Novel Word Counts by Genre
Before you start, know your target. Word counts vary significantly by genre, and landing in the expected range signals professionalism to agents and readers alike.
| Genre | Target Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Literary Fiction | 70,000–100,000 | Debut can run shorter |
| Commercial Fiction | 80,000–100,000 | Sweet spot for most debuts |
| Mystery / Thriller | 70,000–90,000 | Cozy mysteries run shorter |
| Romance | 50,000–100,000 | Varies widely by subgenre |
| Fantasy (Epic) | 100,000–180,000 | Lower for debut; higher for series |
| Science Fiction | 90,000–120,000 | Hard SF can run longer |
| Young Adult | 60,000–90,000 | Action/fantasy YA runs higher |
| Middle Grade | 20,000–55,000 | Varies by age range |
| Memoir | 70,000–90,000 | Celebrity memoir can be shorter |
| Historical Fiction | 80,000–120,000 | Research-heavy, often longer |
Give Yourself Permission to Write Badly
The biggest obstacle to finishing a first draft is perfectionism. Writers stall because they want every sentence to be good — and no sentence in a first draft can live up to that standard. The solution is to lower the bar intentionally.
Shannon Hale calls it “sand-casting.” You have to let yourself write bad sentences, even write a placeholder like “[BETTER METAPHOR GOES HERE]” and keep moving. The first draft is not the novel — it's the raw material you'll shape into the novel.
Practical tip: Write “TK” (from to come) whenever you need a detail you don't have yet. TK almost never appears in real English, so you can search for it later to find every placeholder.
Building a Writing Routine
Professional writers don't wait for inspiration — they show up. A writing routine turns the difficult act of starting into an automatic behavior. The routine is the trigger that puts you in the writing state.
Your routine doesn't need to be elaborate. It could be as simple as: make coffee, sit at the same spot, re-read the last 200 words, start writing. The ritual matters less than its consistency.
Find your best time. Some writers produce their best work at 5 AM before the house wakes up. Others write from 10 PM to midnight. Neither is wrong. What matters is protecting that time and treating it as non-negotiable.
Time vs. Word Count
Some writers track time (“I write for 45 minutes every day”) while others track words (“I write 500 words before I stop”). Word count goals produce more output; time goals are more sustainable on difficult days. Consider starting with time goals (30 minutes) and adding a minimum word count as your habit solidifies.
Setting Daily Word Count Goals
The math is simple: a 250-word daily goal produces an 80,000-word draft in under a year. A 500-word goal produces it in five and a half months. 1,000 words a day — the goal many professional novelists maintain — produces it in less than three months.
| Daily Goal | Words/Month | 80k Novel In |
|---|---|---|
| 250 words | 7,500 | ~11 months |
| 500 words | 15,000 | ~5.5 months |
| 1,000 words | 30,000 | ~2.5 months |
| 1,667 words | 50,000 | ~1.5 months (NaNoWriMo pace) |
| 2,000 words | 60,000 | ~6 weeks |
Start with a goal you know you can hit on your worst day. Sustained effort over time beats occasional bursts every time.
Silencing the Inner Critic
The inner critic is the voice that says your writing isn't good enough. It's the same voice that edits each sentence as you write it, that makes you go back and “fix” things before moving forward. Left unchecked, it will stop your draft dead.
The inner critic is useful — but only during revision, not drafting. The challenge is to separate the two modes and enter drafting mode with the critic switched off.
- Write faster than the critic can keep up. If you write quickly, the analytical brain can't engage.
- Don't read back. Resist the urge to re-read yesterday's work before starting today's.
- Use a typewriter or distraction-free app. Tools like iA Writer or Hemingway App disable the ability to easily revise.
- Remind yourself: revision is later. Your only job right now is to get words down.
Building and Protecting Momentum
Momentum is the most underrated resource in novel writing. A draft with momentum gets finished. A draft without momentum gets abandoned.
Ernest Hemingway's famous tip: always stop in the middle of a sentence, or mid-scene, so you know exactly where to start next. Don't stop at a natural break — it's harder to re-enter a completed scene than an interrupted one.
Protect your writing time fiercely. Momentum-killers include: skipping days, reading craft books instead of writing, editing before the draft is done, and talking about your novel to the point where the story feels told.
No Zero Days
The “No Zero Days” principle, popularized online, is simple: never let a day pass where you write zero words. Even on your worst day, write one sentence. Write 50 words. The rule isn't about quantity — it's about maintaining the habit and the identity of “writer.”
The psychological research on habits supports this: missing one day occasionally won't break a habit, but missing two days in a row doubles the likelihood of permanent abandonment. Keep the streak alive with minimum viable effort if necessary.
On truly terrible days:Open your document. Read your last paragraph. Write one sentence. You've maintained the habit. Close the document and give yourself credit.
Writing Sprints
A writing sprint is a timed burst of focused writing, typically 15–30 minutes, with the goal of writing as many words as possible without stopping. Sprints work because they gamify the process and make the timeframe small enough to overcome the resistance to starting.
The Pomodoro Technique — 25 minutes on, 5 minutes off — is essentially a formalized sprint system. Many writers string two or three sprints together for a session.
Writing communities on Twitter/X (#amwriting, #wordsprints) and Discord run group sprints throughout the day. The social element — writing simultaneously with others — adds accountability and makes the process feel less solitary.
NaNoWriMo
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), held every November, challenges writers to write 50,000 words in 30 days — roughly 1,667 words per day. Since 1999, it has helped hundreds of published novels get their starts, including Water for Elephantsand The Night Circus.
NaNoWriMo works because it removes the permission issue: everyone is writing a terrible draft at the same time, and that's the explicit point. The community support, word count tracking, and deadline all combine to create ideal conditions for finishing a draft.
Even if November doesn't work for you, the NaNoWriMo framework works year-round. Pick any 30-day period and challenge yourself to 50,000 words.
When You Get Stuck
Getting stuck is normal. How you respond to it determines whether your draft gets finished. Some strategies:
- Skip ahead. If you're stuck on a scene, write [SCENE NEEDED HERE] and move to a scene you're excited about.
- Write the scene you're avoiding. Often the scene we're stuck on is the one we're afraid to write. Write it badly if necessary.
- Go back to your outline. Does your plot make sense? Has your character's motivation changed?
- Change the POV. Write the scene from a different character's point of view to unlock a new angle.
- Ask “What's the worst that could happen?” Make it happen. Trouble is story.
Crossing the Finish Line
Finishing a novel is hard. Most people who start one don't finish. The reasons are varied — life intervenes, the story loses its shine, a new idea seems better — but the solution is the same: keep going.
When you're near the end, resist the urge to go back and revise. You're so close. The ending doesn't have to be good — it has to exist. You can fix a bad ending. You cannot fix an ending that was never written.
Write “THE END.” Even if you know it needs work. Then step back, let it breathe for a few weeks, and come back for revision. You've done what most people never do.