Too Few?

When I released my first ever novel in 2008, I thought it was too short. It was about 85k words and when formatted sat at about 300 pages. (It has been re-worked since due to some comments that made sense and is awaiting an edit.) I have seen many novels that have been released that are far longer than what mine was. Even though I wrote it and was happy, there was a small part of me that felt I was not giving potential customers the size of book they wanted.

I don’t feel the same way nowadays as I know that a book is as long as it is. A book doesn’t have to be four, five or even six hundred pages long for it to be a good book. If the text moves the story along and it keeps people wanting to turn the page, then it only needs to be as long as it is.

I seem to have hit a good length of about 85k words with some occasionally longer or shorter. My current work, the fourth book a series, may be a little longer as I’m trying to make sure that the back story is covered properly. There are a few threads in this tapestry, but I think it will come out looking good.

There are guidelines I’ve seen online as to how long a short story, novella, novel or epic should be. I think I’ve even copied one for my own file as a reference. These are only guidelines though. If your story doesn’t meet the criteria, then it’s okay. you don’t’ have to go back and trim or fluff just to meet an acceptable word length. I’ve seen many a question from writers in the online groups I’m a member of asking these same questions. How long should such and such be, and so on? The answers are usually always the same. They are as long as they are.

My current work has scenes as short as a few hundred words, and as long and 1500+ words. Yet each scene is as long as it needs to be. Don’t get hung up on having to maintain a certain world length for a scene, a chapter or a book. If your writing is focused on moving the story forward, then the finished product will be acceptable.

Enjoy the writing.

Enjoy the process.

Enjoy the world you’ve created.