The topic at hand possesses as many
comments, opinions and variants as there are leaves on a tree in summer, I
suppose.
I visited the Internet in search of some
Names in fiction revealing, to no
surprise, that many of the commentaries regarding novel length standards do not
always fit the mold of what those popular
in the literary realm of fiction practice.
I
prefer fairly even chapters… how about you?
For a long period I commuted by train
for one hour each direction to and from work, I preferred a book with even
chapter lengths - a dependable, predictable, consistent page-by-page reading
time. Frustration’s deep roots grew if one chapter contained 2,500 words and the
next 6,000. But... that was for commuting times when stopping in the midst of a
scene tormented me, ha, ha. Most of
my reading back then was, of course, vintage crime fiction - cheap if bought in
lots on eBay.
Anyway, I found the below listed numbers,
not empirically verified, but still interesting
to say the least.
Only two of the authors surveyed are
listed below. (From: eggmanandwalrus)
The point: It may assist to increase your
joy with writing, especially for Indies, knowing that a 150,000+ word fiction
novel is not that abnormal, quite the contrary.
Hopefully this is liberating rather than
confusing for you.
If one considers their works artistic
expressions, then liberating is a good word for you. If one is bound by a
submission requirement, then it is best for you to follow your editor’s
guidelines and requirements.
Happy
writing! Comments?
Down
for the Count:
------------------------------------------------------------
Michael
Connelly
------------------------------------------------------------
Ace
and Hoser Blook: The Black Ice
Page
count: 448 | Word count: 111,581
2010:
#44 – Chasing the Dime
Page
count: 448 | Word count: 102,676
2009:
#11 – The Brass Verdict
Page
Count: 422 | approximate Word count: 128,698
2007:
#28 – The Black Echo
Page
count: 482 | Word count: 141,971
2006:
#61 – City of Bones
Pages
in book: 448 - Words in book: 128,232
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
STEPHEN
KING
------------------------------------------------------------
Apr
1974 Carrie 60,000
------------------------------------------------------------
Oct
1975 'Salem's Lot 155,000
------------------------------------------------------------
Jan
1977 The Shining 160,000
------------------------------------------------------------
Feb
1978 Night Shift 125,000+
------------------------------------------------------------
Aug 1979
The Dead Zone 150,000
------------------------------------------------------------
Sep
1980 Firestarter 154,000
------------------------------------------------------------
Oct
1981 Cujo 120,000
------------------------------------------------------------
Nov
1983 Pet Sematary 145,000
------------------------------------------------------------
Sep
1990 Four Past Midnight 288,000
------------------------------------------------------------
1990 The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition 473,180
------------------------------------------------------------
Sep
1993 Nightmares & Dreamscapes 277,100
------------------------------------------------------------
Nov
1992 Dolores Claiborne 95,000
------------------------------------------------------------
Oct
1994 Insomnia 240,000
------------------------------------------------------------
More
examples HERE
2 comments:
Yeah, one thing I'm looking forward to with self publishing is that I don't actually have to justify my book length to some publisher who imposes word count limits.
Thanks for commenting Misha!
Post a Comment