I know it's too long... but how much should I delete? Help please?

Question

I just added it up. My novel, which is one (two at the most) chapters shy of being completed, just ended up with a current count of 144,047 words. That seems a little high basked on the 60,000-100,000 word answers I've been looking at.

Is this entirely unacceptable? I already plan on cutting out a few things, but it's all so important to the plot! There's actually an entire developement I think I'll edit and change (for other reasons), which might end up shortening it 4-7,000 words. Still seems high. What should I do?

It will be my first, and I know that first novels (especially if you are planning a series) shouldn't be very long. I'm stuck!

Answer 1

You're better off paring it down to under 100,000 words instead of letting an editor do it for you. There is probably a lot that you think is necessary to the plot that is actually just long-winded. If you truly believe every word is sacred and are unwilling to remove anything, you can always publish it yourself online, get a paypal account, and ask for donations.

Answer 2

Uh, is there any real reason why the novel needs to be cut down? I know you've been looking at others that are shorter, but maybe it's okay for yours to run a little long?

But if you must cut something out, perhaps you can cut out a side story that's not totally necessary to the main plot and save it for the next part of the series. Or, you could just go through each scene and figure out how to make each one go a little faster, or trim down descriptions about scenery, etc, that may be too lengthy. If you take a little bit out of everywhere, then it's not like you're chopping out large chunks of the story, right?

Another thing you can look at is the actual mechanics of your writing. Do you have a lot of sentences where the main idea could be said with much fewer words, or with a cleaner sentence structure? By simplifying purple prose, you will not only make your novel shorter but easier to read.  

I hope these tips help!

Answer 3

  First, Can the book be split into two novels? Even if you have to do some rewriting, if you can close out the first half as a stand alone novel, you will then have the second half to carry on with.

   Second, doublecheck  all the things you need for the plot. Have you made it too complicated? If you can steamline the plot requirements, you can cut back on a lot of wording there. Such a high word count suggests you're "overengineering" your story.

   Third, if your story is good enough to be accepted by a publisher, they should provide assistance in trimming the story. They have the experience, and have a good idea of where cuts can be effectively made.

  Finally, do you have someone who is a fair aquantance, someone who you trust, but who isn't so close that they would feel obliged to fudge their opinions? Have someone read through it, and ask their opinion. They may be able to provide you useful feedback and trigger ideas on where you can edit the story. At worst, you get some practicte having your ego bruised by a critic.

   Good luck on the novel.

Answer 4

Are you really worried about your book being too long? You shouldn't. Especially if things are important to the plot. If it makes sense to cut them out, go ahead, but don't do it if you're worried about it being too long.

Twilight was Stephenie Meyer's first book and it was 500 pages.