Word count

[Deleted]

So I am writing on a couple of projects and I seem to be moving so slowly because aside from writing I have my regular life with work, family, pets, friends and everything else going on......but I am wondering about word counts.
For those of you writing, what is the average word count you have finished with a story/novel? I saw that some publishing sites only want a certain word count to even consider a story and I am way over some of their requirements.
My "Ariana and Jason" story is not really a story, it is probably more of a novel but even after I read over and over and edit I am thinking it is not too much as to my words....but I may be totally wrong because I have no idea what I am doing wrong or right. I think about what to cut out and where I may be too detailed, then again I think detail is important to give the story some depth but I don't know....
Just kind of torn in between and inexperienced of course.
I am thinking about posting the story on the Fiction blog, waiting to get the access to post there and I guess then I can hear what everyone thinks and I have seen very long stories on there as well....
All my four projects already have so many words and two of them I still have to type up because I hand wrote so far.....it's crazy and sometimes I am thinking about what the heck I am even doing.....
Greetings, Dani

[rebel6842]

Dani-as a blog reader, I don't think there are set rules as long as everyone gets their dev fix in. Don't turn it into War and Peace-but don't be afraid of value either. In other words, if you've got something to say-SAY IT, the readers will respect you for it-as long as they know that the happy ending is on the horizon.

[ruthmadison]

Usually anything over 50,000 words is considered a novel, though that's on the short side. 65,000 is a solid novel length. Some genres tend to have longer word counts, like sci-fi is often over 100,000.

A story needs to be the length that suits it, though, and I wouldn't recommend forcing it to be shorter or longer than it wants to be (after editing, setting aside and coming back to it, and being really honest with yourself about what is part of the story and what is not).

[Ximena]

I wouldn't stress about word count so much, especially on a first draft. Like Ruth said, a story usually will find it's natural length--sometimes longer, sometimes shorter.

I know my first draft of UnC I knew after about 20K words it would probably be about 75K finished, and it was. Later, it became longer (closer to 100K), but everyone I had read it told me that it felt like it earned its length.

So I would just get the first draft done, and then worry about length when you're revising.

Most novels are usually between 60-80K, depending on genre. Generally speaking, sci fi and fantasy stretch toward the 100-120K range, but there's also a big market for novellas now with ebooks, and those usually range in the 30-50K range.

Hope that helps, and good luck !