Non-fiction is one thing but what if you are thinking about writing a novel? That is a whole different ballgame.

How Long to Write a Novel?

Novels take, on average, significantly longer to write than a non-fiction book and there are two reasons why:

Depending on the genre, they tend to be quite a bit longer.

They are definitely more complex.

In general, crafting a story that makes compelling reading takes longer than writing factual information. For creative non-fiction, you have a combination of the two and that can take longer to write than a standard non-fiction book with no narrative.

Because novels tend to be more complex and longer, it is going to take longer to write it, rewrite, edit and rewrite some more – or at least it will if you want those good reviews. How long the novel is will also depend on genre although there is a little room for maneuver there. In general, though, the average word counts for each genre are:

Sci-Fi/Fantasy – approximately 90,000 to 120,000 although they can go over 150,000

Women’s Fiction (mainstream) – approximately 90,000 to 100,000

Crime/Thriller/Mystery/Horror – approximately 70,000 to 90,000

Young Adult (YA) – approximately 70,000 to 80,000

Cozy Mystery – approximately 70,000 to 80,000

Middle Grade – approximately 40,000 to 50,000

Novellas – approximately 30,000 to 50,000

In contrast to that, the approximate word counts for non-fiction genres are:

Standard Non-Fiction, i.e. History, Health, Business, etc. – approximately 25,000 to 80,000

Self-Help/How to Books – approximately 40,000 to 50,000

Memoir – 80,000 to 100,000

How long it takes you to write a novel will also depend on how hard it is. When you start writing your first draft, with any luck you can get your inner editor to shut up long enough for you to get the words down on the paper.

When you finish your writing session each day, you should stop when you have an idea of the direction you want to go in. Don’t keep writing until you can't write anymore and don’t write until you run smack into a brick wall – that wall will still be waiting for you when you sit down again.

Write a note telling yourself what comes next; that will help you to get started the next time you write. Get into the habit of doing that and the ideas will flow and the momentum will build. And let’s face it, your first time writing doesn’t have to produce gold!

When the time comes to revise what you have written and do some rewriting, you will need a different daily target – only if you are not having to do a word-for-word rewrite. For example, you may be able to revise 10 pages in 30 minutes. If you have a 254-page novel, you can plan the editing time for each day and work out how long it should take you to complete the revision

When it comes time to revise and rewrite your novel (a different kind of fun), set yourself a different daily target if you’re not rewriting your novel word for word.

For example, if you find you can revise ten pages in a half-hour period, and your novel is 245 pages long, you can plan each day’s editing time and calculate how long it should take you to finish revising your novel. Say you revise for one hour a day and you get through 20 ages, it will take you just over 12 days to complete the revision.

And then the editing, which can take a few weeks, although that depends on your editor and if you are paying for full structural editing or a copy-edit and proofread.

In the final part, we’ll look at publishing.