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Writing Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [book-length]

Questions about the length of books.

Questions about the length of books. What is an appropriate length. How to make something longer or shorter.

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How to add depth to writing - turn a story into a book

I've had a few 'great ideas' for books. I'm a big sci-fi fan, especially Michael Crichton. I'm not sure if that's relevant but there it is. I want to write a full length book, not a short story, a full length hundreds of pages long book. I draw up a…
user6916458
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Is there a rule of thumb about the number of pages a work of fiction should have?

To be considered a "real" book, is there a rule of thumb about the number of pages one should have? If it has too few then people call it a short story (e.g., Fahrenheit 451) and if it has too many then it's either a Magnum Opus or split into…
Michael Stum
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Is it time to start closing up my novel?

I realize this may be a duplicate question. I've seen, for reference [ How long can a first novel be? ] yet I think my situation is a little more specific. I find myself in a similar situation. My novel is a science fiction about the coming-of-age…
Liquid
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Is there a method to estimating the length of a work before writing it?

I am writing my first novel, which I think likely will end up being several volumes. Although I have a lot of experience in poetry and short stories, this is a very different challenge! My question is about estimating the length of a work prior to…
DoctorWhom
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How long should it take to write 100k words?

100,000 words makes a novel. For a perfectionist each line is poetry. How long should it take to write a novel? Not a bestseller. Just enough income to survive in the city. Question subjective? Maybe. Answerable? Yes.
JMC
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A children's book that takes 25 minutes to read out loud - is it too long?

I've written a 3rd grade level (8-9 years old) children's book that takes about 25 minutes to read out loud. I read it to a 3rd grade class, with a few posters for illustrations, and it actually seemed to keep their attention. Even the teachers…
crj11
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Why Use Excessively Short Chapters?

Some of my favorite Frank Herbert books go 70 pages between chapters. All the James Patterson books go 2-3 pages between each chapter. I know non-fiction uses chapters to help navigate, which means chapters are dictated by the related content. What…
pblock
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How to go about breaking up a looooong YA story?

A while ago, I played around with a short story idea in a genre I don't normally write (Young Adult fiction). The story took on a life of its own, growing quickly to a novella, and now is definitely a novel, trying to stretch itself to a…
HedgeMage
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How many pages would my manuscript be in paperback?

Say I have a 100 page manuscript in Courier, 11pt, double-spaced. How many paperback pages is this roughly equivalent to? Is there a better font/spacing to use?
Lynn Beighley
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How can I add more fluff to my stories?

Teenage writer here! I have a bunch of great ideas for stories and such but I never really know how to add more fluff or detail into them to make them longer to where readers can read all day and still have more to read. Does anyone have any tips?
user43563
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What to do with my odd-length work?

I've just about finished up the first draft of a piece of work I've put a good deal of love into. It's genre fiction (paranormal/supernatural horror/urban fantasy/whatever they're calling it this week), and I want to go back and put in a couple…
Yamikuronue
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Converting Word pages to book pages, for novels?

The title says it all. How can I gauge how long my novel would be, if for example I've written 400 single-spaced pages of size 12 Times New Romans in Microsoft Word?
temporary_user_name
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Books in a trilogy are significantly different lengths. What to do?

I’ve managed to write a fantasy book, Lord of the Rings-style. That is, a single story that would almost certainly be published as three separate books with multiple branching plotlines. Or at least, I’ve written the rough draft of one. Having…
Galendo
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I am losing significant word count in the second draft of my novel. How might I use that space to deepen the characters and story?

I have a word count goal for my fantasy novel (climate fiction/fantasy) of 100 - 120,000 words. It doesn't need to fall in this range, but that is the typical length of books I read when I pick up a new author. So it's a metric, and I am not wedded…
SFWriter
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Adding Detail/"Filling" the story

I've got a lot of story fragments that contain the major plot, but that are also very short because everything moves so fast. What I find a lot in Novels is a bit of "filler", like someone just describing a car in more detail than required, or the…
Michael Stum
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