How Many Words

So, as I begin to chug along towards some real goals with my novel, (approaching the 1/3 mark next), I took a moment to question the round 100,000 words mark I'd used as my "goal" for numerical purposes. It is certainly useful since however many thousand words I have written translates directly into what "percent" I am towards "done" -- with a first draft anyway. I always knew this was rather artificial, and that the story might demand more or less than that. But I began to be curious what the industry norms really were.

Here is what Urban Fantasy Writers has to say about it (very very abridged, taking only their word count quotes).

Fantasy novels can contain between 80,000 and 150,000 words (approximately). Fantasy novels can be a little longer than other novels, and they are sometimes serialized.

A stand-alone romance novel is normally between 80,000 and 100,000 words. A category romance novel (like those published by Harlequin) is generally shorter

A stand-alone historical book may be 85,000 to 100,000 words. Publishing a book longer than 100,000 words is difficult (especially for first-timers), but historical novels are sometimes longer.

Mysteries vary in length. Stand-alone mysteries (which may have some overlap with thrillers) may be between 75,000 and 100,000 words. Cozy mysteries, like those in a series, are often on the shorter side.

Thriller novels generally run between 90,000 to 100,000 words (loosely), but they can be a little longer as well.

Horror novels vary in length and are generally between 80,000 and 100,000 words.

Generally, YA books run between 40,000 and 75,000 words, depending on the target age group.

Westerns tend to be on the shorter side, anywhere from 45,000 to 75,000 words (loosely).

So, it occurs to me that while I often think of this book (still title-less. I'm playing with something relating to "Water Fall" ... and a dozen other things. Meh. That's neither here nor there. Some books start with a title. I suspect this one will end with one.) as Fantasy, I've also referred to it as potentially YA.

After all, I've taken for my write-a-complete-novel project my most classic quest adventure coming of age story of all my story ideas. Not that that's all there is to it. But still, it certainly seems like it could be one of those ones that straddles the line like Maria V. Snyder's Poison Study books or Trudi Canavan's books (but not so much like the Harry Potter books, before you ask, or perhaps more accurately, a bit like the later books but not the early ones).

It's hard to actually find the word count for published fiction, but there was an article from an industry insider of sorts that mentioned Poison Study as "normal" length and who mentioned 90k words as the "norm" people shoot for.

With all of that to mull over, I wonder if I should be aiming for the 80-90k range for a novel that will straddle the mainstream fantasy/YA fantasy line.

I know, I know. I shouldn't worry about it. I should just write the darn book. But this is my novel to put the craft of novel writing first...not so much "over" the demands of the story, but to think about how to build a satisfying novel-length story. So, I'm allowed. On the next book, I promise I'll throw rules and norms to the wind and write it however it wants to be. ;)