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Fiction Writing Made Easy with Savannah Gilbo | How to Write a Novel & Writing Advice
Do you have a story you can't stop thinking about? Maybe it's still just an idea. Maybe it's half a draft you haven't opened in months, or a finished manuscript that doesn't quite work yet. Wherever you are, it can be hard to know what your story needs next.
Fiction Writing Made Easy is a podcast for aspiring fiction authors who want clear, practical guidance on what to do next with their novels. Hosted by developmental editor and book coach Savannah Gilbo, the show breaks down complicated writing concepts into simple, actionable lessons. Savannah explains why storytelling techniques work, how the different elements of a story fit together, and what that means for your own writing—often using examples from familiar books and movies.
Topics include developing your story idea, outlining a novel, creating characters readers care about, writing scenes that move your story forward, and figuring out what to fix when your draft isn't working. You'll also find genre deep dives on romance, fantasy, thrillers, and horror, mindset tips for difficult writing days, and advice on querying agents and self-publishing.
You'll also hear from editors and industry experts, as well as writers Savannah has taught who share how they finished—and often published—their books. With hundreds of episodes and over 3.8 million downloads, there's plenty to explore wherever you are with your book.
Hit follow for new episodes every week—and take the next step toward a novel you're proud of.
Fiction Writing Made Easy with Savannah Gilbo | How to Write a Novel & Writing Advice
#30: 4 Reasons Why You Need a Target Word Count
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In today's episode, we’re going to talk through four reasons why you should have a target word count for your story. Here's a preview of what's included:
[01:50] Generally speaking, a novel is defined as any story over 40,000 words. But, the average novel is usually somewhere around 80,000-100,000 words.
[02:05] Technically there’s no maximum length for a novel, but there are guidelines you can follow to determine whether your story is the appropriate length, or too long. These guidelines are determined by the genre and the target age range you’re writing for so, it’s always a good idea to know what your genre is and what age range you’re writing for before you land on a target word count.
[03:15] Reason #1: Having a target word count can help you make a realistic writing schedule. You can break your target word count into smaller pieces and then estimate the time it will take to finish those pieces.
[05:15] Reason #2: Having a target word count can help you outline your story. You can break down your target word count into the number of words within each act, the approximate number of scenes within each act, and more.
[07:05] Reason #3: Having a target word count will help you edit your work. And that's because you can use your target word count to figure out approximately how many words you'll need to cut or add. From there, you can make a more realistic plan for editing your draft.
[08:15] Reason #4: Having a target word count will help you when it comes time to publish. If you're planning to traditionally publish, being within your genre's average word count could be the difference between your manuscript being read or not. If you're going the self-publishing route, you'll want to keep story length in mind so that you can budget properly and meet reader's expectations.
[10:00] Key points and episode recap.
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Links Mentioned in This Episode:
- Episode Freebie: Average Novel Length by Genre and Age Range PDF Cheat Sheet
- How to Choose the Best Genre for Your Story (article)
👋 FREE TRAINING: Why You Keep Getting Stuck & How to Finally Finish Your Novel - Give me 60 minutes and I'll show you how to turn your ideas into a complete first draft—without getting stuck in the middle, constantly second-guessing, or spending years rewriting instead of finishing. Click here to save your seat!
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