The term ‘book-length’ could refer to anything between 60,000 and 100,000 words, depending on your genre, but is more generally narrowed down to 70,000–90,000 words for most YA and adult fiction and narrative non-fiction. Depending on your process, your first draft may be skeletal, with the bare minimum of a beginning, middle and end, and a word count half of where you aim to end up. Or you may have twice as many words as you need as the story pours out of you uncensored. However long your first complete draft is, over the multiple drafts of the development phase you are likely to churn out hundreds of thousands of words.
There is no short cut to writing the number of words required to end up with a publishable draft; it takes time and patience and commitment, and what some writers call ‘bum glue’ – that thing that keeps you at the desk, working through the urge to get up and do something else. The rather inelegant term is a simple and effective concept reminding writers that without putting in the work, tapping on that keyboard, for endless hours, you won’t reach your goal.
Many writers set themselves a word count target – for the day, the writing session, the week. It’s a simple and effective way to measure incremental progress towards the end goal of a complete draft, particularly your first draft. It doesn’t matter if that first draft is a train wreck, the important thing is completing that draft so you have something to work with in the next draft.
The word count trap
But what happens if you just can’t push through to the end of your draft? Not long ago I worked with a writer – let’s call her Ingrid – who was stuck about three-quarters of the way through her first draft. Ingrid had been disciplined about her practice, meeting her word count targets, and had thought she was on track to complete the draft, but had unexpectedly run aground. She couldn’t find a way to push forward with the story, however long she sat at the desk, however much bum glue she applied. She felt like a failure for not being able to keep the words flowing, and was looking for some guidance on how to continue. Ingrid was not the first writer I’ve worked with in this situation.
Sometimes the best next step you can take is to back away from the keyboard altogether and take time to consider the big picture of your story in order to see where you might take it. If you don’t know what the story is about, or have lost sense of what is driving the plot forward, churning out sentences to meet a word count goal may well be counterproductive. It’s not that you need more words, you need more clarity of purpose.
Investing in big picture thinking
Some writers meticulously plan their story before writing it, others work out what they want to say through the writing itself. Most writers do a combination of both, but somewhere in the drafting process every writer will need to clarify two key big picture concepts: the underlying idea they are exploring, which I call story essence or theme, and the spine of the story, the major dramatic question that will create narrative momentum for the reader. In order to see these big picture concepts, you need to stop writing and stand back from the work.
Being able to succinctly express what the story is about (theme), as opposed to what happens (plot) is a useful tool to help unlock the shape, quality and texture of the story you are writing. For more on this, see my blog on story essence.
Narrowing down the problem that the key character needs to solve, expressed as a closed question, is an important strategy to create compelling stories that keep the reader turning the pages and can help you work out your characters’ motivations and what they need to do next. For more on this, see my blog on the major dramatic question.
It might take you several writing sessions, or weeks, to feel you have your head around these big picture ideas. That’s okay. It’s not time wasted, it’s time invested in being able to move forward with more surety about what you are doing and why.
The key point is that not meeting your word count by stepping away from the desk and taking thinking time, can be the most effective way forward if you are feeling stuck.