Fiction Manuscript Length: How much is too much?

With over one million (1,000,000) English words to choose from, today’s novelist has more options than ever. Just a hundred years ago a novelist had half as many words to work with.

So, how many words should you aim for when writing your story?

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Novel Length

While a manuscript over 40,000 words is technically a novel, most novels should be lengthier than this.  The National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) website put their minimum at 50,000 words. Most full-length novels range from 70,000 to 100,000 words.

Novels vary greatly, depending on the age reader they target, and the genre. The average novel is 90,000 words, though some come in much lower, and some much longer.

Middle grade fiction, for instance, tends to be shorter than the average full novel (25-40k).

Young adult fiction can be a short, medium, or very long (45-100k+). Take a look at this chart with average novel word counts based on genre:

Average word counts for novels are a guideline meant to help you, so don’t stress over them! There are always exceptions to these rules. Let’s look at some recent Christian fiction examples, and note none come in exactly within the averages:

Middle grade fiction

Landon Snow and the Island of Arcanum, by R.K. Mortenson: 50,000 words (the average is 25-40k)

YA Fiction

Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow, by the Miller Brothers: 103,499 words (the average is 45-80k)

Western

Stuart Brannon’s Final Shot, by Stephen Bly: 75,000 words (the average is 80-100k)

Here’s a sampling of some word counts from classic novels[vii]. Notice the huge range of word counts:

While some are longer than other, the median word count for great classic novels is 99,341. So as you write your novel, tell the story, and stop writing when it’s told. Let the story unfold and come to life. If it comes in high you can always trim back. In fact, a good writer trims the fat to bring out the most important words, and then trims again! Enjoy the writing process!