: Re: Is there a method to estimating the length of a work before writing it? I am writing my first novel, which I think likely will end up being several volumes. Although I have a lot of experience

@Alves689

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For you, the answer is no. As you have never written a novel before, you have idea "how" you write, your style.

From experience, I can tell you that I'm not one for scene description or world_building, yet two of my novels exceed 150,000 words.

e.g.

I have a single character scene which could have been condensed to:

"The morning after Charlie's party I woke with the mother of all hangovers. I stumbled out of bed, and headed for the bathroom cabinet in search of Advil."

But the scene, as published, extends to 800 words.

Yet, in the same story the character goes from birth to seventeen years-old in a single chapter.

In another work it takes a character 1200 words to walk to work.

From the tone of your question you seem to want to write in a very structured way. With epic, multi-character stories I have never worked that way.

I was particularly enjoying writing a late-teen novel featuring seven characters: seven characters at differing points in their individual but intersecting journeys. When I noticed the page count pass 350 I felt just like a child.

I'd been playing with my toys. They were everywhere! Mum was going to be home soon. I need to get all the shit neatly back in the box, quick, fast, and in a hurry. The panic produced my best finale to date.

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