the only thing that's dragging me down. I'm writing in genres that I've never done before, which has led to a number of dead ends, requiring me to rewrite many chapters. Combine that with the fact that I only write part-time, and I'm left looking for a way to scale back my two projects. Converting both trilogies into single, long books is the best way forward. I'd rather struggle to trim long stories than figure out how to stretch short ones. Besides, neither resulting book will be outrageously long. This isn't War & Peace even though the writing process feels like it. :-)

I plan to finish the first draft before making any major changes. That way I'll have a relatively stable draft as the basis for whatever I do next.