Estimating story length

[Writer61]

I have just started working on a new episode of Adam in Public. As I add more detail to the original idea, it appears to be a bit light in terms of reaching my preferred word count of 8-10k.

I wondered if any of you estimate story length early in a project and, if you do, how do you do it?

 

[TiberiusPrime]

Unless I'm writing a story that has to be a specific length (i.e. 750 words), I just write and I'm not paying attention to its length. If it's 6K, great; if it's 16K, also great. If you feel you've completed your story using less words and it reads well, don't fret.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

As I began a new story, I used to estimate how long it would be. Later I re-estimated, and sometimes I did it again. Unless it’s a 750 like TiberiusPrime mentioned, the story was almost always 50 to 100% longer than my original estimate.

I still do it occasionally when I’m against a deadline, but not nearly as much, and I often try to trim some of the less important stuff, especially when I don’t want just a tiny bit on the last Lit page.

EDIT: Stupid autocorrect!

 

[ElectricBlue]

I wondered if any of you estimate story length early in a project and, if you do, how do you do it?

Not me. A story is as long as it needs to be.

 

[SimonDoom]

No, I don't do that. I usually have a rough idea of how long the story will be, but if it turns out longer or shorter I don't worry about it. The story should be as long as it needs to be to be told well.

 

[NotWise]

I have a sense for how long a story will be when I'm about half way through.

I write a synopsis of my stories before I write them and cannibalize the synopsis while I write the story. Where I am in the story and the word count of what I've written give me a hint at the length.

The length of the synopsis isn't a good guide, because I tend to flesh out later scenes when I have their setup more complete, so the synopsis grows while I write.

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

I write scenes. I know an average chapter is going to have between 5-7 scenes, each scene is usually around 3k words. I try to make sure not to go over that too often, except when it’s necessary to get a plot point moved further. That usually keeps me in track for a 15k-20k chapter.

 

[StillStunned]

I generally assume that my wife will think it's too short, so I add a few inches thousand words.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I have just started working on a new episode of Adam in Public. As I add more detail to the original idea, it appears to be a bit light in terms of reaching my preferred word count of 8-10k.

I wondered if any of you estimate story length early in a project and, if you do, how do you do it?

I always try to estimate it and I always get it waaay wrong. The piece always ends up 2 or 3 or 4 times as long as I thought.

 

[iwatchus]

I always try to estimate it and I always get it waaay wrong. The piece always ends up 2 or 3 or 4 times as long as I thought.

True for me as well. Unless it is 2 or 3 times smaller than expected.

 

[Writer61]

Thanks, all. Your answers have helped me get over my hang-up about length .

I think I have worked out how to last long enough .

 

[Areala-chan]

I have just started working on a new episode of Adam in Public. As I add more detail to the original idea, it appears to be a bit light in terms of reaching my preferred word count of 8-10k.

I wondered if any of you estimate story length early in a project and, if you do, how do you do it?

Unless it's something terribly short and self-contained, estimating how long a story is going to be is a fool's errand for me.

I knew Angel of the Alleys was going to be short, because I knew precisely what was going to happen along with the number of story beats I'd need to hit, and I figured I could execute it in about ten pages in OpenOffice, which would translate to two pages on here. It was ten and a half pages when I finished it, close enough for horseshoes.

But Crash Into Me and Dead Space: Kendra? I knew those were going to be long, involved stories before I even started work, and I knew as I drafted, I'd come up with more story beats to bridge the gaps between the start and the end. I didn't even bother making a guess. Kendra started life as a fifteen-page skeleton banged out in a single six-hour orgy of creativity, so all I knew was it would be more than fifteen pages as I went back and added all the muscles and skin. Crash developed organically, as I wrote it in a more linear fashion, so I had no clue how long it would be.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Unless I'm writing a story that has to be a specific length (i.e. 750 words), I just write and I'm not paying attention to its length. If it's 6K, great; if it's 16K, also great. If you feel you've completed your story using less words and it reads well, don't fret.

Pretty much that.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Not me. A story is as long as it needs to be.

Like a string. You know how long it is when you get to the end.

 

[crookedletter]

I usually have some idea what a story is going to be, how long, etc., when I start.

