How long should my novel be?
This is a question I’m often asked, and it’s certainly not the same answer as how long a piece of string is! So, how long should your book actually be?
If we work backwards, from a production department point of view, a book of approximately 100,000 words will come in somewhere between 300 to 400 pages.
Shorter texts are less daunting(使人气馁的) for an agent to submit rather than a block of manuscript so aim to make your publication path easier. There’s an implication that a standard book length should have a tighter handle on pacing, with the reader more readily drawn in. In turn, an overlong novel often indicates to a publisher that there’s potentially extensive editing work to be done by them.
More commonly, issues over length tend to highlight that pacing is an issue, be it too long or too short. Overwriting, in particular, can be an issue for many authors, who might struggle to express their ideas clearly, using complex language that play down the flow of the book. Successful writing contains a clarity of thought that enables the writer to connect with the reader for maximum impact, allowing the story, characters and setting to shine through.
In terms of content, it’s important for an author to prioritise the key themes in the book.
Work intuitively, from the heart, keeping secrets for as long as possible so the reader is forced to read on. In this way, a reader will readily connect with your words.
| A．Books do have different thresholds(门槛) according to genre. |
| B．This is plenty for a typical author’s book, particularly the first one. |
| C．Yes, there are exceptions to every genre but these are generally rare. |
| D．Is everything of equal importance and does everything need to be included? |
| E．Longer books are more expensive to produce and harder to sell in, so it increases their risk. |
| F．With a firm handle on length, your novel will have increased its chances of commercial publication. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】If you want to know the world, you must know famous global media. Here are four well-known ones that can help you learn about what are happening in the world without leaving home.
The Sun
The Sun is a popular newspaper owned by News Corporation founded by Keith Rupert Murdoch. It is filled with the jokes about heads of state and major events both inside and outside Britain such as mayor’s trousers not being tied properly, politicians9 sleeping during conferences and so on. Its lively and popular style just meets the taste of the lower classes. Now its annual circulation (发行量) has reached 23, 100 , 000 copies.
Daily Mail
Daily Mail, compared to The Sunnis a little more serious. Reading Daily Mail, you can not only understand main political and economic events, but also find some relaxing and helpful contents. Well-known for favorite topics for women, it is extremely popular with middle-class housewives. Now its annual circulation has come to 20 , 930, 000 copies.
Onion News
Onion News is the most popular satirical (讽刺的) magazine in the United States with a circulation of 6, 900, 000 copies a year, covering domestic, foreign and local news including entertaining newspapers and websites. Most onion readers are between 18 and 44 years old.
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is a comprehensive magazine of America. It is mainly on non-fiction, including reports and comments on politics, international affairs, popular culture, art, science, technology and business. It also publishes literary works, but mainly short stories and poems, as well as humorous sketches and its different style of The New Yorker cartoons. Its annual circulation adds up to 10, 209, 000 copies.
1. According to the text, who may be the most loyal readers of The Sun?| A．Mayors. | B．Mid-class women. | C．Politicians. | D．Lower classes. |
| A．Onion News. | B．Daily Mail. | C．The New Yorker. | D．The Sun. |
| A．Popular culture report. | B．A topic for women. |
| C．Humorous sketch. | D．A short story. |
【推荐2】The regular editor (编辑) of the agricultural paper was going off for a holiday, and I took his place.
It was an easy job since I’ve been in the editorial business for fourteen years. I worked all week with untiring pleasure and waited a day to see whether my effort was going to attract any notice. As I went to the office in the morning, a group of men stood outside, watching me with interest, and I heard one or two of them say: “That’s him!” I was naturally pleased.
After a while, an old gentleman entered my office and asked me, “Are you the new editor?”
I said I was.
“Have you ever edited an agricultural paper before?”
“No,” I said. “ This is my first try.”
“I’d like to read you this: ‘Turnips (大头菜) should never be pulled; it injures them. It is much better to send a boy up and let him shake the tree.’”
“Now, what do you think of that?”
“I think it is good. Every year millions and millions of turnips are damaged by being pulled. If they had sent a boy up to shake the trees!”
“Shake your grandmother! Turnips don’t grow on trees!”
“Oh, they don’t? Well, who said they did? The language was intended to be figurative (比喻的).”
Then this old person tore his paper into pieces, and went out.
Pretty soon after this, the editor came in, looking sad and confused.
