My book is too #*#@!! short

RedMolly · Jul 5, 2006

So it looks, from the average per-chapter length thus far, as though my WIP (non-medieval, non-urban fantasy) is going to clock in at about 55,000 words.

That's what it's going to take to tell the story.

So do I stick in a subplot to pimp it out a little more, or what? I can't help but think of how thin and slender and insignificant it's going to look on the shelves next to the latest Jordan opus...

Shweta · Jul 6, 2006

Some of my favourite books are no longer than that.
I'm not an editor, of course, so my 2c may be worth no more than that.

alleycat · Jul 6, 2006

Innkeeper said:
I think it would be a mistake to pump up the number of words simply to pad your word count.

I would agree with this. One Henry James is enough.

The only thing I can suggest is to ask yourself whether there is a story that precedes what you've written that is worth telling (I don't mean a long prologue, but an actually story leading up to what you've written), or is there a story worth telling that would naturally come after what you've written.

ac

Inkdaub · Jul 6, 2006

How many pages is 55,000 words?

Robert Toy · Jul 6, 2006

Roughly 180 pages I would guess.

Saanen · Jul 6, 2006

Inkdaub said:
How many pages is 55,000 words?

Around 300, in courier and double-spaced, but word count is far more important than page count.

My last completed novel clocked in at almost exactly 50,000 words. I liked it and couldn't think of any way to get it to a decent novel length without padding. Then I took a few days to rethink some of the story, and I ended up revising it in a major way--I threw out at least a third of the book and rewrote it in far more detail, with a much more intense story. The revision was 70,000 words and much better.

So you might take another look at portions of your story. You might be like me and rush through parts that don't interest you that much. I figure if I'm bored of part of the story while writing it, the reader will put the book down there, so I'd better punch it up and make that part the best section instead of the worst.

Inkdaub · Jul 6, 2006

Taking the median of your two answers it sounds like a book of between two and three hundred pages. That doesn't sound too short. It isn't long like Jordan or Martin but it's a decent length.

HConn · Jul 6, 2006

Finish the story before you worry about word count. There are ways to increase the length of your story without "padding" it, but you shouldn't worry about it until you're sure of what you have.

katiemac · Jul 6, 2006

Something else you can do is make sure you're showing and not telling. I'm not saying to go dump in a bunch of purple prose, but make sure the details are working. I used to write in sparser detail because I knew what I wanted to say, but others weren't getting the same picture.

It won't do huge numbers for your word count, but if you're coming up shorter than you anticipated, style may be one reason why.

rugcat · Jul 6, 2006

RedMolly said:
So it looks, from the average per-chapter length thus far, as though my WIP (non-medieval, non-urban fantasy) is going to clock in at about 55,000 words.

That is a problem. The further you stray from the norm, the harder it will be to place, regardless of the book's intrinsic worth. There are exceptions, but fantasies these days seem to rarely run under 90,000 or so.

I had the same problem - I could see my story arc was going to come in at about 70,000 words, so I veered off in an unexpected direction and added another 20,000. An agent I submitted to liked the MS a lot, but felt the plot simply didn't work - it fell apart at that veering off point. After letting it rest and revisiting it, I realised she was right - I had suspicions about it all along anyway. I had to dump the entire 20,000 words and redo the last third, which necessitated going back through the original MS and cutting a bunch more, adding stuff, and revising earlier plot lines. It almost became a different book, which is what it needed.

So, if you graft in a subplot just to expand wordcount, it's liable to seem contrived or diluted. I don't know the answer, but I suspect if you want it longer, you may have change it organically - in effect, almost writing a different book with the same characters. That's not so bad - it can give you an excuse to cut things that might have been a bit weak but were needed to advance plot.

Or, if you've run out of ideas, you could do what I do - wander around in a hopeless daze and doubt your abilities.

Birol · Jul 6, 2006

Inkdaub said:
Taking the median of your two answers it sounds like a book of between two and three hundred pages. That doesn't sound too short. It isn't long like Jordan or Martin but it's a decent length.

The page counts they are giving you are the manuscript page counts, not the published page counts. Published pages in a book depend on the format the publisher uses. I can make my manuscript's page count change from 311 pages to 403 simply by changing from Times New Roman to Courier.

It's word count that matters when writing and submitting, not page counts.

RedMolly · Jul 6, 2006

That is a problem. The further you stray from the norm, the harder it will be to place, regardless of the book's intrinsic worth. There are exceptions, but fantasies these days seem to rarely run under 90,000 or so.

That's exactly what I'm worried about--placeability.

There is a whole 'nother story involving these characters, but that's a sequel of probably about the same length. It wouldn't work at all to stick the two together.

LeeFlower · Jul 6, 2006

I've got the same problem.

Not sure if this will help you at all, but what I'm doing is forbiding myself from worrying about it until I've finished the draft. I'm a complete outline freak, so the chances that I'm wrong and it's going to run 20-30k longer than I think it will are pretty near to nil. Something's going to need to be done. But until I've got it all written out, I won't know exactly what I've got as far as expansion options.

I doubt that a logical subplot is just going to leap out and land in my lap (See above RE: outline freak), but wouldn't it suck to freak out a lot about it now if indeed there is a clear solution waiting behind door 45k? Even if there isn't, and there's a massive rewrite in my narrative future, getting it all out's only going to make rewriting it easier. For me, anyway... it could be my plan's total bunk for you.

Either way, here's hoping we both work it out.

roach · Jul 6, 2006

When I was working on my first draft I had the same fears you did. I had to make myself not think about it at all and just finish the book. The first draft came out to 76,000 words when I had been shooting for 80,000. Then after I finished the second draft (cutting out substantial portions and rewriting others) the book clocked in at 90,000 words.