I'm usually wrong.

 

[Cagivagurl]

My method is...
I start writing with the intent it will be a short story. Less than 20,000 words....
Then as the process begins, and characters evolve, the plot changes, side characters becoming stronger...
The story may take much longer to tell.
Every time I promise myself it will be short....
80,000 words later, I'm thinking. "How am I going to finish this?"
Somebody gave me some wonderful advice. "Don't limit your self. Start with a blank page and an open mind." The story will take as long as it takes.

Cagivagurl

 

[designatedvictim]

As I began a new story, I used to estimate how long it would be. Later I re-estimated, and sometimes I did it again. Unless it’s a 750 like TiberiusPrime mentioned, the story was almost always 50 to 100% longer than my original estimate.

I still do it occasionally when I’m against a deadline, but not nearly as much, and I often try to trim some of the less important stuff, especially when I don’t want just a tiny bit on the last Lit page.

EDIT: Stupid autocorrect!

I seem to be seeing a bit of a concensus, here, that many of us underestimate the final word count and keep revising the target upward as we progress.

That's me.

I've never considered doing one of those 750-word projects - I'm too wordy and prefer a semi-decent build-up.

My most recent story started out with a target in the 12-15K-word range.

When I was half-way there, I despaired of ever getting that far along.

A Week of Sunrises weighed in at just shy of 40K-words, at the end.

 

[Bramblethorn]

The piece always ends up 2 or 3 or 4 times as long as I thought.

Same. I initially expected my first series to be 4-6 chapters long and it ended up being 14.

 

[Cagivagurl]

Just my opinion, but I think rather than trying to limit, or stretch out a story is counterproductive. Just write, and let the story tell itself.
Writers are merely pens, the story itself slowly develops. Let the story lead...
Worrying about it's length just adds tension... (For you not the story)...
As ideas formulate in our minds, we act as a conduit for the ideas to grow into story's. If it tales a million words, who cares. If it taked 750... Who cares...
It is what it is...

Cagivagurl

 

[TheRedChamber]

I've joked about Red's Laws of Estimated Word Count before. They are:

1) A story will always be at least twice the length of your original best estimate.
2) Rule 1 still applies even if you apply rule 1 when calculating your estimate.

I do keep an eye on roughly how complicated a story is getting in the planning stage. Generally speaking, and as others above have suggested, 3k words is generally a good length for a 'scene' After that its time to mix up the location, the characters (assuming you have more than two) and generally have moved the plot forward in some way. If and when I get to the sex, I can add on another 2k or so words to that scene. It's not an exact science but if a scene is under 3k words, I'm happy to add more details to it and if it's over 3k words, I'm getting cautious and maybe looking to trim a little. A story will be as long as it needs to be, but I'm also thinking carefully about how many scenes I actually need in a story and trying to keep them to a number that works.

I tend to focus on structure a lot and, even though stories always seem to grow outside their initial estimates, as a story does get longer it's needs change - extra characters and locations become beneficial, you need to do more character development work and make sure each of the scenes is able to keep a readers interest.

It's not an exact science and I broke my rules of thumb with my latest story where there's a nightclub scene that drags on for 7k words. Now, in fairness, the male MC is interacting with 3 different female characters and there's more than a few distinct story beats going on, so in the end, I decided it was fine. I did look at it for a long time wondering if I could split some of the action off from the Nightclub to, say, waiting for a taxi or in a kabab shop. My beta readers did pick up on the length of the scene, but ultimately I decided that further changes would only make things worse although I'm still not convinced I couldn't have solved all the broken thread issues by moving stuff around.

But, as these threads always seem to end, everyone has their own process and every story will have its own requirements.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

<snip>
My most recent story started out with a target in the 12-15K-word range.

When I was half-way there, I despaired of ever getting that far along.

A Week of Sunrises weighed in at just shy of 40K-words, at the end.