He said, “What put it into your head that you could edit a paper of this nature? You talk of the moulting (换羽毛) season for cows; and you say that clams (蛤蜊) will lie quiet if music were played to them. Nonsense! Clams always lie quiet and they care nothing whatever about music. Ah, heavens and earth, friend! Why didn’t you tell me you didn’t know anything about agriculture?”
1. How did the author feel at the first sight of the men?| A．Frightened. | B．Confused. |
| C．Angry. | D．Happy. |
| A．He was full of creative ideas. |
| B．He was a newcomer to the editing business |
| C．He had no experience in editing agricultural papers. |
| D．He couldn’t tell the difference between certain plants. |
| A．To ask for the author’s opinion. |
| B．To point out the author’s mistake. |
| C．To find out if it was written by the author. |
| D．To discuss the use of language with the author. |
| A．He expressed thanks to the author. |
| B．He was strongly dissatisfied with the author. |
| C．He praised the author for his humorous language. |
| D．He asked the author to improve his agricultural knowledge. |
【推荐3】The earliest newspapers started in ancient Rome. They were handwritten news sheets. The first printed newspapers appeared in China during the Tang dynasty, which were printed from carved wooden blocks. Modern papers first appeared in Venice, Italy in the middle of the 14th century. The newspapers of today, with advertising and a mixture of political, economic, and social news and comments, were started in Britain in the mid-18th century.
The main function of newspapers is to report news. Many newspapers also provide special information to readers, such as weather reports and television timetables. They also provide comments on politics, economics, arts and culture. Almost all newspapers depend on advertising to make money. Nearly six out of ten adults in the United States and Canada read a newspaper every day. Seven out of ten read a paper each weekend. Readers search newspapers for detailed background information and analysis. This is what television and radio news reports seldom offer. Newspapers tell readers what happened, and they also help readers understand what caused an event and how it will affect the world around them.
The workers at large newspaper companies work under a lot of pressure to bring news to readers as soon as possible. Reporters, photographers, artists, and editors collect articles in just a few hours. Page designers select articles, photos, advertisements, and eye-catching headlines to make the pages, and then rush their work to the printer. Printing workers may work overnight around printing presses to churn out more than 60,000 copies per hour.
1. Modern newspapers were first made in ________.| A．China | B．Ancient Rome | C．Italy | D．Britain |
| A．Various jobs related to newspapers. | B．Contents in each page of a newspaper. |
| C．The production levels of newspaper. | D．The fast pace of newspaper production. |
| A．few newspapers have no advertising |
| B．many adults in America read newspapers every day |
| C．people can read about different issues in newspapers |
| D．newspapers will become less popular as TV develops |
| A．press | B．produce | C．publish | D．sell |
【推荐1】Many things come to mind when people talk about US author Mary Robinette Kowal, 50 years old. She’s a space enthusiast, feminist, and puppeteer (演木偶戏的人). But she is best known for her novels.
This August, her book, The Calculating Stars, won Hugo Award for Best Novel. It also received a Nebula Award earlier this year. It is the first novel to win both top awards for science fiction since 1966. What made the book such compelling(不可抗拒的) choice for judges?
The Verge sys, “Kowal creates a different space race that's running not against any nations, but against the coming changes in Earth's climate.”
The story takes place in the 1950s, when an asteroid(小行星) strikes the east cost of the United States. It causes a rapid temperature rise that threatens all of humanity. Humans have 50 years to colonize Mars or they won't survive Earth's deadly climate change.
“The novel focuses on the combat between people and nature. That steers our attentions from people to nature, which is what we should do today,” wrote a reader at US book review website Goodreads.
The Calculating Stars is not only about nature, but also takes on issues of gender inequality.
Book review platform Utopia State of Mind praises the book's strong female character. "It's about courage and strength in the face of injustice. "
Husband-and-wife protagonists (主人公) Elma and Nathaniel York offer their scientific knowledge to save Earth. Elma is a mathematician and former Air Force pilot, and Nathaniel is a well-known physicist.
However, the strict gender roles of that era mean that men work and women stay at home. Nathaniel receives a position of power while Elma gets simple administration jobs. She is even prevented from applying for the all-male astronaut selection process, despite her experience as a pilot.
Fighting this unfairness, Elma launches a campaign to include women in the selection process. “You can be the hero and make changes if you overcome society's limitations,” said a reviewer at The Verge.
