It’s the hot topic for agents today, and for writers as well. High word counts. Ideal range for a novel is between 80,000 and 100,000 words. It should be no more than 120,000 and that’s if it is a really good book. 180,000 word books and 200,000 word books are laughed at and rejected on sight.
What about the 25,000 word books? Why do I never hear gentle reminders that books can be too short also?
My first draft for Life of a Suburban Unicorn was 25,000 words. Yes, I know that’s too short. I also realized looking at my query letter (a previous blog post you can read here) the reason why is because my writing is too thin. I’m a skinny person in real life, and my stories are just as stringy as I am. We both need to gain weight, and my recent edit is making that happen.
Since no one sees fit to help the skinny people out there, I shall step forward. Listed below is my easy 3 step process to helping your novel gain weight.
Step one: Question everything.
Print out your novel, and pretend that you are a nosy journalist trying to squeeze a story out of this mysterious lump of text. Ask every question you can possibly think of that relates to the novel. Here is the list of questions I used to help me get through Chapter 5, in order to give you an idea:
Why is Peter in the woods?
Why would Joseph Thunderhead send a unicorn?
How does Elizabeth react to seeing Peter?
How does Peter react to seeing Elizabeth?
How does Elizabeth find Peter?
What is Peter doing when found?
Why would Mom shoot a unicorn?
What are they feeling at this point?
Where are they in the woods?
There are tons more questions too. Ask about the senses. What do they smell? What do they hear? What plants and animals are present? Do they notice them?
The point isn’t to add all this information into your novel. It’s to make sure you are aware of the information. I came from a background of short story writing. I’m used to focusing on one thing, and excluding everything else from my focus.
If you’re artistic, drawing a sketch of the scene helps too. The whole scene. Including the background, what the people are holding, how they are posed, etc. Even if you’re not artistic but suitably enthusiastic, you can make it work with stick figures and weird boxes that represent furniture. (You can even label them so you remember what those blobs are the next time you look at the picture.) Filling in the details helps fill them in your mind too.
Step Two: Highlight Telling
If, when questioning your novel, you come across a particular sentence so vague you can question it, that’s probably telling. Here’s a sample from an unedited portion of my novel, telling in bold:
Her finger touched the trigger, her whole body quivering with tension, and then she dropped the gun at his feet. It wasn’t worth it. Nothing could make her kill another person. Even Joseph Thunderhead.
Joseph stooped and picked up the gun. “Come on,” he said, resigned. “Let’s go.”
Anyone here know what a resigned person looks like? He just had a gun pointed at him and thrown in his face. Does anyone here think a single word should sum it up? When I get to this part in my novel, I’ll detail what “Resigned” looks like on an aging unicorn hunter.
This may not seem like a big deal, but when you replace a single word with a whole sentence every other paragraph, that’s a lot of words.
Step Number Three: Replace Adverbs and Adjectives
I’m sure you’ve heard this one before. I do a highlight search in word for anything ending in “ly”. Almost every time a ly word can be questioned, and that questioning offer a wordier, stronger sentence. Example: What does “casually” look like? I’m sure you’ve got a vision in your head. Describe that vision, in detail.
These three steps are really all the same step. Question everything. You may find a huge plot hole you never noticed before. (Why is my character walking into a trap again?) You may just clean your writing up a bit. (Because if you can sing the song “Here a Lee” from the musical 1776 and find every word in the song, you may have too many ly words.)
What are your tips for lengthening word count? (Filler doesn’t count!)
A.M. Kuska's Blog 
Aug 31, 2010 @ 13:58:34
I love this. Nobody helps the skinny people or the skinnier novels.
Upon my first rewrite, I usually find that I can add an entire chapter or two based on an idea that was vaguely outlined but never fleshed out. Obviously this is a big carb boost to the old manuscript.
Additionally, I find that my characters can use a bit of plumping as well. I generally go in and add a signature quirk or two that carries through with my characters. It is amazing how quickly words can add up and how much more fun and interesting characters can be when you add a phrase or two each time the character appears.
For instance, in my pirate chapter book, Mama was just kind of there. A necessary character but pretty slim. I threw a broom or dustrag in her hand for about 75% of her scenes. This made her fastidious and gave her an outlet to express her moods without ever saying a word. Instead of pursing her lips, she swept faster. When she was thoughtful, she brushed away crumbs. Now she’s got a bit more meat on her bones and fills out her colorful pirate skirts better.
Great post!
Aug 31, 2010 @ 14:38:21
Oooh, Cat Woods I like that! Would you mind sharing an estimate on how many words you think you added? I’d love to add your thoughts into this post, or if you like you can make your own post and I’ll link to it. It’s just too good of a resource to resist.
Sep 01, 2010 @ 00:44:42
During this character fleshing, I guesstimate about 350-500 words. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but my manuscript is only 13,000 words long.
Another (middle grade novel) got an insertion of two chapters and an additional 1,500-2,000 words when I changed one tiny aspect of my story. Instead of having my MC merely trying to convince his mom that he was miserable enough to leave camp early, he actively tried to get kicked out of camp. On a 32,000 word novel, this five percent word count increase was tremendous.
I’ll let you know if I post about this on my site. In fact, I’ll link back to you if I do : )
Aug 31, 2010 @ 14:56:56
The first time I thought my novel was finished, it had almost 40,000 words. Each time I let it set for a while, I could easily see where fleshing out was necessary. It gained weight every trip through the pages. Now, when I again thought it was finished, I am taking another tour looking at voice. The story is told from the third person omniscient viewpoint so a changing voice may be indicated, but I will look and use my best judgment. If there is a “rule” about voice consistency, I would be interested in hearing it. The page count is upward of 49,000 words at this point and will probably increase. Thank you, Andrea, for your helpful and frank talk about growing as a writer and growing the word count of a manuscript.
Sep 01, 2010 @ 16:07:08
I am pretty sure switching tense or from third to first is frowned upon. I will have to look it up to be sure though. What an interesting question.
Sep 02, 2010 @ 03:42:40
Thank you. I didn’t switch tense or from third to first person. I’m not sure what I meant about voice, but not that kind of change but one of the tone of voice. Hm. I guess I don’t know what I mean. Ha! I’m just going through the MS listening for voice.
Aug 31, 2010 @ 20:18:29
Wonderful post! I have an offer for you – since I have recently lost some weight, you are welcome to drop by for a visit and take as much of it home with you as you like! I certainly don’t need it hanging around here, and as I hate to waste, I would feel better if it went to someone who needed it! If you can’t come, can I parcel post some to you? Just let me have your address, and the deed is done! 😀
BTW, I recently read Stephen King’s “Under the Dome,” which I consider to be his best in a long time. It is almost as lengthy as the unabridged version of “The Stand!” Wonder how he gets away with his multi-hundred-thousands-of-words novels? Guess it must be the perks of having written and published a gazillion best sellers!
Have fun gaining weight – either literary or “corpulentary!” (I just made that word up! Think I’ll copyright it!)
Sep 01, 2010 @ 03:32:22
These are great tips for how to expand your manuscript without losing the point of the story. I always feel like my existing characters aren’t deep enough, but I struggling with adding backstory without long paragraphs of explaination. I’ll have to book mark this most for next time I’m doing revisions.
Sep 01, 2010 @ 03:34:19
Sorry, that should have been “post” not “most.” That will teach me to hit Post Comment without more carefully proofreading.
Sep 06, 2010 @ 18:30:18
Love that tip to question everything! Off to try it…
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Jan 06, 2011 @ 17:37:32