How strict is 50,000 word limit?

[Susan]

I find myself with a finished first draft of about 70,000 words trying to cut it down to 50,000 words to make an acceptable length for middle grades.

I find myself cutting "the good stuff" -- jokes, character, etc., and leaving too much procedural (dull) stuff. I'm afraid I'm making it worse, not better.

Thoughts, suggestions, ideas welcome!

[P.D.]

No, not a hard rule. Do what works for your story. Don't strip it of its personality.

[Riley, Viking Extraordinaire]

P.D. wrote: "No, not a hard rule. Do what works for your story. Don't strip it of its personality."

This times a thousand. I garuntee if a kid likes your book he's not worried about page count.

[Elizabeth]

Many popular MG novels are 70,000 or above. If the writing and story are quality and will hold attention, the word count is less of a worry.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

Agree with the comments so far. Worrying about word count over content is going to strip all personality out of your book and sterilize it.

[C.B., Beach Body Moderator]

Your story is as long as it needs to be, not a word count number! Do not destroy it to fit.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

Hey Susan?

I hope you don't mind my asking, but I have seen you start a lot of threads asking what is and is not appropriate for middle grade books. That is perfectly fine, but what I'm wondering -- are you sure this is the kind of book you want to write?

I ask because many years ago I thought I wanted to be a "serious" novelist and write nothing but "serious" novels. I gave up many projects due to struggling with staying "serious". I could not help myself. Every few pages I had to put some corny scene in or have the characters have some kind of meatball lunatic nonsense dialogue. Finally, one day, I said "enough" and gave up on the idea of being a "serious" writer and started calling myself a humorist. My writing improved immensely and I enjoy writing a whole lot more.

Do NOT get me wrong. If you have a passion for writing middle grade and that is what you want to, continue. I am just making an observation and am curious. Writers should write what they want to write... unless deep down they wish they were writing something else.

[Susan]

Dwayne wrote: "Hey Susan?
I hope you don't mind my asking, but I have seen you start a lot of threads asking what is and is not appropriate for middle grade books. That is perfectly fine, but what I'm wondering -- are you sure this is the kind of book you want to write?"

My best answer is "I think so." I have hit the stage in life where I "have a lot of knowledge to pass along to young ballplayers."

I thought I wanted to write adult novels, and I've started several, but my heart was only ever in one of them, and my plotting was AWFUL. Then the idea for this book came to me almost fully plotted in my head and I've really enjoyed writing it (although I think I need to up the finale from what I originally wrote).

I do have questions, because the more I read, the more I get confused. And I'm worried my prose is too dense (this after having a nine-year-old and her mom give me feedback), but I'm hoping it's fixable.

Shoot. Maybe I should just go back to reviewing horror films.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

Susan wrote: "Shoot. Maybe I should just go back to reviewing horror films. "

There are not a lot of "shoulds" in writing, but one is you should do what makes you happiest. If writing middle grade books is what you want to do, go for it. I hope you understand my questions were intended to help, not to confuse or upset. I'm sure your book is fine. Relax. Have a good time with it. Let it flow and be what it wants to be.

[Susan]

Dwayne wrote: "Susan wrote: "Shoot. Maybe I should just go back to reviewing horror films. "

There are not a lot of "shoulds" in writing, but one is you should do what makes you happiest. If writing middle grade books is what you want to do, go for it."

Thanks. I'm trying (as my mother used to say, "yes, very trying"). Maybe this will be my niche, maybe not. What's the worst that can happen? DO NOT ANSWER THAT!!!!

[Ian]

My MG book is 77K words. Although I haven't had feedback from many 10-13yo, the reviews I have had from them have happily been very positive. It would seem that if you entertain then they'll be glad to read on... Adults seem to like it also - so best of the two worlds!

[F.A.R.]

Like the others have said, do what feels right for your book.

When it comes down to it, 50,000 words is actually not that much space so don't feel like you need to erase important stuff to adhere to a self-imposed word limit.

[Leo]

I don't know your genre but maybe this will help - the first Harry Potter book was about 77,000 words, the first Percy Jackson around 87,000 and the first Hunger Games up to about 99,000.

Against that, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was about 30K, Wind in the Willows and Black Beauty both clocking in at about 58K, and Lord of the Rings having a word count of ALL the words.