Worrying about the word count is one of those games authors play to distract themselves from writing.

RedMolly · Jul 6, 2006

Worrying about the word count is one of those games authors play to distract themselves from writing.

Hey, now! Hanging out here at AW is the only "game" I need to distract myself from writing, buddy. Hmpf.

tu_sense · Jul 6, 2006

rugcat said:
Or, if you've run out of ideas, you could do what I do - wander around in a hopeless daze and doubt your abilities.

Been there. Tried that. Not too great for writing, but fantastic for being lazy and getting comfort food stuck on the keys.

Anyway, I must agree with rugcat. Research potential publishers. I've found ones that say right in their submission guidelines that they don't take manuscripts under a certain length. It is important to write your story well and all, but unfortunately, publishing is a buisiness and it needs to do certain things to maintain itself. If for some reason they want 100k, well, you have to find a way to give them 100k.

For myself, I discovered this problem very early, only about 30k in or so. And my plot spans a lot of time and distance, so I've actually found a lot of simple little ways to beef it up. I would suggest you go back to your outline. Make the changes there first, before you touch the manuscript. That way, you can increase your word count through substance and not fluff. Good luck.

Jamesaritchie · Jul 6, 2006

length

Innkeeper said:
I think it would be a mistake to pump up the number of words simply to pad your word count. Your story should be as long as it needs to be. Quality - not word count shoud always predominate.

There really is no such thing as a story that's as long or short as it needs to be. A story has the length it does because of how the writer chooses to write it, what the writer chooses to leave out or put in.

You should never pad a story, but any story can be told at any length without padding.

If you want to make a novel longer, you add threads, characters, and/or complications. To make it shorter, you remove threads, characters, and/or complications.

Jamesaritchie · Jul 6, 2006

RedMolly said:
So it looks, from the average per-chapter length thus far, as though my WIP (non-medieval, non-urban fantasy) is going to clock in at about 55,000 words.

That's what it's going to take to tell the story.

So do I stick in a subplot to pimp it out a little more, or what? I can't help but think of how thin and slender and insignificant it's going to look on the shelves next to the latest Jordan opus...

That probably will be too short for most publishers. But if that's what it takes to tell the story, it's because that's the way you've structured the story. Subplots are fine, if they belong, but you don't have to add a subplot to add length without padding. A novel is like a tapestry. And one thread, add one character, add one complication, and you'll add many other threads by necessity.

Any story can be told at any length without padding. This is how many short stories become very good novels. Often award winning novels. There's no way to pad a short story into a good novel, but there are many ways to add threads, characters, and complications without padding,

scfirenice · Jul 6, 2006

Some of the current best sellers come in right where you are, Mary Janice Davidson's new one is SHORT. Different genre though. I agree with those who say write the book they way you feel it.

Patricia · Jul 6, 2006

I'm not an expert, but I will comment that I was able to flesh out my novel by adding a character and conflict.

Branwyn · Jul 6, 2006

Or, if you've run out of ideas, you could do what I do - wander around in a hopeless daze and doubt your abilities.

I'm an expert at that!!!!

Jamesaritchie · Jul 6, 2006

length

scfirenice said:
Some of the current best sellers come in right where you are, Mary Janice Davidson's new one is SHORT. Different genre though. I agree with those who say write the book they way you feel it.

Writing someting the way you feel it is nice, but writing something the way the publisher wants it is a lot smarter. There are certainly short novels that succeed, but they're the excpetions, they're usually in the literary or mainstream genre, and they're sold to publishers who want novels of that length.

There's a bunch of stuff out there about "stories find their own length," "every story has a right length," on and on.

This all presupposes the extremely modern, and truly weird, notion that the writer is not in charge of the writing. Balderdash.

The smartest thing a new writer can do is look at publisher's guideliens before writing word one. Then write a novel that falls within those guidelines. If the novel is coming in too short, then figure out why it's too short and make teh necessary changes. If it's coming in too long, then figure out why it's too long and make the necessary cuts.

Publishers do not put out guidelines because they want them ignored, and generally do not accept the excuse "But this is how long I felt it should be."

When most of the publishers within your genre say they want novels between, say, 80,000--120,000 words, then that's what you write.

Length is always, without exception, a choice made by the writer.

Birol · Jul 6, 2006

Jamesaritchie said:
There's a bunch of stuff out there about "stories find their own length," "every story has a right length," on and on.

This all presupposes the extremely modern, and truly weird, notion that the writer is not in charge of the writing. Balderdash.

I don't know if this concept is really new or not, James, but it is the artistic approach to writing. While I would agree there is a certain art to writing, what many writers make the mistake of believing is that art is all there is. There is also a business. Art for art sakes is a fine notion -- if you have another source of income and don't really want to make a living from your art, in this case your writing. If you want to make a living at it, you must balance the business aspects with the creative. You must learn to write to fit your audience.

This is something that artists of all types have done for centuries. When creative types were supported by patrons, they used to create to meet their patrons tastes. If they didn't, they lost their patron and all that went with him, like the roof over their head and their next meal. Now we don't have individual patrons. We have corporations and readers, but the concept hasn't changed. If you're going to write for a living, you have to please your audience.

spacejock2 · Jul 11, 2006

If I ended up short by 15,000-20,000 words I'd re-read the book and see whether I'd ignored one of the secondary characters. Assuming you have protagonist and antagonist, how much have you written from each point of view? 70/30 should be the right sort of balance. It's good to see what the evil overlord is up to, although we don't need to see his plans (else where's the twist?)

Avoid any temptation to pad or rewrite what you have with more words (unless you're adding fresh scenes.) Good editing involves stripping back what you already have by 10-15%

My book is too #*#@!! short

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