Questions tagged [book-length]
Questions about the length of books.
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How to add depth to writing - turn a story into a book [duplicate]
I've had a few 'great ideas' for books. I'm a big sci-fi fan, especially Michael Crichton. I'm not sure if that's relevant but there it is.
I want to write a full length book, not a short story, a ...
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Is there a rule of thumb about the number of pages a work of fiction should have?
To be considered a "real" book, is there a rule of thumb about the number of pages one should have? If it has too few then people call it a short story (e.g., Fahrenheit 451) and if it has too many ...
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Is it time to start closing up my novel?
I realize this may be a duplicate question. I've seen, for reference [
How long can a first novel be? ] yet I think my situation is a little more specific.
I find myself in a similar situation. My ...
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Is there a method to estimating the length of a work before writing it?
I am writing my first novel, which I think likely will end up being several volumes. Although I have a lot of experience in poetry and short stories, this is a very different challenge!
My question ...
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How long should it take to write 100k words?
100,000 words makes a novel. For a perfectionist each line is poetry. How long should it take to write a novel? Not a bestseller. Just enough income to survive in the city.
Question subjective? ...
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A children's book that takes 25 minutes to read out loud - is it too long?
I've written a 3rd grade level (8-9 years old) children's book that takes about 25 minutes to read out loud. I read it to a 3rd grade class, with a few posters for illustrations, and it actually ...
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How many pages would my manuscript be in paperback?
Say I have a 100 page manuscript in Courier, 11pt, double-spaced. How many paperback pages is this roughly equivalent to? Is there a better font/spacing to use?
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Why Use Excessively Short Chapters?
Some of my favorite Frank Herbert books go 70 pages between chapters. All the James Patterson books go 2-3 pages between each chapter.
I know non-fiction uses chapters to help navigate, which means ...
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How to go about breaking up a looooong YA story?
A while ago, I played around with a short story idea in a genre I don't normally write (Young Adult fiction). The story took on a life of its own, growing quickly to a novella, and now is definitely ...
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How can I add more fluff to my stories?
Teenage writer here! I have a bunch of great ideas for stories and such but I never really know how to add more fluff or detail into them to make them longer to where readers can read all day and ...
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What to do with my odd-length work?
I've just about finished up the first draft of a piece of work I've put a good deal of love into. It's genre fiction (paranormal/supernatural horror/urban fantasy/whatever they're calling it this week)...
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Converting Word pages to book pages, for novels?
The title says it all. How can I gauge how long my novel would be, if for example I've written 400 single-spaced pages of size 12 Times New Romans in Microsoft Word?
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I am losing significant word count in the second draft of my novel. How might I use that space to deepen the characters and story?
I have a word count goal for my fantasy novel (climate fiction/fantasy) of 100 - 120,000 words. It doesn't need to fall in this range, but that is the typical length of books I read when I pick up a ...
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Books in a trilogy are significantly different lengths. What to do?
I’ve managed to write a fantasy book, Lord of the Rings-style. That is, a single story that would almost certainly be published as three separate books with multiple branching plotlines. Or at least,...
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Adding Detail/"Filling" the story
I've got a lot of story fragments that contain the major plot, but that are also very short because everything moves so fast.
What I find a lot in Novels is a bit of "filler", like someone just ...
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What do I do with the length of my book and how to split it in two if needed
I have almost completed a high fantasy novel that I have spent over 10 years designing the world and everything that works in the story. It is the first of a trilogy and therefore has a main story ...
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How Many Poems Does a Chapbook Typically Contain?
I'm sure it varies a bit (both in length and in number) but, on average, how many poems does a chapbook contain?
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Am I Breaking Too Many Rules?
I've finally committed to writing my first novel. I've been listening to things like Writing Excuses which encourages first time writers to finish their works, but I'm definitely writing an old ...
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How to add more details to a novel
I have discovered that I am most definitely not a pantser, especially when writing longer pieces. The last couple of times I've tried to write a novel, I didn't feel like I was writing enough. I didn'...
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Why are the bids for printing our book so high and what can we do to reduce costs?
I work for a US state DOT. We are trying to print our new standard specifications for construction. When we published in 2018, we got 1,000 copies for about $11/book. This time, we advertised for bids ...
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Should each book in the series be a similar length?
A very short question.
I'm writing a trilogy. Book 1 was 88,000 words, but book 2 is probably only going to be 75,000 words. That's over 10,000 words less.
Should I find a way to make it longer?
Is ...
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Story length and the term used
At what page number would a short story become a novella and at what point does a novella become a book manuscript? Is there a specific length that the story has to be to achieve to use those terms?