That sounds a lot like "A Wedding in Wottfordshire," a spicy Regency-period romance, that I originally expected to be 15 to maybe 20K words long. Two and half years later and a lot more period research than I expected, it was finally published at 44.4K words and probably should have gone in Novels & Novellas (or whatever that category is) but it did really well in Romance despite the length. And I just noticed that it took so long to write that I forgot to change the copyright date to the year it was finally published.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I can't write without a certain wordcount goal. Whenever I do that, I always end up dropping the story at the start. However, when I have an amount of words that I must reach, I can go there, and even distribute milestones as key events. Is it formulaic? Yes, however having a structure is what makes me so that I don't drop out the story, because... I have, like thousands of stories that I've dropped, and some have been sadly lost because of the fragile nature of the digital medium. My perfectionism is literally clinical, you know. Besides, at the end of the day all stories follow the same stages: exposition -> action -> climax -> conclusion.

When I edit I always end up with more words than the first draft, and that's fine by me. I am not upset by that, unless I am doing something that has a very specific word count. I like flash fiction, and I also enjoy making stuff that is 250 words or less, or 500 words or less.

 

[PennameWombat]

I have just started working on a new episode of Adam in Public. As I add more detail to the original idea, it appears to be a bit light in terms of reaching my preferred word count of 8-10k.

I wondered if any of you estimate story length early in a project and, if you do, how do you do it?

I don't usually outline, but I do write up a synopsis of a few paragraphs. That usually tells me the general length. These are my definitions for writing here and not related to any other 'standards' in writing:

1. Short: 7,500 to 15,000. I don't generally do much shorter than that, but it happens (e.g.,The Night Train, where I had an idea for a very specific scene. Or, I'm doing a 750 word story, but I rarely bother with those, given the previous receptions .)
2. Medium: 15,000 - 25,000: this is where my 'series' entries hit, and for those I have a general 'template' I follow so I know the time spans and numbers of scenes. Also various stand-alones.
3. Long: 25,000 - 40,000: these are many of my standalone stories.
4. Epic: over 40,000: rare, but I know 'em when I see 'em.

Of my latest two published stores, and my two WIPs, they're Long (Valentine's Day, I originally estimated this to be a Medium, but as I got into it, Carly and Bailey demanded more time), Short (At Work, I could've made it longer, but I wanted the focus tightly on my two MCs, so kept it short), Medium (upcoming for Nude Day), and Epic (upcoming for Crime & Punishment), respectively.

But that's as close as I get it.

And this is mainly when I'm thinking about stories tied to 'deadlines' like Contests or Events. If I know I'm running tight, then I might put off an idea. As an example, I came up with an idea for last year's Halloween contest that I really liked, but as I laid it out and looked at the Calendar, I realized it was going to be at least a Long, and possibly more. So I set it aside to work on over time while I work on other stories.

 

[filthytrancendence]

I generally don't even try? Seems like my process is pretty weird, after reading over some others'.

I very rarely do much planning or outlining, maybe 1 out of 10 projects, and usually only if it requires some kind of complex worldbuilding I have to keep track of. I've tried to do it. The problem is, when I finally get a good idea in my head, I feel like it just murders my creativity if I don't immediately get the first few paragraphs onto a page. And once that's done, I usually have a pretty solid idea where I'm going, so it rarely makes sense to go back and try and outline it. I don't usually have trouble keeping a lot of things in my brain once they are in there. If I can get 500 words of something onto a page, I typically have an outline in my head and a vague sense for how ambitious a project it's going to be.

Sometimes I get the first 500 out and I just know it sucks, so into the dustbin it goes. Usually I can recycle that idea or part of it back into something later, so it's not usually even a waste. I save it and periodically go back over my aborted stories to remind myself or see if I've come up with some variant that might work better.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I'm getting better at assessing. Thing is, I usually start with a particular image or line, and flesh that out into a story.

So I know X, Y and Z are going to happen, so I write them. Sometimes I manage to keep it very simple. Other times I realise X doesn't justify Y happening, so need to write another scene to get there, and then another character is needed to reach Z, so they interact with the leads, meaning an extra scene, and then I've got a whole subplot to foreshadow before I can get to my climax...

I vowed to keep my recent sports story under 12k words and was pleasantly surprised to have it done in under 6000. Could have added a bit more but there wasn't really much more to say. On the other hand, a story I'd hoped would be straightforward has needed so many extra scenes to get A and B to get together, it's going to be a novel.