Length of a book

[Can't Catch A Break]

I'm writing my latest novel. It's religious fiction. I want to get all the nuances involved but at times, my chapters run over. In its last reincarnation, the beginning was 15 chaps! Granted, I only want to do 3 chapter openers, but I let the ideas just flow into one big opener.

I've since restarted and have been paying closer attention to how much detailing I put into each chapter, but I already know that this book is going to stretch beyond 20. I have a lot of subplots going on.

Does anyone else encounter just writing so much but not just for the purpose of ink? All the details matter.

[Birol]

I'm not certain what you're saying about the chapters running over, but is it possible you're writing so much because you're getting to know the story and the characters?

[blacbird]

The number of chapters is meaningless. How many words?

caw.

[emeraldcite]

Don't worry about any of that until you reach "the end." You'll be rewriting it anyway. You can cut, hack, and slash your way back through and shape the book into what you want it to be.

But you have to finish first.

Also, there are no limits to the number of chapters a book can have and there is no limitation to the lenght of chapters either.

[MidnightMuse]

Yes, don't fuss in terms of chapters - just write the story and keep writing the story until you type The End. At that point, check your word count and start your edit/revisions. You can change your chapter lengths, amounts, and all that jazz when you're done.

[Can't Catch A Break]

I'm not certain what you're saying about the chapters running over, but is it possible you're writing so much because you're getting to know the story and the characters?

I just want to include every beat. So, I flesh out each chapter and character.

Thanks everyone else for the advice. one of my ex editors demanded I chope my book in half and turn into a sequel.

[byElizabeth]

Putting your book on a diet is actually really liberating...I just did it myself. I was able to cut about 40 pages without really cutting any scenes...just cut out things that you dont' need...too many adjectives, telling instead of showing, offending the reader by writing things that are obvious...cut all of that stuff out and it really will help. Of course, there are always sentences and whole paragraphs that can get cut too. My "unofficial" editor told me to say what I'm saying in each long sentence using 3/4 of the words...it makes sense and it works...

[Soccer Mom]

The diet can be beneficial. I have dropped entire chapters before. I just took the little tiny bits that were useful, incorporated them into exiting scenes at the appropriate times and chopped the awkward chapter.

[Papa'sLiver]

S. King's formula, that he got as a kid while submitting stories was "second draft = first draft - 10%".

I think that's pretty good, as a marker.

[FloVoyager]

When I finished my first marketable novel, I thought it was perfect at 114K words, and couldn't see how I could possibly cut even one. But I realized it was too long by industry standards. Agents and editors wanted something closer to 100K-110K for that genre. So I started cutting and streamlining and got it down to size. And it was better. The story had actually been improved. Even I could see it. I'll never be afraid to do that again.

(Edited for spelling.)