Ever wonder how to hit a target length?

First you need to know what it is. For my St. Martin’s books, my contract says approx. 90,000 words, which translates to 360 manuscript pages. For an EC novella, the formatting is specified by the company template and doesn’t match the traditional 250 words per page for standard formatting, so I use computer word count. Find out what measure your editor/publisher goes by; computer word count or manuscript page? (They are not interchangeable.)

Now you have your target. Divide by three to get how many pages/words you can allot to the first, second and third acts. This will keep pacing on track.

Decide how many chapters your novella or novel will contain and the average number of pages in each to hit your target. Divide these by three. If you’re writing a 6 chapter novella, 2 chapters per act. If you’re writing a 30 chapter novel, 10 chapters per act. And so on.

Now look at the amount of stuff to fit into the space allowed. If you’re writing a novella and you have a cast like the movie 300, you have a problem. Cut back and simplify. The only characters you really need are protagonist, antagonist and ally. You can have additional supporting cast, but they shouldn’t have much time on-stage. The shorter the story, the tighter the focus on main character and central plot.

If you’re writing a novel and those plotting boards make your head explode, make a scene list of key events that must happen in the course of the story. By chronology they will fall into act one, act two, or act three. (Or call them beginning, middle and end if you like that better.) You don’t need to specify that scene X happens on page 7 of chapter 10, but you should have a rough idea of what happens in what order. (Yes, you can decide that scene X isn’t essential and cut it to give more space to other scenes as you go along. Or decide that two scenes you hadn’t even realized you needed have to fit in somewhere. It’s a guide, not a strait-jacket.)

You can do a scene list for each plot in chronological order. I currently have a romance plot, an erotic plot, and a paranormal plot. I have a scene list for each plot line. All of them have to be set up in act one, advanced in act two, and wrapped up in act three. You can whip out your color coded pens and note paper or whatever makes you happy to organize your multiple plot scenes, but I find a simple page with each plot and its list works fine and makes a handy reference.

All of this can be done at the synopsis stage, or early in act one, before you get very far. So that you don’t write 100 pages and realize you’re going to be way off on length with a lot of work to do to fix the problem. Again, it’s a guide, not a strait-jacket, but it helps to define the story specs and plan accordingly.

Does this work even for people who aren’t plotters? Yes. You can make your scene list for each act as you write. “But I don’t know what to list!” You know more than you think. Is it a romance? Then boy has to meet girl. (Or Eventual Loving Partners of unspecified number, gender and species. The principle still applies.) Sparks must fly. Attraction must deepen. Trust and commitment must develop. Final crisis as they surrender to the inevitable. “I love you.” “I love you!” Happy ending must happen. (They don’t have to say the words, but it has to be evident that commitment is there for the ending to satisfy.) That is a very general romance arc and if you don’t know where else to start, plug that into your scene list. Then you can deal with how boy meets girl, and so on, making this general list of plot points specific to your characters and your story.

So for the non-plotter, you can still know you have so many pages/so many chapters to devote to introducing characters, world, and conflict(s), how many to devote to building conflict(s) towards inevitable crisis and character arc(s) towards inevitable change, and how many to use for final conflict(s) and resolution(s). And roughly where your romance plot points fall in terms of beginning, middle, and end. Do the same for any other plot lines.

Ta Da. If you still run long, you can go back and tighten. Or if you run short, you can flesh out, build up, and give more impact to key scenes. But you’ll be close.