Wondering about word count
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I've recently started writing a very amateur novel, and I keep getting lost in how many words I can write in a day, how many words in a chapter etc
But it got me wondering: on average how many words does a light novel part have? I know that it probably varies, but it'd be interesting to know some figures from a few different releases, just to use as a vague reference for the size of the chapters I'm writing
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Back of the envelope: If light novels are typically between 40,000 and 60,000 words long and have 8-12 parts then each part will be around 5,000 words per part (i.e. 50,000 words divided into into 10 parts).
I looked at a number of epub and average chapter length has a large degree of variation within and between books:
- Finding Avalon: The Quest of a Chaosbringer, Volume 2. 29 chapters. Range: 1,615–3,434 words. Average: 2,277 words per chapter.
- By the Grace of the Gods, Volume 1. 20 main chapters. Range: 1,203–6,119 words. Average: 2,706 words per chapter.
- Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, Volume 1. 22 chapters. Range: 1,142–8,751 words. Average: 3,209 words per chapter.
- The Isle of Paramounts: Reborn into a Slow Life Among the Strongest in the World, Volume 1. 10 chapters. Range: 3,290–7,922 words. Average: 5,463 words per chapter.
- She’s the Cutest... But We’re Just Friends!, Volume 2
7 chapters. Range: 4,483–8,696 words. Average: 5,993 words per chapter. - Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf!, Volume 1. 7 main chapters. Range: 2,892–10,961 words. Average: 7,417 words per chapter.
- Haibara’s Teenage New Game+, Volume 8
5 chapters. Range: 3,073–18,132 words. Average: 7,933 words per chapter. - Kokoro Connect, Volume 7: Yume Random. 8 chapters. Range: 4,642–19,697 words. Average: 8,532 words per chapter.
- Full Metal Panic!, Volume 6. 5 chapters. Range: 9,681–12,729 words. Average: 11,060 words per chapter.
- Cooking with Wild Game, Volume 32. 4 chapters. Range: 12,920–29,154 words. Average: 19,687 words per chapter.
Across all 117 chapters, the overall average was approximately 5,000 words and the median was approximately 3,100 words. However, books with lots of short chapters have a disproportionate effect on those figures. When each book is weighted equally, the average is closer to 7,400 words.
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Wow this is really interesting stuff! Thank you!
Phew, those numbers at the top end are insane. I could never reach that with my writing! I'm averaging out around 1600 per chapter, maybe I need to beef them up a bit.
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Set yourself a goal. Many authors have a daily goal. "I will write two pages a day". Or "I will write 2000 words a day". Do this every day and you will get your novel in under a year.
A page can be defined as opening Microsoft Word and writing on a 8.5 x 11 in paper with default margins, single spaced. Two pages like this is about 1,000 words. If you need to type in double spaced format, it would be four pages.
To key is to do it everyday. If at first you can't hit two pages, the goal is trying to become consistent and get something, anything on the page. Once you consistently get something on the page every day, go for one page, then whatever goal you're aiming for.