1. What causes the deadly climate change in The Calculating Stars?| A．Constant wars. | B．An asteroid. |
| C．Space colonization. | D．Too much carbon dioxide in the air. |
| A．transfers | B．focuses |
| C．applies | D．ranges |
| A．She leads to fight against gender injustice. |
| B．She is elected leader in the campaign for more rights. |
| C．She is selected to be an astronaut due to her work experience. |
| D．She must save the world while being a housewife, |
| A．The gender roles are equal in the ending part of the novel. |
| B．The Calculating Stars is the first novel to win both top awards for science fiction. |
| C．Elma fights for the equality of female besides saving Earth with her husband. |
| D．Nathaniel receives a high-level job for his courage and mathematical knowledge. |
【推荐2】Science fiction writers create imaginary worlds. The way things work in your imaginary worlds will be based on actual science. So it’s important for you to be familiar with the scientific principles and inventions that are related to your creation. For example, if you’re writing about human living on a planet with zero gravity, then you need to know the effects of zero gravity on the human body.
Then you have to figure out the exact rules of your imaginary worlds. And you have to follow them. If humans are able to breathe underwater in Chapter 1, your character can’t drown in a swimming pool in Chapter 3. The issue here is maintaining your readers’ trust. That means the reader is willing to pretend along with you. If you start out with an ordinary detective novel and then throw in someone breathing under water in the 6th chapter, you will pull the readers out of their imagination. The same thing happens if you change the rules halfway.
Part of your preparation work for the novel is to map out its worlds in great detail. You should decide the following issues: the history of the world, the geography, what possibilities it offers, how everything works in this new reality, and how all of these factors affect the way your characters think, feel, and react to things. You don’t have to tell your readers all the rules in the first chapter. But you have to let readers know enough to understand what’s going on. This also allows you to work out logical problems and contradictions before you start writing.
When you are writing, remember to make it feet real. You are inviting readers to visit a new world. They will want to be able to see, hear, feel, smell, and even taste what it’ s like. Whether your novel is about a world without disease or an undiscovered planet, help your readers feel like they’re actually there.
1. What’ s the relationship between actual science and science fiction?| A．Science fiction promotes the development of actual science. |
| B．Science fiction often reflects the development of actual science. |
| C．Actual science provides basic principles for science fiction. |
| D．Actual science limits the imagination described in science fiction. |
| A．Part of the preparation work for science fiction writing. | B．The different types of novels. |
| C．The detail in the first chapter of science fiction. | D．The reality of science fiction. |
| A．It is necessary to do some scientific experiments before writing science fiction. |
| B．Readers of science fiction actually pretend the writers’ rules are true. |
| C．The target readers of the passage are young scientists. |
| D．It is great to leave some contradictions in your science fiction. |
| A．How to do scientific research | B．How to write science fiction |
| C．What to expect from science fiction | D．How to raise interest in science |
Dr Berlin, come to my house. I had 50,000 dollars on my desk and now it is gone.”
Dr Berlin arrived at Mrs. Green’s house at eight o'clock. First he asked Mrs. Green, “When did you see the money last?”
“At seven o'clock. I put it on my desk in my living room. Then I went to wash my hair. I came back at seven thirty and the money was gone.”
“I see.” Dr Berlin said. “Were you alone in the house?”
“No. My sister’s son Jack is here, too.” Then Dr Berlin and Mrs. Green went to Jack’s room.
“Please, sit down,” Jack said. Dr Berlin sat on the only chair in the room, and the chair was cold. He also saw some books on the ground near his feet.
“What have you been doing this evening?” Dr Berlin asked.
“I came home at six-thirty, and went right to my room. I’ve been sitting in that chair and reading all the evening. I never got up and I never left the room. Maybe somebody came into the house and took my aunt’s money.”
After hearing that, Dr Berlin was clear about who had taken the money.
1. When did Dr Berlin answer the phone from Mrs. Green?
| A．At 6:30 | B．At 7:00 |
| C．After 7:30 | D．At 8:00 |
| A．In her living room. | B．In her washing room. |
| C．In Jack’s room. | D．In her office. |
| A．Before Mrs. Green came back home. |
| B．When Jack was reading. |
| C．After Mrs. Green went to wash her hair. |
| D．When Dr Berlin was answering the phone. |
| A．Mrs. Green’s son. | B．Mrs. Green’s nephew. |
| C．Mrs. Green’s husband. | D．Mrs. Green’s friend. |
| A．Mrs. Green didn’t live alone. |
| B．Jack had given a careless reply. |
| C．Dr Berlin found out who had taken the money. |
| D．Jack had been really reading books all that evening. |
