How Long Your Novel Should Be

by Doug Lewars

How long should your novel be? The simple answer is that it needs to be just long enough to tell your story. Animal Farm is only 29,966 words and it’s a pretty good tale. At the other end of the spectrum is War and Peace at 544,406.  That’s quite a difference.

Now ask yourself this. Have you read Animal Farm? There’s a good chance that you have – particularly since it was on the high-school English curriculum for some years. So have you read War and Peace? Some have – but then some people like to climb mountains, cross deserts and dive deep into the ocean. The point here is that if you have to make a mistake, you should probably err on the low side.