Don't know if that helps or not, but perhaps illustrative of range.

[Susan]

Leo wrote: "I don't know your genre but maybe this will help - the first Harry Potter book was about 77,000 words. . ."

Thank you for that. At least three (count 'em, three) books have said J.K. Rowling kept her first book to 50K and only got longer after no one dared argue with her. However, from what else I have read, the "rule" for MG is 50K for a realistic book and 70K for a fantasy or SF book.

[Susan]

UPDATE:
As of tonight, I have edited the h-e-double-hockey-sticks out of my book, and it stands at 50,084 words.

Now I'm going to go back and add back (1) the foreshadowing I missed doing the first time, (2) a few more film Easter eggs (an important part of my characters' speech), and (3) anything I really miss from the original.

I already added back in the long full-chapter version of Candy's first visit to the Lavalette Clinic, where she learns about the "energy drink" manufactured for vampires. The short version bored me to tears.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

Something to keep in mind when it comes to word counts. Word counts were created by the New York publishers as a cut-off for what they would and would not accept for certain works. Unless you're planning on taking your book to one of them, I wouldn't worry much about the word count. It's one of the nice parts of being Indie. We get to set our own rules for our own books. For me that means using the exact number of words I need to properly tell the story. Word count only comes into play when I'm publishing and trying to decide how much to charge for a story.

[Joe]

As others have already stated, don't aim for a word count, aim for quality of storytelling. If you're removing characterization, jokes, and a lot of the stuff that makes your story yours, put it back. Nobody counts the words in a book they read, but they will count the times they were bored or they thought something could have been expanded upon.

Good luck and happy writing!

[Micah]

Dwayne wrote: "...Word counts were created by the New York publishers as a cut-off for what they would and would not accept for certain works. Unless you're planning on taking your book to one of them, I wouldn't worry much about the word count..."

Amen.

I mean, who even notices a book's length if they're reading in on an eReader? Indies get most of their sales from eBooks, not print. So unless you're shooting for that increasingly distant moon of traditional publishers, just write the story as it needs to be and forget about word count.

The only times it really matters is if you're submitting the work to a traditional publisher or online magazine (short stories, novellas, and all that).

[Daniel]

I'm really curious about why you're cutting "fun stuff" and keeping "procedural stuff". But without knowing what it's abut, or why you're cutting the great stuff and leaving the dull stuff, this seems really strange.

[Daniel]

Also, is it a mandatory 50K limit? As in a publisher's house rules? Cause that's the MINIMUM for NaNoWriMo, and when you compare the page count... that's apparently the length of a Mills & Boon book! Because most books considered novels are in excess of 70K.

[Susan]

Daniel wrote: "Also, is it a mandatory 50K limit? "

OK, I just kept reading that 50K was the appropriate (in-joke) length for a Middle Grades book, and I didn't want to write anything that would be too long (and maybe look too difficult to 9 year olds), or too short (which turned out not to be an issue -- which surprised me).

Based on this I am going back and seeing what needs to be made more "me."

[Susan]

Daniel wrote: "I'm really curious about why you're cutting "fun stuff" and keeping "procedural stuff". But without knowing what it's abut, or why you're cutting the great stuff and leaving the dull stuff, this seems really strange."

LOL! It's all strange. My book is middle grades school story where the girls (and one boy) are working on a major school project with many moving parts. One of my reasons for writing the book is to give upper-elementary- and middle-school-aged girls some exposure to creating and executing plans for large group projects. (The dreaded group project is back with a vengeance under common core.)

I am writing this like a sports / heist / quest story that shows planning, practice, preparation, and execution = GOAL! So every bit of this is a balancing test -- hitting the right spot where the reader understands the importance of making a plan, but isn't bored to tears with the minutiae of the plan. How long do we have to watch Ben Affleck look at casino plans before we get Oceans 12?

[Melissa]

As I always like to say when it comes to what many try to push as "writing rules" - they're more like guidelines, anyway. The story is what's really important, not the word count, and if you were to really look around I'd bet you'd find a Middle Grade book that was 80,000 words.

[Susan]

I just finished my last-one-before-beta edit, and will send manuscripts out tomorrow. It ran 52,000 words and I think I'm happy with it.

Thanks for all the help!

Susan