This year I decided to do something crazy—compete in an online writing contest called Pitch Wars. Run by the wonderful Brenda Drake, this is where unpublished writers query a selection of ‘mentors’ (published writers, agents, editors, etc.), for the chance to get some professional help on their manuscripts one-on-one, before pitching the polished work to literary agents.
While the reward is obviously fantastic, much of the joy of the experience can be found in the pre-submission phase, where it’s all about finding a good match for your work, networking with everybody you can, and asking questions. And while it’s been an absolute blast communicating with other ‘mentees’ and mentors, and learning tons of new things, I’ve kept stumbling over the same message again and again.
IF YOUR WORD COUNT IS HIGH YOU ARE DOOMED…DOOMED!
Okay, so maybe I’m paraphrasing. But the point is that the question about size keeps being asked. And rather than receive the old, comforting response in life we’ve (I’ve) come to rely on—‘size doesn’t matter’—the literary response is almost always ‘keep it small’. With everyone suggesting that the closer you are to 100k the better. Even for epic fantasy.
Unfortunately this presents a bit of a problem for both the writer and reader in me. As I like my epic fantasy to be, well, epic.
HOW BIG IS TOO BIG?
When I started writing in this genre it was pretty easy to clock up the words. You’re building entire worlds after all. I think my first draft was something like 210k—and it’s taken a fair few revisions and edits over the years to get the beast down to a solid 172k. I think that’s pretty reasonable. But I know others would deem it insane.
However, a quick check of an old Fantasy-Faction post on word counts reveals that I’m actually looking pretty trim against some classics. The average Wheel of Time book is around 300k. The last (and IMHO best) four Harry Potter books don’t dip under 169k. Brandon Sanderson’s Elantris is 200k (but apparently was queried at 250k). A Game of Thrones is 284k. Fellowship of the Ring is 187k.
Sure, if you’ve read any of the later Robert Jordan WOT books then you’ll know more than a few of those words were spent describing intricate details of clothing, but who DIDN’T want to know about Nynaeve’s dress trim or Rand’s new boots?
(Yeah, okay, maybe by the fifth book it was too much.)
SHRINK TO FIT
These days, literary agents and publishers are overwhelmed with submissions on a daily basis. And with fantasy being forever in vogue, I can only imagine how much they cringe when a new query lands detailing another doorstop of a manuscript.
So I completely understand the guidelines they (and others) give writers—especially new, untried writers—about word counts. With so much on their plate, agents and publishers have to consider manuscript size when taking on new authors. Longer manuscripts by new writers might take more work and aren’t guaranteed sales. Why take that risky path when they could get another two smaller books out the door in the same time?
But as both a writer AND a reader, I’m always a little disappointed to see these increasingly low word count limits thrown out into the ether. Because it means that any fantasy book I find by a new author is more likely to have been shrunk to fit (either by them or their editor). And while a 100k novel can certainly be made to feel epic in skilled writerly hands, it may still fall short of giving me the epic scope I seek.
JUST LIE BACK AND THINK OF MIDDLE EARTH
The reason I love epic fantasy is because of the idea of complete and total escape. I relish the opportunity to lose myself in another world and shoot the shit with new (imaginary) friends. And while there obviously has to be a plot to carry things forward, for me it doesn’t need to be incessant. I’m not reading a thriller. Sometimes all I want to do is hang out and chew over the scenery a little, you know? Maybe enjoy a stretch of trying out for Quidditch or drumming up the courage to ask a girl to the ball, before the next ‘He who must not be named’ plot beat.
You might have heard these little scenes called filler or padding, implying that they’re just there to give the book some weight on the shelf. But I believe the majority of those little moments—the ones that might be trimmed from any other genre—are just as important to the success of an epic fantasy novel as pace or plot. Perhaps even more so?
THE LONG AND WINDING PATH
Used well, quieter tributaries from the main quest can offer a whole new dimension of insight into the characters we come to know and love, while also giving us a more rounded view of the fictional world we’re in. They’re also great for being able to catch your breath!
Other genres might be out simply to tell the story. They want to hook you in and drag you through until you find out what happens at the end. But I’ve always thought of fantasy, especially the epic kind, as being about crafting a fictional world or universe that for a time you actually live in, without necessarily being in a rush to get the magical chalice or face down the scary bad guy.
In the real world it’s not all plot. There are peaks and troughs and plenty of going off the beaten track from your everyday quest (thanks, Twitter). And so I think it must be with fantasy. If you sit down to play Skyrim (or any RPG), do you dive straight into the quest and keep on until the end without any deviation? Or do you go off track as often as possible to explore the world they’ve created, chat with locals and generally kick back and enjoy a bit of fun before the next bit of the adventure begins?
The point being that those padded moments often help make the fantasy real. And though they require added words, I’d like to think we should allow for that as much as we can in order to keep the epics epic, and not sell the genre short.
HOW WAS IT FOR YOU?
This might all sound like the long-winded plea of the long-winded writer not to discount his work on the basis of a number. Okay, it IS that, but I’m also curious! Am I alone in loving a bit of length in my fantasy? What do you think about word counts? Are you a writer who won’t submit until you get it under a certain limit? Are you an agent who has tried to take on the epics but it simply wasn’t possible? Does size scare you off altogether?
Sound off in the comments. I will try to join in if I can find the time—I’ve got a manuscript to edit down.
