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About this tool
Turn a novel word target and deadline into a chapter-by-chapter schedule with a daily word goal and real writing-day counts.
A novel word count planner converts a manuscript target and a deadline into a daily word goal counted against the days you actually write, not the calendar. It splits the target across your planned chapters so the parts sum exactly to the whole, assigns each chapter a real due date, and labels the manuscript against the SFWA length boundaries — under 7,500 words a short story, 7,500 to 17,499 a novelette, 17,500 to 39,999 a novella, and 40,000 or more a novel.
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Counts only the weekdays you selected, so the daily goal is one you can actually hit.
Each chapter gets a real date drawn from your writing days, with a running cumulative total.
Compares your target against published word-count bands and the SFWA length categories.
Forty thousand words or more, by the SFWA definition used for award eligibility. In trade publishing the practical expectation for an adult commercial or literary novel is 80,000 to 100,000 words, with epic fantasy and science fiction routinely running 100,000 to 150,000.
Most commercial fiction runs 1,500 to 5,000 words a chapter, with 3,000 a common average. Shorter chapters accelerate pace and suit thrillers; longer ones suit interiority and multiple scenes, and there is no rule that chapters must be equal.
For a 90,000-word novel with roughly 130 weekday writing days in six months, about 700 words a day. The figure changes sharply with how many days a week you write — the same target on Saturdays and Sundays only needs roughly 1,700 words a day.
Word count alone, at least for award purposes: a novella is 17,500 to 39,999 words and a novel is 40,000 or more under the SFWA categories. Commercially the distinction matters more for how a book is published and priced than for how it is written.