1 word 2 words 3 words 4, 5 words 6 words 7 words more.

It's very important that you know how long you want your novel to be, whether its the size of Sherrilyn Kenyon's "Born of Fury", or maybe something smaller like Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island". Either way, knowing your desired word count is crucial.

Take J.K Rowling's Harry potter series for example: 

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - 76,944 words  
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - 85,141 words  
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - 107,253 words  
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - 190,637 words  
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - 257,045 words  
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - 168,923  
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - 198,227

The total word count for each of her books varies drastically, but each novel is filled to overflowing with adventure. The perfect balance has to be created; where there's never too many words and not enough adventure, nor too much adventure and not enough words.  In order to successfully outline your book it is important to aim at, or around, your genre's average word count. Here are some examples:

Fiction

Fantasy: 90,000 -125,00 words

Epic Fantasy: 180,000 - 200,000 words

Romance: 50,000 - 90,000 words

Mainstream Romance: 70,000 - 90,000 words

Science fiction: 90,000 - 125,000 words

Mysteries & Crime: 80,000 - 100,000 words

Thrillers: 80,000 - 100,000 words

Historical: 80,000 - 120,000 words

Horror: 80,000 - 100,000 words

Literary: 80,000 - 120,000 words

New age: 60,000 - 85,000 words

Western: 50,000 - 80,000 words

Non-Fiction 

Memoir & Biography: 80,000 - 100,000 words

Narrative Non-Fiction: 70,000 - 110,000 words

Self-help & How-to: 40,000 - 60,000 words

Age range

Adult: 80,000 - 125,000 words

Young Adult: 50,000 - 90,000 words

Middle Grade: 30,000 - 50,000 words

Children: 500-600 words

Source: www.savannahgilbo.com

Now, while aiming at the average word count is a good place to start, it's also important to realize that the amount of words provided is not limiting to your story. You don't have to land within the margins. 

The challenge: 

I want you to find a book that is around the size you picture your finished novel to be, then to look up it's word count. I'll bet that it's either way more, or way less then you anticipated. 

Do you see what I mean? You may have no idea how many words you're actually aiming for until you realize what size you want your novel to be, and thats where the fun starts.

Wedgits

Growing up as an only child was, at times, very lonely. One thing that kept me almost constantly occupied were these blocks called Wedgits (pictured above). Now Wedgits aren't your normal building blocks, in fact if you know what you're doing you can actually use them to create geometric sculptures, robots, etc... and they hold themselves together! 

Now that i've completed my Wedgits commercial and thoroughly confused you let me get to the point:

Your characters are like Wedgits. 

"What the hell Vira? That makes no sense!"

Hear me out: See those white diamonds? Those are your main character's history, their story. You can see some of the little white diamonds throughout the sculpture. In total there are 10 hidden away, holding the entire thing together. The large white diamond is your character's main history, and you may not see it for a long time, but it's in there. Back behind the blue and green Wedgits, holding up some of the other little white diamonds. 

The green? Those are your secondary characters. Their history, while still extremely important, isn't quite as prevalent, contained in only 6 Wedgits. Like your main character's story, these 6 Wedgits are still vitally important, and support a majority of the sculpture. 

The blue? They are your antagonist's past, their motivation. Again, while vital to the structure of the sculpture, you see less of them. Coming to a whopping total of 4. But without these 4 Wedgits the entire thing comes crumbling down. Your white diamonds and green squares have no place to be wedged into. 

The red? That's your world's history. Whether you have to create your own world, are writing fan-fiction, or even non-fiction, the history of the world you are placing your story in is the base of your story. 

Oh, and all that yellow? That's your plot. It looks like it takes up a majority of the sculpture, but surprisingly your plot only inhabits as many Wedgits as your secondary characters; 6. Of course,as you well know it's pretty important. 

What I'm trying to explain is this: Your character's history will overlap. And it will change each character differently. 

"The same boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg. It's about what you're made of, not the circumstances."

----

Example: 

Thane and I have three characters that lived together for a time, but were then separated. One is still trapped by the past, one longs for the past, and one is haunted by the past. For now we'll call them A, B, and C.

We knew there was a reason C didn't trust A and B, we just didn't exactly know why. Then 3 days ago Thane texted me an excerpt from a scene featuring character C and suddenly it all clicked. B is so caught up in the past, in what was, what could have been, that B fails to notice the signs. B's love and compassion for A is so deep that B overlooks what A has become. C was with A longer and saw what happened. C can see the warning signs of what happened, and therefore doesn't trust A. C also doesn't trust B because C understands that B's love for their friend has blinded them. C believes they are the only one who can see through all of the pain from all of their pasts.  

----

The overlaps in your character's history will always shape your plot. And when I say always I mean ALWAYS. Even when you haven't figured out what the outcome of that overlap is.