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Market for novellas and/or novelettes
Does anybody know anything about the current market or demand for novellas or novelettes? I'm in the beginning stages of my writing career and it looks like, so far, I struggle with being concise ...
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Is there a practical time limit on a children's book meant to be read out loud? [duplicate]
I am posting a new question because the previous one was answered as "Is the child able to read a book this long?" I really wanted to know "Is an adult willing to read this long?"
From cursory ...
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How many pages long should a chapter book be?
I have recently started writing a chapter book, which is "a story book intended for intermediate readers generally between 7-10 years old". The book is only 29 pages long and I am nearing the end.
...
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How long should a good synposis be for a novel?
I have always been poor at writing things without including excessive detail, but I managed to rewrite my synopsis with very little detail and with personal detailed side notes not included within the ...
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Should I save some plot for the sequel of my novel or make the first book (too) long but complete?
I wrote a sci-fi novel. It's around 120k words long with a neat 'ending' that wraps up the main plot. The story is not complete: Although the main goal has been accomplished, a lot of smaller issues ...
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How do I make my book longer?
I have a writing tendency where I get straight to the point, especially when I already have an amazing storyline. The ending goes especially quick. I need to figure out how to move the story along, in ...
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Is "Publishable" 1st Book Word Count still 75,000-125,000?
Question
For those who have been published or are in the publishing industry:
Can a new author get a longer work published these days? (near 200,000 words)
Would it be smarter of me to try and ...
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Length of Children's Books
I have just completed my first manuscript for a children's book. It is a long traditional bedtime story to be read over several days or weeks even! I don't really understand why I must limit the ...
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Effort equivalence between video course and written course
If 1 page of a technical course is worth 1 point, how many points is 1 hour of a technical video course worth, creation effort-wise?
Background and context:
I work in academia in a technical field (...
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Should I change or break up a long quote?
In the book I am writing, I have ran into a small problem. One character is retelling an event to a different character, but It's a somewhat longer explanation than I thought it would be. I'm happy ...
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In a short story, how long is "too long"?
I understand this can and probably will be shut down for many reasons, but how long is too long for a short story?
I want to write a short story, but tend to write novels if I write anything (Even ...
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Where might I find a "lines to pages" converter? [closed]
I'm looking for a specifically lines to pages converter. A Google search didn't really help. What's a formula or resource I could use?
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Starting Out - Plot + Charaters by Documentaries [closed]
I gues I could say I am decently good at writing, for someone who doesn't write much besides English 101/102 classes.
I have a couple questions, which may proceed some background information to why ...
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Asking about chapter's length
Is it okay if a short story's chapter's length is 450 words? If so, could you also have a chapter with 1000 or more words in the same story?
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Does the plot always have to be in proportion to a normal novel?
I am presently writing a novel, but it is going to be incredibly large (over 200,000 words when complete). I am aware that I will need to cut a lot of sections, but I'll be worrying about that later. ...
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How long does a teen science fiction novel need to be?
How long/how many pages does a teen science fiction novel need to be in order for a publishing agency to take it seriously?
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Is it more optimal to make a longer story or leave it at three pages?
I have short story that is three pages and a paragraph. It's based off a short story by one of my favorite authors in order to learn their prose. Three pages seems a bit short. I think the length of ...
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How to length chapters in book [closed]
I began trying to write a book yesterday and saw that what I wanted to write in 10-15 pages I wrote in two. How do I lengthen the book so it won't be this short?
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In YA fiction, how many words should each chapter be? How consistent does chapter length need to be?
I'm writing a YA sci-fi/post apocalyptic type novel with two view point characters. The book is all written in third person and so far every time I switch between view point characters use a chapter ...
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Publishing of Collection of Short Stories
I have a collection of short stories--48 in total, a word count of 80,000 and 156 pages. Regarding publication, is such a collection likely to be too large? If I were to split it into two collections, ...
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Online list of novel lengths, in word-count
I am looking for the most comprehensive list of novels arranged by size in terms of word-counts. For instance, how many words has Lord of the Flies, how many Moby Dick, how many Lolita (just to remain ...
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Microsoft Book Pages [duplicate]
I use Microsoft Word to write stories then I send it to a publisher. But, I want to know how many pages would the book version would be because I want to make long stories and/or books.
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When a story is longer than a book, is it best to wait until the entire story is done before completing the first book in the story? [duplicate]
I have been working on a story for several years. The manuscript is now currently longer than 1,000 notebook pages (roughly 615 pages in print by my calculations) and it’s only a third of the way ...
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