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Perspective
A list of some novels with an average number of chapters & word count per chapter
https://aquiniawrites.tumblr.com/post/183745409506/thought-it-might-be-useful-a-list-of-some-novels
I tend to write (and enjoy, and translate) shorter novels and novellas, so it felt validating for me to get a bit of perspective on word counts. There tends to be a major privileging of massive word counts in certain communities devoted to writing and publishing, and this has always bothered me. Like, it's not a test score; more words does not equal more better.
This is not a criticism of people who write longer stories, of course. I love huge novels, but diversity is good.
For me personally, I think the sweet spot for a book is around 50k-60k words, although I also enjoy French and Japanese novellas and short story collections of around 30k-40k words.
This is one of the many reasons I appreciate fanfic, by the way. Although I actively seek out the publications of small presses, these presses tend to be extremely male-dominated. Mainstream English-language publishing houses promote way more women, people of color, and other minorities than a lot of liberal-leaning critics give them credit for, but the books they put out are still depressingly homogeneous in a number of significant ways. There are a lot of online fiction magazines that do fantastic work, but they tend to be strict about word counts, with anything above 6k-8k words being immediately rejected. It's therefore wonderful to have access to such a wealth of interesting writing that falls entirely outside the number-driven standards of what would ordinarily be published.
https://aquiniawrites.tumblr.com/post/183745409506/thought-it-might-be-useful-a-list-of-some-novels
I tend to write (and enjoy, and translate) shorter novels and novellas, so it felt validating for me to get a bit of perspective on word counts. There tends to be a major privileging of massive word counts in certain communities devoted to writing and publishing, and this has always bothered me. Like, it's not a test score; more words does not equal more better.
This is not a criticism of people who write longer stories, of course. I love huge novels, but diversity is good.
For me personally, I think the sweet spot for a book is around 50k-60k words, although I also enjoy French and Japanese novellas and short story collections of around 30k-40k words.
This is one of the many reasons I appreciate fanfic, by the way. Although I actively seek out the publications of small presses, these presses tend to be extremely male-dominated. Mainstream English-language publishing houses promote way more women, people of color, and other minorities than a lot of liberal-leaning critics give them credit for, but the books they put out are still depressingly homogeneous in a number of significant ways. There are a lot of online fiction magazines that do fantastic work, but they tend to be strict about word counts, with anything above 6k-8k words being immediately rejected. It's therefore wonderful to have access to such a wealth of interesting writing that falls entirely outside the number-driven standards of what would ordinarily be published.
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Likewise, I feel like fics are a great area to have those rambly stories. A 200k+ beast might not be accepted in traditional publishing, especially if you're a new author, but in fandom? People gobble that good shit up like hot cakes laced with crack.
I've also been finding myself writing more and more stories in the 15-30k area. Like it's long enough to be something outside of a oneshot, but also short enough to keep a reader's interest. I dunno, maybe I'm getting old, but I just don't have time to read chapters that are over 10k with forty more after that.
Also, speaking of short story collections and diverse authors/topics, have you read All Out? It's a lovely collection of queer stories from equally queer writers and it's my favorite thing I've read this year so far.
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Please keep rambling on and on until the day you die. Your writing is g-u-d good.
I just ordered a copy of All Out. Thank you so much for the recommendation! At a certain point I started backing off YA fiction, as I'm not personally interested in anything specifically written and edited to conform to American standards of "under 18" acceptability. (While Japanese YA fiction is, how do I put it. Mostly written by straight men for a straight male audience?) This is not to say that these books aren't valid and important, of course; I just personally prefer stories with explicit politics and murder and fucking. Still, I suspect that a lot of the people publishing YA fiction now are the people who were posting fanfic back on LiveJournal, so maybe it's time for me to re-evaluate my prejudices.
For what it's worth, I think it's kind of cruel to force kids in middle school and high school to read stories that were obviously written for adults. Short stories like "The Lottery" and "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "Hills Like White Elephants" used to make no sense to me, but when I read them again as an adult I'm like oh god that's so truueeeeeee. There's this bizarre idea that "good literature" needs to speak to a universal human experience, but there's no such thing; and, in any case, demanding that young people rely on experience they don't have in order to be "cultured" or "educated" (or whatever) is unfair and just plain mean.
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I 200% understand those YA fiction feels. I gave up on YA about halfway through Harry Potter and I was in the damn intended audience bracket. I feel like so many YA stories have sloppy writing, which I can only reason that it's all dumbed down for teenagers. That and the lack of adult-y thing makes me feel meh. That and I'm sick and tired of yet another high school story with a stupid love triangle and shallow supernatural elements. Could we maybe try something original? Maybe? Swing and a miss? But lately, whenever I'm looking for diverse novels, I keep finding recs for YA stories, like All Out and a handful of others. Right now I'm reading Six of Crows and it's like steampunk-esque Ocean's 11 but with bad ass, super morally grey teenagers. And it's well-written. Hot damn. And I'm waiting for The Bone Witch from my library holds, which is a dark magic How To Become A Necromancer 101 story and it's deliciously dark. And also well-written. (also they're both written by women, one being a PoC, so bonus points). But yeah, I feel you with being all squinty-eyed at YA. There's still some garbage out there (I mean, there is for adulty stories, too), but the few gems I've found in the YA landfill? Legit cannot recommend enough.
And let me know how you like All Out! I'm curious to hear your insights :3c
Oh fuck me, wasn't Hills Like White Elephants that Hemingway one about abortion *one quick Google search later* YEAH IT WAS. OH GOD. I remember being in like... 10th grade English? And my teacher having us read that and everyone was like, "Yes, those were some words" and her saying it was about abortion and I was all, "....that sounds fake, but okay." That and every February since 6th grade having to read and discuss I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. I feel like there were things we were forced to consume as kids that I would've appreciated a million times more now. And then I remember things like... Catcher in the Rye... and I wonder why past!me thought that was ever good.
Oh man, now I'm remembering doing Romeo and Juliet in 9th grade and all the girls thinking it was romantic and I'm over here like ????????. Teenagers have shit comprehension sometimes, I swear. Then again, I'm also the one who wrote a ten page paper senior year explaining that Horatio and Hamlet were totally banging, so like... *cough*
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And that's all there is to say on the matter.
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