Your plot, like your characters, is fluid. You do not have to have the same end goal as the one you started with. Hell, you don't have to end up with the same book you started with. The key is learning as you go, writing and building as your characters grow and mature. Their adventures will change them, and every time it does you add another Wedgit to the tower. Till finally you have the finished project. 

"One day, we'll be standing around a body, and Sherlock Holmes will be the one that put it there." -Sally Donovan

MURDER! An Author's best friend, and what normal people think when they look at the open tabs on our computers. The problem with Murder is a lot of us don't know anything about it, seeing as we're writers and not serial killers (...right?). So lets start with the law.

Disclaimer: I do not have Law or Criminal justice degrees. These tips are simply from research and advice. They are NOT to be used for criminal activity. 

~-~-~-~

The Layman's guide to U.S. homicide terminology:

First off it is illegal to go around killing people. So no, you can not test out what you are going to do to your character on real people. 

First degree: Like in most fiction and murder mysteries, murder in the first degree is when the perpetrator has planned out the attack with the desire to kill their target. 

Second degree: While the perpetrator probably didn't plan it out, they still meant to kill their target. Possibly by commenting a crime like a drive-by shooting, armed robbery, or gang fight.

Third degree: Also called a "crime of passion" or "voluntary manslaughter", murder in the third degree isn't planned. The perpetrator had no intention or need to harm the victim beforehand. It often occurs in a fit of passion, such as a perpetrator walking in on a spouse and lover. 

Involuntary manslaughter: This category includes crimes such as Vehicular manslaughter, DUI, Criminal negligence, etc... The perpetrator was fully aware of what they were doing, and due to indifference caused the victim's death. Involuntary manslaughter is not planned nor intended.

~-~-~-~

Now that the law is out of the way we can discuss some of the best ways to get away with killing someone.

~-~-~-~

How to commit the perfect murder:

Now this is how you would commit a first degree murder and not get caught, however when writing your story it is very likely that you will need the perpetrator caught. Therefore, you must decide what mistakes they will make. Remember MURDER IS ILLEGAL! DO NOT USE THIS FOR CRIMINAL PURPOSES. 

Appearance: Try to look as inconspicuous as possible. 

1. Clothes that blend in with the people that frequent the area. If your murder is casing a house in a neighborhood have them dress up as a jogger who just happens to stop across the street for a few minute rest and water. Have them repeat the cycle for a little over a week, then continue the cycle after the murder. If they are casing an apartment or hotel room have them dress as a resident, staff, utility worker, or landscaper. Your murderer must always look like they belong.
2.  Change their appearance as much as possible. Have them wear a wig, contact lenses, layer clothes to change body shape, and shoes too small or too large. 
3. DO NOT WEAR PERFUME OR COLOGNE 

Supplies: Cash, cash, cash.

1. Pay for everything with cash. It is much harder to track that way.
2. Have them buy things slowly and over time, or with an ulterior agenda, in many different places. A clerk is far more likely to remember someone buying twelve coils of rope with nothing else, then someone who buys new rockclimbing shoes and two coils of rope, while chatting about how worn out their old rockclimbing shoes are  
3. Never have them use their own electronics. No matter how thorough they might be deleting their browser history, the dudes down in Computer Forensics can dig it back up. If they absolutely need a computer try a library one, for a phone try a burner phone with prepaid minutes. 
4. After about 15 minutes natural oils from your hands will start to leak through their gloves, consequently leaving fingerprints behind. Have them bring a box of gloves with them so that they can either layer or change.
5. Do not use a gun. Riffling left by the barrel makes it very easy to connect a bullet to a gun.

Alibi: Plan ahead.

1. Make sure you have a well thought out alibi, such as a torn cinema ticket. Don't make it up on the spot.

Disposing of the corpse: Hope your murder has a strong stomach

1. Take an unregistered boat out into un-owned waters and the murder can't be traced back to any one legal system so they can't be prosecuted. 
2. Dissolve the body in Acid or Lye
3. Burn the body.
4. Burry the body in pieces (in a deep and small grave) with a dead animal over the top to throw off cadaver dogs. 
5. Grind the teeth into dust (far away from where you stay)
6. Strip the flesh from the fingers and feed it to animals or burn it
7. Dispose of the body in a garbage dump

Cleaning: Bleach everything

1. Bleach, bleach, bleach.
2. Scrub till you can't scrub anymore and then scrub some more. 
3. Clean everything and then purposefully dirty it up again. Make it seem lived in.
4. A small blacklight to double check what may be left. 
5. Deep clean any carpet blood may have been in contact with.

~-~-~-~

And that's all folks! I'll leave how to kill the unfortunate character up to you (But if you want any hints there will be another blog post coming up that will address wounds) 

Namárië!