This sort of analysis is much more useful than looking at average chapter sizes in contemporary books. Several years ago, my son wrote a short story that i found to be very good, as did many of his teachers. That said, if your book is around 40,000 words, youre in good company. Words counts of bestselling novels better novel project. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. Right now, when it comes to novellength word count, its all about 90,000 words. As previously discussed, there are different requirements for both fiction and nonfiction genres. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. What is the average word count for a scene in a chapter.
The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. The answers is as long as a piece of string twice the length from the middle to the end. I do have shorter chapters and a few that are longer. The word count at big five publishers had a slightly narrower range. I think the 2500word guideline is right on for ya, medeia. It will hopefully be finished by the end of school year.
What is the average amount of words per chapter in a young adult novel. My chapters are ordinarily 10 pages doublespaced word docseach page at 250 wordsalthough sometimes my pages have fewer than 250 words since i use a lot of dialogue. Upper middle grade can hit in the 50k word count range possibly longer, if its something really special. Hey, im 14 on my first novel with an average of 25003000 words per chapter, it is a scifi fiction book set in a world unlike our own, different culture with an ancient language that many may not understand so ill have to have a small dictionary at the back. Even more frustrating is the conflicting information from online sources if you really want your novel to fit within the genre, its helpful to know the proper length of the competition.
Go to the library and look at the top you define top ya books similar to what you are writing. Virtually every book i try to shop by a debut author thats any longer than thatregardless of categoryreceives the same response from editors. Ya contemporary averages 69,000 words, whereas fantasy averages 83,000. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. Do you want the pace to be brisk to the reader and skip in a staccato. Chick lit tends to be on the shorter end of that scale, so id say around 75,000 to 85,000 words.
Fantasy novels are often much much longer than average. Formatting or extra blank lines between paragraphs. On average, chapter length increases with intended reader age, but chapter. Some young adult novels are longer than most books published strictly for. The are no setinstone rules when it comes to the length of middlegrade and young adult novels. Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature.
Most middle grade novels are between 40,000 and 69,000 words long. My average chapter length is about 2,000 words, thats six or seven pages. Novels that are between 50 60k words are considered novellas short novels. The hunger games is more of a ya dystopia than a ya fantasy but i included it for interests sake. Somewhere around the 20page mark is about the average. But while the length of a novel is to a large extent up to its writer, lengths may also vary by subgenre. Also, make sure your chapters are under 3,000 words.
Literary agent danielle zigner takes a look at typical novel lengths per genre and what appeals to publishers within the current marketplace. But again as a surprise to me, dune was a close second, averaging just 3,800 words per chapter. At this point, ive usually got one scene per chapter. You can see there is a lot of variation in word length, especially in epic high fantasy, where books can stretch beyond 200,000 words or sink as low as 50,000. At a writers conference i recently attended, publishing veteran jane friedman said 80,000 words is good for most fiction, below 60,000 isnt novel length territory, and above 120,000 is likely too much. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range.
This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. This makes me wonder if publishers choose book sizes based on average scene length, to create the illusion of a certain pace. Middlegrade novels can range from 10,000 to 30,000 words, and young adult novels can range from 25,000 to 50,000. Other genres, taken together, are about the same length as ya overall there arent enough data points to break down genres like thriller, scifi, and historical fiction individually. So childrens book manuscript chapter length is a big question that ive received many times about all sorts of childrens books that have chapters. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. Now that weve covered how many words are in a novel, its time to break it down even further by finding out the ideal number of chapters in a novel and how many words are used in a typical chapter depending on the writing genre, word count in book chapters can vary considerably. One article i read last week that was posted online at a major writing magazine actually insists that the average novel nongenre is 150,000 words. I have no idea where the writer of the article got his or her information, but thats simply untrue. Your guide to the world of wattpad by whatsawhizzer whatsawhizzer with 52,897 reads. Writing middle grade a look at the numbers hannah holt. Takes an average reader 15 minutes, which is a manageable chunk of time. Ya manuscripts can have a word count anywhere from 55k to 90k.
How many words are in a chapter of a young adult novel. While 50,000 words is a fairly firm minimum, plenty of ya books reach up to 100,000 words, with a sweet spot at. The average chapter length in my book is roughly nine pages. While no chapter within a novel is an island, it can work as a short story where you have a decided beginning, middle, and end. How to create chapters in your novel ny book editors. I think a good average length for most book can range between 10,000 to 100,000 words. What is the average amount of words per chapter in a young. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. Analyzing chapter lengths in fantasy fiction creativity. In my own most recent book, the shortest chapter not counting the prologue and epilogue is just over 2000 words and the longest about 5500. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. I havent heard a bit of criticism on my chapter length since then. Rules of the road chapter length and chapter length. Say for instance you are writing a ya novel, and want the chapters to be.
