The following article is by Janice Hardy the founder of Fiction University, and the author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars. Click here to view full article at blog.janicehardy.com
Although most word count problems are too many words, the too-short novel does happen. I’ve talked before about things to do to bulk up a short novel, but today, let’s look at a novel that’s not just light on something, but is actually, truly too short for the market or genre it’s intended for.
This novel has all the right pieces, a solid plot, good writing, good subplots, a complete and solid story, but it’s not where it needs to be word count-wise. Just adding more “stuff” to it isn’t going to solve the problem, because the book is working great right where it’s at.
First, do a little research.
If the novel is a solid novel at a lower word count, look to see what the word count range of your target market or genre is. For example, while most fantasies are typically long, you do see smaller novels in that genre. A 65K-word fantasy novel might be fine and doesn’t need to be expanded to 100K. Mainstream novels run a wide range of counts, so there’s a lot of wiggle room there. Same with the middle grade or young adult markets. You might discover that your novel’s length is unusual, but still within the traditional word count range for that genre or market.
If not…
If the novel is under 40K-words, (and not in the middle grade or young adult market) then you likely have a novella. Novellas have always been harder to sell, as there are fewer markets for them, but in today’s world of e-books, the novella has made a comeback. In some genres it’s even expected for the author to put out a few in between full-length books. It might be worth looking at e-publishers and smaller boutique publishers who aren’t as market-constrained as bigger publishers.
If the novel is in the 50-60K-word range, (short for most markets outside teens) then you can either submit it as is, and keep your fingers crossed that this is a book that might be a rare exception, or you can figure out a way to add enough words to it to squeak into your target market’s low-end word count.
A 50K-word novel is roughly 200 pages (using the standard 250 words per page estimate). 60K-words is 240. Depending on your genre, you’d probably want to get those numbers up into the 60-70K-word range. Adding 10K words translates to roughly 40-50 words per page.
That’s a lot of extra words for a novel that’s already working, but it’s not insurmountable. Just as you can trim words without hurting, you can add a few back and not hurt anything. You can probably add a few thousand words to the count by tweaking here and there, adding a line of description per page or fleshing out bits of dialogue or internalization.
If that still doesn’t get you to your target word count, there’s a decent chance you will have to add a scene or two. A word of caution here. Shoehorning in scenes can feel like scenes shoved in, so be very careful about where and how you add a scene. It needs to serve the story and not just be extra words.
- Diagnose the Problem
- Plot Turing Points and Climaxes
- Character Arcs and Themes
- The Beginning
- The Ending
- A Victory That Could be a Defeat
- Existing Delaying Tactic Scenes
- Secondary Character Arcs
- Story Themes
