Writing Tip — 27

Micro Fiction — Up to 100 words. Very difficult to write, but an interesting exercise for you to try. Like all stories, this needs a beginning, middle, and end.

Flash Fiction — 100 to 1000 words. A bit easier to write, since you can go into more detail and dialogue.

Short Story — 1000 to 7500 words. You should be familiar with this form of writing from English class in school. Write a short story as an assignment on such and such theme.

Novelette — 7500 to 20,000 words. Something like this could be expanded into a novel.

Novella — 20,000 to 50,000 words.

Novel — 50,000 to 100,000. Accepted lengths in today’s publishing market. On average around 80,000 words.

Epics and Sequels — 100,000 plus.

What about word count for various genres?

Fantasy Genre —  80,000 and 150,000 words

Romance Genre —  80,000 and 100,000 words..

Historical Fiction Genre —  85,000 to 100,000 words.

Mystery Genre —  Stand-alone mysteries 75,000 and 100,000 words. Cozy mysteries 50,000 to 60,000 words.

Suspense/Thriller Genre —  90,000 to 100,000 words.

Speculative Genre —  80,000 and 100,000 words.

Young Adult (YA) Genre —  40,000 and 75,000 words. This depends on the target age group

Western Genre —  45,000 to 75,000 words.

If you plan on submitting your completed and edited work to a publisher, make sure you check their website for the exact information on the word count they accept. If you are going the self-publishing route, you have a more leeway. However, you should take into consideration how many self-published books are vying for readers’ attention. Being a writer and — I hope — a reader; check out various eBooks to find out their word count for the genre you want to write in.

You can start out by writing short pieces before tackling something like a novel or an epic novel. Create a few collections of short stories in the genres you like. As a self-publisher this would give you a presence in the writing world while you work on a novel.

Write flash fiction and post it on your blog, will give people something to read and let them see what you can do. This is a way to start a following for when you publish your novel or collection of short stories.