writermag.com • The Writer | 13AS
any veteran novelist can tell you, a standard-
length novel of 80,000 to 100,000 words
calls for a gargantuan effort. It’s a heavy lift
to get your characters fully developed, your
plot humming, your language riveting – and all elements
seamlessly interwoven. At some point, when you type “The
End” on what you vow is the very last draft, you feel like
you’re finally getting there...
...But are you? How can you be really sure your draft is
ready to query?
Or what if you get to that last draft and feel your novel is
still problematic, but you can’t quite pinpoint the snag or fig-
ure out how to fix it?
For answers to these two key questions, we turned to five
successful novelists for their ideas and recommendations –
and for their own experience in tackling the question of novel
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