Writers - reaching the right word-count

[A.J.]

How do you know, at the outset, that your Novel will reach the right number of words?

http://awaines.blogspot.com/2014/11/n...


A J Waines: author of Girl on a Train and The Evil Beneath
UK http://www.amzn.to/14M9mSw
US http://www.amazon.com/A-J-Waines/e/B0...


Both reached No 1 in 'Murder' and 'Psychological Thrillers' in UK Kindle charts.

[Tim]

It's a matter of pace. For me, I write to a fairly standard 3-act structure, and it's pretty clear what needs to happen when. So if I'm aiming at an 80K novel, the first major disaster needs to happen at around 20k (e.g. the ship they're on sinks), an even bigger disaster at around 40k (e.g. The villain has captured the girl and is about to bump her off) etc.

And if you're running out of plot... kill off a main character. That always helps!

[A.J.]

Tim wrote: "It's a matter of pace. For me, I write to a fairly standard 3-act structure, and it's pretty clear what needs to happen when. So if I'm aiming at an 80K novel, the first major disaster needs to hap..."

Nicely, put, Tim!

[Michael]

I never do, but my last novel had to be trimmed because my 90K word count did not agree with my publisher's methods of word counting. It's all to do with white space. My computer word count had to be reduced by something like 10K. It isn't a problem for indie publishers of course.

[A.J.]

Michael wrote: "I never do, but my last novel had to be trimmed because my 90K word count did not agree with my publisher's methods of word counting. It's all to do with white space. My computer word count had to ..."

Gosh, that's tough, Michael.