Tuesday 7 July 2015

Aggregated novel length

I just noticed that I've hit and passed the 80 K word barrier. That is if you accept aggregated total as the word count includes how far I've published book two as well.

80 K words, so what? Well, it's one of several arbitrary boundaries defining the construction 'novel length'. I've seen 60 K and 70 K, but most places seem to agree that anything 80 - 120 K is a typical novel. 120, that's just a bit shorter than my longest novel, so it kind of makes sense. I know that one would be around 400 pages paperback.

Hence, when I pass 120 K, then Transition and Restart starts walking into the domain of 'fairly long novel'.

At my current posting rate that should take at least another month and a half.

Talking about posting rate. At the moment I have a rather scary 8 K buffert. That's a significant drop from the 25 K I had late spring. Two weeks in Japan ate over 10 K, and mid summer's eve didn't help. By now my vacation has started, so I hope to rebuild some of it.

Why the buffert? It's my editing zone. The shorter the buffert, the more likely I'll post a first draft, with the likley errors to go with it. 25 K was handy as it meant I had written scenes a month ahead from a posting perspective. 8 K is only a stiff week.

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