Written works of fiction come in all lengths as measured by the word count. This is simply the number of words in the document or book. When you’re writing on your computer, word processing applications such as Microsoft Word will give you a word count, either showing just the words alone or all the characters, including individual letters, spaces, and punctuation marks.

In the typical text, the ratio of words to all characters is roughly 1:6. That is, if the word count is 100, the number of all characters is likely to be 600. This is of great interest to proofreaders, who must seek perfection in every character.

Haiku and Limericks

The shortest complete written works are haiku poems. This ancient Japanese poetic form consists of three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third. One of the best-known Japanese haiku poems is “Old Pond” by Basho (17th century):

old pond
frog leaps in
water’s sound

A limerick is a a five-line poem consisting of a single stanza with an AABBA rhyme scheme. It has roughly 30 words. Edward Lear popularized limericks; here’s one:

There was a Young Person of Smyrna
Whose grandmother threatened to burn her.
But she seized on the cat,
and said ‘Granny, burn that!
You incongruous old woman of Smyrna!’

Flash Fiction

A piece of flash fiction is a short story of 500 words or less. (Bear in mind these word counts are fairly arbitrary.) Subcategories include the six-word story; the 280-character story (also known as “twitterature,” after Twitter); the “dribble” (also known as the “minisaga,” 50 words); the “drabble” (also known as “microfiction,” 100 words); “sudden fiction” (750 words). Some commentators say that flash fiction is 1,000 words.

Aesop’s Fables are flash fiction. One of the most well known, “The Hare & the Tortoise,” is 188 words:

The Hare & the Tortoise

A Hare was making fun of the Tortoise one day for being so slow.

“Do you ever get anywhere?” he asked with a mocking laugh.

“Yes,” replied the Tortoise, “and I get there sooner than you think. I’ll run you a race and prove it.”

The Hare was much amused at the idea of running a race with the Tortoise, but for the fun of the thing he agreed. So the Fox, who had consented to act as judge, marked the distance and started the runners off.

The Hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the Tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a Hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the Tortoise should catch up.

The Tortoise meanwhile kept going slowly but steadily, and, after a time, passed the place where the Hare was sleeping. But the Hare slept on very peacefully; and when at last he did wake up, the Tortoise was near the goal. The Hare now ran his swiftest, but he could not overtake the Tortoise in time.

Short Story

The average short story is anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 words. (But rules are made to be broken; some works have 15,000 words and are still classed as short stories.) A short story typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood.

H.G. Wells described the short story thusly: “The jolly art, of making something very bright and moving; it may be horrible or pathetic or funny or profoundly illuminating, having only this essential, that it should take from fifteen to fifty minutes to read aloud.”

While many authors believe a short story should have a beginning, a middle, and end, others disagree. Anton Chekov thought that a story should have neither a beginning nor an end. It should just be a “slice of life,” with the emphasis not on plot but on character or situation.

Novelette

The novelette has a word count between 7,500 and 17,000 or 20,000 words, depending on whom you ask. Call it a long short story, if you will.

A few classic novelettes or long short stories include:

The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell – 8,426 words

Leiningen versus the Ants, by Carl Stephenson – 8,881 words

Paul’s Case, by Willa Cather – 8,970 words

The Burial of the Guns, by Thomas Nelson Page – 9,601 words

Children of the Corn, by Stephen King – 10,964 words

Souls Belated, by Edith Wharton – 10,669 words

Rappaccini’s Daughter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne – 12,261 words

Everything’s Eventual, by Stephen King – 19,552 words

Novella

A novella is a fictional piece between a short story and a novel with anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 words. The longest of the short fiction forms, the novella grants the author the freedom for an expanded story, descriptions, and cast of characters, while retaining the condensed intensity of a short story.

Some classic novellas include:

The Stranger, by Albert Camus — 36,000 words

The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells — 32,000 words

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl — 31,000 words

Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck — 29,000 words

The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway — 27,000 words

Big Driver, by Stephen King — 40,150 words

Novel

A novel is any work of fiction over 40,000 words. There are many genres and subcategories.

Young adult (YA) novels range from 40,000 to 80,000 words. For children eight to 12 years old, middle grade books or novels have between 20,000 and 50,000 words.

Thrillers range between 70,000 and 90,000 words. Science fiction and fantasy novels tend to be longer, with 90,000 to 120,000 words and up.

Romance novels have a wide range, from 50,000 words to 100,000 words and up.

Historical fiction tends to require more time to establish an authentic setting, and these novels often reach 100,000 words.

An epic novel is anything over 110,000 words. Just a few epic novels include:

Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo – 530,982 words

War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy – 561,304 words

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke – 308,931 words

A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin – 298,000 words

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling – 198,227 words

If you’re writing your first novel, unless you plan on self-publishing, then you should keep it under 100,000 words. Publishers aren’t keen on giving deals to debut authors with epic novels!

• Thomas Hauck is a professional ghostwriter, editor, and book developer serving global clients.