Wordcount!

[Dom]

So, the age old writer's edition of the my-you-know-what-is-bigger-than-yours question--what's the wordcount of your current baby?

Poll time!

For the record...my current story is hovering around 43,000 words.  I say hovering, because I've done some chopping block stuff to it recently, so it's been bobbing up and down.

[terioncalling]

Current story that I'm working hard on is 10,214 words.  Which counts the two completed chapters, the next one in progress, and a handful of excerpts for scenes further ahead in said story.

*pets story*  Half-a-page shy of 26 too.  Which makes me happy. 

[Donna]

Mine's slightly over fifty thousand, but that's only because it's one of my NaNo books.  Aside from that, everything else I've written is short stories.  The longest was probably around 8000 words.

[Tasmin21]

With around 18 chapters out of a planned 30 written, I have somewhere around 54,000 words.

[Dom]

I'm down to 41,246 - which is both 3000 more then I started with today, but less then before.  I chop some off, then write more, then chop more, then write more.

Maybe soon I'll hold steady and start to add wordcount on this one, rather than just maintaining it.

Right now it's 78 12p Arial single spaced pages in Word.  Yay!

My favorite line of the day:

"I think his tattoo wants to eat me," I muttered.

[blgarver]

Hey everyone.

My current baby (which also happens to be the current monkey on my back) is about 50k words right now.  I've tried to avoid editing anything before I finish it, so I'm sure on the rewrite it will lose a lot of fat. 

I don't outline or anything like that, but I estimate that the story is almost half way done.  Unless something mutates in my mind again.  It already evolved from quick, simple, 300-400 page speculative fiction adventure story to somewhat complex intro book which will require at least one sequel.

I always do that.  For the love of mike I just want to write a single story!  My other baby I've been trying to write since I was 12, and now that's turned into this big bad monster that constantly hangs over my head, gnawing at me.

Anyway, good luck to you all! 

long days, pleasant nights
B. L. Garver

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

The thing I finished first draft of at the end of October, first half of a duology*, is almost dead on a hundred thousand words.  From previous experience, that will probably go down by about 10% all the way through on further passes.

The thing I read back through and tightened since then, is 149,048 words. I want to reread the end of that where I made most of the changes on this pass one more time to be sure it flows, and then I'll be thinking about finding it a home.

*I'm not sure whether to call it one book or two, but at that length it's unlikely to be bound as one physical object; first half is fairly standard story-shaped adolescent protagonist in world-saving situation, second half will be same character middle-aged with two kids discovering the world's not as saved as it appeared and having family responsibilities and not just being able to rush off and have adventures any more. The gap between them is sort of "and then we went away and became fishmongers and did nothing with the plot nature for the next twenty-two years".

[Dom]

I've 9,000 words of a new story that spontaneously started crawling out one day.  Never thought I'd be one to write dragons.  Huh.

Of course, now my attention has shifted off of the first story, darnnit!  And entirely, these two are from totally different worlds.

[resurrectedwarrior]

Uh . . . depends on which draft. First draft, which totally sucks, is 130,000. Second draft is 60,000 and counting. I'm hoping to keep it below 100,000 . . .

[Richelle Mead]

Just finished edits on my YA vampire novel, taking me from 58k to 75k.  Not sure what my editor'll have to say about that.  After that, I'm between projects until next year when I'm contracted to write 300k words via 2 adult novels, 1 YA, and a novella.  Eek.

[Valkyrina]

I put my current baby as being about 10k, it's a short-story, I intended it to be a short story.

I find if I try to put a story on the computer it dries up and goes quiet on me.

I therefore put this one on the computer pretty soon.

It stayed short.

Compared to other stuff I've done over the years it's the bonsai tree of my imagination: kept small, put in a confining place and not nourished much.

My other baby I've been trying to write since I was 12, and now that's turned into this big bad monster that constantly hangs over my head, gnawing at me.

I started a story when I was 19 just starting uni. I have to write it by hand on paper or my ideas stagnate (anyone else find this?) and this one kept going for almost 4 years. I have no idea what the word count is and as I seem to have lost the thread, when uni burned my brains out, I'ma either have to dedicate some time to regaining it, or shelf it for a few more months/years.

Sharon.

[CrazyGerbilLady]

What is the typical word count of a novel?  Versus a short story?  How do you know when you have a novel in your brain versus a short story? 

[Josh]

Most things over 10,000 words seem to fall outside the short story range. Most short stories seem to waver around 1-6k, depending on which venue you are submitting it to, though those are certainly not do-or-die numbers. Usually, much less than 1k becomes flash fiction or slice of life, and anything over 10k becomes a novelette. Every magazine or publication has different requirements or measurements, so make sure you research the submission guidelines they provide, because some will not take works over a certain length.

For novels? Hmm..50-80k is a solid range to show you have a "book"...though within science fiction and fantasy it seems that 80-100k+ is in vogue, hence the many 400+ pages books bowing the shelves. Most of what I write falls within the 80-100k+ range, before or after the winnowing of revision.


www.jrvogt.com

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

What is the typical word count of a novel?  Versus a short story?  How do you know when you have a novel in your brain versus a short story? 

If I recall correctly, the definitions for the Hugo Awards are that a novel has to be at least 40,000 words, and a short story is under 7,500, with novelette and novella in between and the dividing point there being 17,500 words.  I suppose "write the thing and then count the words" is not the most helpful answer in the world, though.   I can't think of a genre novel in recent years that's been under 60,000 words.

How many major ideas and scenes do you have ?  More than two or three of either and it's unlikely to be a short story.

[CrazyGerbilLady]

11 scenes mapped out and I think I'm about 1/3 of the way through my ideas.  Definitely not short story.  Guess I'll wait and see which of the other categories it falls into.  I definitely don't want to pad it unnecessarily just to meet an arbitrary standard. 

Thanks from a total newbie!