As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate. If its a ya novel maybe strive for more words a chapter. The commonly cited range, then, seems to be based specifically on contemporary ya. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words. How many words should there be per chapter in the average ya. The longest average chapter lengths were lord of the rings 7,500, prince of nothing 8,700, and the beefiest chapters were found. And ya novels, which have grown in popularity, can often be the same length as a standard novel 80,000 words. In the last novel, i think the longest was about 10,000 words and the shortest about 1700.
If your story is a melody, its sections make up the underlying beat or rhythm. It varies from publisher to publisher and project to project. Go to a bookshop and look at the novels on sale there. As for chapter length, i cant help but feel that 1500 words is a bit short for ya. So the length of these affects the pacing of your story, and the way the reader. In comparison, the database gives an average length of 89,000 words for adult fiction excluding fantasy, smack in the middle of the commonlycited range of 80,000100,000. How many words does it take to write a young adult book. This helps you keep the chapters as focused as possible so you dont ramble. How many words should there be per chapter in the average.
Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. Why chapter length matters more than you think medium. And when someone breaks said rules and goes on to win awards, its tempting to continue reading plotting a novel by. Young adult novels tend to have chapters between 1,0003,500. On average, chapters in childrens books are shorter than chapters in books. Ive read a lot of ya in the last few years and chapters generally feel longer than that. New writers tend to assume that a chapter must be a certain set length in order to maintain the average novel length of around 80,000 95,000 words, but in truth, chapters can be as long or as short as you need them to be. The average mean word count was about 53,000 words. And in that case, people always ask, you know, how long should my chapters be.
Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. A chapter should be as long as a chapter needs to be. Some novels contain 50 or more and some extremely rarely contain none. An average novel length is between 80k and 100k, again, depending upon the genre. The hunger games has 27 untitled chapters, and about 3700 words per chapter. My writing tends to be fairly dense, so 2500 words runs about 8. The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. Sure this can get pretty complicated, but it doesnt have to be. And chapter length must be a factor of pace and theme, as youi mention, rather than dictate it. Youre writing your first novel, and you know you must shoot for around 80 to 95 thousand words. The title with the shortest chapters, on average, was whirlwind in the thorn tree, averaging just 2,900 words each. So far ive written over 11,000 words, and im presently writing my 3rd chapter.
Just make sure you vary them slightly so that you can at least reach 75 80k words the length of an average novel. However, i felt that that short story of about 4,000 words wasnt enough, so i made it into a chapter of a larger story. I have rounded the averages down slightly, both to account for twilights outlier status and my own preference for brevity. I have read before that the average length of a chapter in a novel is about 4,000 words. If you feel the chapters is over than thats what matters. A lot of people keep asking me this exact question for 30 years, and i always tell them this. For young adult fiction, the word count is once again lower, with the ideal. Whatever you do, stay within manuscript length recommendations.
Try not to completely tether yourself to word counts. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. What is the average chapter length in a young adult novel. So the length of these affects the pacing of your story, and the way the reader experiences it. So that usually includes everything from chapter books, to middle grade, to young adult novels. Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count. The society of childrens book writers and illustrators scbwi does offer length guidelines in terms of the appropriate number of manuscript pages for various genres meaning the number of pages a writer would submit to a publisher.
Literary agent danielle zigner takes a look at typical novel lengths and what appeals. In my shorter length novels 50,00060,000 words and novellas of 20,000words i typically follow that pattern of about an average of 1,000 1,500 words per scene with 3 scenes per chapter. For a writer scrambling to keep up with all the dos and donts, the writing profession can seem full of arbitrary rules. Plotting a novel by the numbers live write breathe.
A light novel is around 50,000 words on average, not 20,000. This post unlocks the word counts of some popular ya series. I appreciated your information on word count and novel length, particularly since you broke it down by genre. For childrens fiction, the general rule is the younger the audience the shorter the book, and for ya novels the average is 50,00070,000 words. You could end a novels chapter after an interlude instead. I use the target average of 1,500 words per chapter. Usually it works out that way and mostly they alternate povs, though sometimes that last pov of a chapter and the first of the next will be in the same. I tend to go for one chapter per scene, so they vary considerably. Most young adult novels are between 50,000 and 60,000 words. Before you decide your average chapter length, its a good idea to think about the purpose behind dividing a book into chapters. And as you can see, it varies, depending on the story.
Count the pages in each chapter and divide by 250 to get an answer for what is the average number of words per chapter. If im writing a novel, this gives me 40 chapters and 70,000 words when im done. Although the median word count of those novels was 73,000 right around. Trim sizes in this post were updated on january 30, 2015 as soon as you get serious about selfpublishing a book, you are confronted with the choice of what size your book ought to be for instance, if you want to get a price on how much a book will cost to print, the first thing you need to know is the size. There are beats between sentences, between paragraphs, and between chapters or sections.
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