Is the first draft of a novel usually shorter than the finished work?
I finished the first draft of a novel I'm writing. Right now, it has 17000 words. I've heard that novels these days range from 60,000 to 150,000 words, so I'm a little bit worried (I'm hoping to have 200~300 pages).
Is this normal? (I didn't stop and edit any single line. And I didn't describe actions, dialogues, and settings with much detail, because my priority was to get the story done).
Should I go back and add the details before starting the second draft?
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The answer to your question is: It depends on how the writer works.
This is a question that's impossible to answer in a general sense, since different writers will approach a story in different ways. Some will rough things out and add detail later on, some will dump everything down on the page and trim it down later on. Without seeing a manuscript, it's difficult to comment on it.
It's possible that the story you're telling simply isn't a novel at all. It could also be that you've only written part of the story. But whichever of these is the case, when fleshing out this story, I highly recommend against adding things to simply pad your word count. Let the story find its own length. If it's too short to be a novel, so be it; you can find another, novel-length story later on.
But maybe what you have is closer to a very detailed outline with notes. In that case, go ahead and fill things in and let the book find its length that way.
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And I didn't describe actions, dialogues, and settings with much detail. Should I go back and add the details before starting the second draft?
I've seen your writing. The answer is yes. :) (And I mean that in the nicest way. You work very hard. You do need to flesh out your dialogue with descriptions.) Go back and review these two questions of yours and my answers:
Has this dialogue enough suspense to engage the reader?
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