I've been wondering what the word count is meant to be for different forms of writing, in theory and in practise.
Flash fiction.
Short story.
Novella.
Novel.
And any others?

It's one of those 'How long is a piece of string' questions, but giving a broad brush answer:

Flash fiction. - word count normally in the hundreds.
Short story. - Anything from 1000 to 10,000 but it's good to get practice writing to max word counts of 1000, 1500 and 2000 if you're looking to enter short story competitions.
Novella. Around 50K (unless it's childrens or YA fiction, or Mills & Boon)
Novel. 80K-120K is the commonly quoted range for adult fiction, but it largely depends on genre, eg, Crime, SF tends to be in the lower range, where as, eg, Fantasy, Historical Fiction tends to be in the upper ranges.
And any others? Well, childrens has a whole range, from Picture Books for 0-3yr olds with word counts in the tens to hundreds, up to YA which can be as long as Adult Fiction.


- NaomiM

Thank you Naomi, it's much clearer now.
I was wondering what to call my 70,000 story! Short novel? Long novella? I suppose either would do then.
Thanks again.
Barry.

Well, whatever you call it, most agents would probably prefer you to add an extra 10K words to make it a publishable length.


- NaomiM

Just for fun; does -it's- count as one word or two?

If it's two I can add 3% to my count.
Cheers

Michael

I think by most rules contractions like it's and don't count as one.

Emma

Some variants on flash length, usually 1000 words is treated as the ceiling, but there are specialist forms such as

The dribble = 50 words
The drabble = 100 words

Sometimes the word count includes the title, others it doesn't.

Hi Naomi.
I hope you don't go off me when I say that I'm not published, and I'm not trying to be, I just like writing for its own sake.
I've written two novels, two novellas and about twenty short stories and they vary in length from flash to full novel.
I find that the story tells itself and decides for itself what length it wants to be. I know this isn't a commercial way to write, but at my age I just write for me.
I've read quite a lot and I'm very disciplined about getting it right, so I'm currently involved with editing what I've done so far. I like some of it, and I joined WW to try and get some feedback, but the things I like most are all too long to post on here.
I've discovered an ebook site called Obooko and wondered what you think about things like that.
Regards.
Barry.

P.S. I know it's a liberty, but I've posted a novella on my blog at www.silverback!.blog.co.uk, and if you ever have a bit of time I'd love you to have a look

P.P.S. You've been very helpful and welcoming to me on here and I thank you most sincerely for that.

I've discovered an ebook site called Obooko and wondered what you think about things like that.

If you're not interested in traditional publishing, but still wish to showcase your work, then anything like that - assuming it doesn't cost you anything other than time & graft - is fine.

P.S. I know it's a liberty, but I've posted a novella on my blog at www.silverback!.blog.co.uk, and if you ever have a bit of time I'd love you to have a look

I'm afraid I need a physical copy to read for pleasure, and find blogs are not good mediums for providing feedback.


- NaomiM