Word(s) (that) Count

By Pamela

A recent email exchange between Elizabeth and me led me to search our blog for an old post I thought one of us had written regarding word count. Since I came up empty, I thought it might be time to address this oft-pondered subject.

As writers, we typically care little about numbers until it comes to word count. Then we become a bit obsessed. Too few words in our manuscript and we fear not being worthy of calling it a novel. Perhaps 'novella' or even a really long short story. Too many words and we run the risk of being compared to War and Peace or maybe Atlas Shrugged.

But how many words should comprise your manuscript? How about: Enough! Not too few; not too many. Be Goldilocks and get it Just Right. But if you want your writing to compare to those who come before you, here's a breakdown of some popular titles and what I could find online as far as their word counts. Granted these might not be 100 percent accurate; I didn't take the time to count them myself. So, use them as a guideline and nothing more. Keep in mind genre has a lot to do with what's expected in terms of word count and older titles seemed to get away with extremes in both directions.

(Title/author/word count)

• 11/22/63 by Stephen King:  269,493
• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein: 69,306
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand: 561,996
• Beach Music by Pat Conroy:  275,272
• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett:  114,928
• Carrie by Stephen King:  59,859
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker: 66,556
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon:  62,005
• East of Eden by John Steinbeck: 225,395
• Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg:  94,540
• The Giver by Lois Lowry:  43,617
• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls:  74,218
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling:  84,799
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling:  257,154
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett:  158,012
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford:  92,994
• I Know this Much Is True by Wally Lamb:  305,520 
• Joy School by Elizabeth Berg:  48,020
• The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards:  137,858
• Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks:  88,551
• Olive Kittridge by Elizabeth Strout:  92,574
• The Pact by Jodi Picoult:  148,903
• A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving: 236,061
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd: 93,316
• Sure Signs of Crazy by Karen Harrington:  60,586
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee:  99,121 
• Wild by Cheryl Strayed:  129,044

What do you aim for when completing your WIP? A particular word count goal or just enough words before typing: THE END?

Clutter

By Susan
 
It takes all kinds, I know, when it comes to decorating. I have friends who ooze style: deep, luscious fabrics and layers of pillows, intricate and intimate arrangements of family photos and mementos, and heavily carved furniture weighted in history. I also have friends who are minimalists: retro thrift store chic, clean lines, echos and open spaces. Whiteness and air rest in their freedom, pleased with the sparseness of it all, and each item shines as a focal point in it's own simplistic beauty.

And then I have my house: my 'temporary house' we purchased almost ten years ago. We are still here and it is full of the messy-ness and busy-ness of our life. I realize, of course, as I write this that my temporary house has become my permanent home.

Like the ship of Theseus, we replaced every working part of this vessel, from the plumbing to the hulking units that keep us cool. We ripped out carpet and replaced it with hardwood. We gutted the kitchen and tiled until we developed carpal tunnel syndrome. We have roofed. I have painted. He has cursed, and I have prayed (and vice-versa.) I have yanked off baseboards and nail-gunned bright new two-point-five-inch replacements. In all my renewal and renovating, I have yet to find a style that I can name. I am not lush, yet I am not Spartan. But my house is full of myself. It's everywhere I look. 

As I write this post, I turn to my right and snap a photo with my iPhone: it is a simple chair I purchased at Target. Yet the blanket is one I carried home from Mexico in 1995 from my honeymoon. I snagged the leather ottoman in Ghana. The beads dangling from the lamp's light switch are Greek, carried back from the island of Santorini. The books? My Bible and a book of poetry by Mary Oliver.

I turn to my left. A tired tumbler of iced tea, my printed manuscript, reading glasses. Stacks of books about Kentucky, and bourbon, and the contemplative life of Thomas Merton. One candid photo of me from 2006. Little pieces of self. A new red shade adorns a marble lamp base that is over one hundred and twenty years old (I could tell you many stories about the things this lamp has seen.) More me. I can't escape it.

I think about my friends and your homes. Are you filled with the same wonder at the imprint you are making on your surroundings? Does the book purchased in Hemingway's house in Key West rest on your shelf, full of its self-importance because you bought it and brought it home? What about that shell you pulled from the deep white sand of a North Carolina beach, is it blessed by being in your house? Are you?

Now. Look at your manuscript. Are you able to clear out the clutter and have a yard sale? Or are you holding on to each word, and each scene, because they mean something to you? Look at it again, lest you become a hoarder. There are things that tell the story, and then there are just things. Determine what is the story. Cut what is not.

I'm in full-on edit mode right now with my completed manuscript, and I'm also hosting a yard sale Friday and Saturday to purge my temporary house of temporary things, leaving only what will last. It's as though they are the same exercise with different muscles. I am purging my house of the excess, and I am purging my manuscript of the extraneous bulk. We are thinning down. We are getting cleaner, and stronger, and better.

What is the mark you are leaving with your manuscript? Is it full of the extra details of your mental clutter, or can you slash it-- making it the best possible work it can be? Do you write the way you decorate? Are you frilly and detailed and rich? Or do you keep your words simple and clean? Or worst of all, are you a hoarder?

Or, are you like me: Lots of reds and blacks and browns, with pebbles and shells?
Here is one thing true: your writing, like your home, carries your DNA. Your heart. Yet you must learn to separate what is holding you back from what will propel you forward. My cluttered house? I'm ready to purge. My cluttered manuscript? Let's bring on the knife.

Counting Down

By Susan

In coming close to the completion of The Angels' Share, my work in progress, I've become a bit obsessive about the math in my writing. I'm counting everything: chapters, words, plot lines, and all the loose ends that I have to tie up. With only 15,000 or so words to go, I somehow just now realized that I have a whole lot to say in a very short period. As in: 30,000 words to say in 15,000 words' time to prevent my novel from spilling over the 100,000 word count mark.

And so to manage all of the things that I am counting, I created a file I've named Nuts and Bolts. Word count, chapter lengths, character lists with DOBs and DODs, family trees, notes, and scene edits--they all go into that little manila file on my PC's desktop. (I imagine, if it were a real paper file, it would be bursting open with wadded and wrinkled pages covered in coffee stains and doodles.) The organization, I must admit, helps. I'm tightening up. In doing this, I'm also talking to other writers about scary things like word count. What is too long? What is too short?

Pamela advised me to allow the story to tell itself and to worry about the word count later.

Kim's final product, much like mine, will be at or over 100,000 words, and she's written about her own word count issues here.

Our prolific Julie, who is in the editing stages now of her latest manuscript, seems to know the sweet spot on good fiction and hits it every time.

Joan just hit 80,000 words on her WIP, the same marker I just crossed, and Elizabeth, who writes young adult fiction, keeps things short and sweet.

I've found an amazing list--Top 10 longest English language novels here--that makes The Angels' Share sound like a whisper. I've seen agent blogs on the topic and the comments from yet-to-be published writers goes on for days. Writers who write too much (like me) must learn to slash and burn. Writers who are too brief need to shore up their fiction.

If there is a 'sweet spot,' as I alluded to earlier, I would say that it is 80,000 to 100,000 words. Yet as Pamela reminded me yesterday, I need to tell the story. Complete the plot lines. Write it until it's finished. There's a time to edit. There's a time to revise. Right now, it's time for completion, and tools like my Nuts and Bolts file are helping me get there.

What are your thoughts? Is there a sweet spot for word count? How long is 'too long'? How do you organize the back end of your manuscript?

Share with us! And keep writing :-)