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Q&A 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 ha...

2 answers  ·  posted 11y ago by Alexandro Chen‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:32:05Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/6430
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Alexandro Chen‭ · 2019-12-08T02:32:05Z (over 4 years ago)
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?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2012-10-05T11:13:50Z (over 11 years ago)
Original score: 10