So, like most breathing homo-sapiens recently, I’ve been reading fantasy.
Lots of it. So much in fact, I am beginning to believe I may not be able to finish all of them. As much as I enjoy this fact, there are others out there who feel the need to finish a book they are reading.
These distressed folk have been battling with a question; why are fantasy books so long these days? If you have already read my how to be consistent article, then you will be ready for this technique. And to be honest?
It’s actually simple.
Fantasy books are so long because they have to give a lot of detail. Unlike other genres, the mass appeal of fantasy is the fantasy world itself, thus most fantasy need to be immersive.
Secondly, readers cannot be immersed in a world they have never seen before, with weird technologies, and ecosystems that they just do not understand, so fantasy books spend a lot of word-time on introducing the world to the readers.
Thirdly, the fantasy books need to set up the climax of the story by introducing a power system that is cohesive with the plot of the story.
These things put together lend to the word-time of fantasy books bloating more so than you could expect. But, it’s not as bad as it may seem. This article will be detailing just how that’s the case:
How Long Are Fantasy Books Usually?
Fantasy books are usually 50,000 to 150,000 words long.
This is a massive number.
And according to self-publishing school this makes fantasy tied to sci-fi, and with only dystopian fantasy coming close to their numbers with 120,000 words length. However, this is just an average. With different types of fantasy genres, it can even grow bigger.
The same article also states that YA, and adult fantasy have different ranges of industry accepted word counts. YA fantasy is often expected to be lower than 90,000 words. Meanwhile, Adult Fantasy books are usually 90,000 – 200,000 words long.
Why Are Fantasy Books So Long?
1. They Have A Lot Of Detail
Fantasy books have a lot of detail compared to many other stories.
Most fantasy books have a lot of work to do compared to other stories.
They therefore tend to have a lot more similes, and metaphors. They tend to have a lot of time with characters spent just walking, or experiencing a facet of the world in a sort of detail that most other stories can’t. This bloats this genres’ word-time.
2. They Have To Be Immersive
Fantasy books have a responsibility to be more immersive.
The further strain placed on fantasy worlds is that readers have come to expect fantasy worlds to feel real.
They want to experience how the worlds look, how the smell, how they sound, and how they feel. Fantasy even has an entire game known as D and D, where players meander around a world, immersing themselves in its every facet.
This means that this genres’ books must do the same for readers.
3. They Introduce Entirely New Worlds
Fantasy stories have the responsibility of introducing entirely new planets to people.
If you’ve read my how to world build article, then you know what types of demands world building requires.
You need to world build historically, so that your story is cohesive and makes sense for why characters are where they are today. Also, so that it makes sense why the world looks the way it does today, which leads to the second part.
You need to world build ecologically.
This means you need to take care of the plants, the weather, the stars, and man made ecologically structures, such as cities, vehicles, and even things like weapons, and clothes. This would also mean having to pay attention to things like races and physical appearances.
Finally, you need to world build socially.
You need to understand the languages of the people. you need to understand their customs. Their special days. You need to list out how they interact with each other, and what they find right and wrong.
Keep in mind, you need to do this in a way that won’t disrupt any of the other 2 arenas. So through out the 3 areas, socially, historically, and ecologically, there needs to be a cohesion.
This is hard. And it takes a whole lot of word time to get done.
4. They Need To Set Up The Climaxes Using New Worlds
Fantasy needs to set up its conflicts so that it has satisfying resolutions.
The simple world for this is power-systems.
As often spoken about in other articles, such as the fantasy vs sci-fi article, fantasy’s biggest strength is that it has a central conflict that is shown most visual. The power system of characters in fantasy is usually the physical expression of the themes in the story.
That’s why angry characters tend to use fire, and such. It’s because the writers use the power system to show us what we do not know about the world.
What is the consequence of this?
It is of paramount importance for a writer of this genre to make sure that their power system is what binds the characters, the world building, and the story.
Unfortunately, the only way to verify whether these things were bound seamlessly is with the climax of the story. Only then will we see that the set up was worth it, and was logical. This therefore means that more words must be spent by the author to explain how the magic system works, and why it works the way it does.
At the same time, leave it ambiguous enough how this will help solve the conflict of the story so that it remains enticing.
Suffice to say, this is a lot of words.
Are Fantasy Series Getting too Long?
Fantasy books are getting too long.
As observed in this article by medium, between the years of 1999 and 2014, the average book length grew from 320 pages to 407.
One could argue that this study was looking at all books in general, and therefore, fantasy was not specified. However, there is no doubt that this genre’s books are getting longer, as seen with how the point was one of the main reasons why people do not like reading fantasy.
Fantasy series usually top the list for the books with the longest series in the world. The longest I could find was the Guin Saga, which has around 172 books. However, I could not find a proper world count since it was written in Japanese. But still, the next series I will be choosing is a series from this genre.
The Discworld. The Discworld is a series written by author Terry Prachett. it has a combined total of 45 novels. And the pages of these books go up to 15, 497 pages
However, whether this is a good or bad thing is something that most readers of fantasy cannot agree upon. For the market, this can’t be good. The accepted length of a book is around 200,000 words. However, the market could soon change that, seeing how most readers seem to not mind.
Here is a reader sharing a commonly experienced sentiment by readers of the Lord of The Rings. They were asked for an abridged version of the Lord of The Rings, and this was their response.
What Can Writers Learn From Why Are Fantasy Books So Long?
The one thing that writers can learn is that most fantasy books are long because they need to world, set up plots, and build history. This is necessary to make your story immersive.
But do not over do it.
If your story is too long, most people will be come upset, so they will not want to read it. in order to avoid having to make your fantasy story to long, make it a half fantasy, half something else story.
Maybe half romance, half mystery, or half drama.
The point is that this will allow you to only need to do a subtle amount of world building, history building, and the other traditionally fantastical elements. in this manner, you can enjoy writing your story to your hearts content, while the readers coming to read your story will get attracted from a wide variety of audiences.
Once you have mastered this, you will be that much closer to mastering mastery.