The Enid Blyton Society

Thank you, Rob.

Rob Houghton wrote:It depends on which book and series - I think the Barney books are around 60,000 words but some (like Ragamuffin) are of course shorter.

I think Famous Five are around 40,000 words but this is only rough estimate. I think Tony has official word-counts for each series somewhere.

You are right, Rob, he has!

Rockingdown - 52,690
Rilloby - 51,740
Ring o'Bells - 52,660
Rubadub - 50,590
Rat-a-Tat - 37,530
Ragamuffin - 32,450

Julie's current book is 49,770

The longest Adventure book is Ship @ 64,540 and the shortest is River @ 49,750

Thanks Tony...although I'm a bit surprised by those figures. Interesting that Rilloby Fair is the longest book chapter-wise (31) but shorter in word-count...and the same for Rubadub. I can hardly believe that, as both are so substantial and seem much longer - and both have more chapters than Rockingdown, which has 29 chapters.

Ring O Bells also has only 29 chapters and yet is longer than Rilloby by around 1,000 words, and longer than Rubadub by over 2000 words, despite them both having 30 and 31 chapters! So it seems that when Enid wrote less chapters, the book wasn't always shorter, but was actually longer. I wonder why this was?

I'd been cheated into thinking Rilloby and Rubadub were actually longer, because of number of chapters!!

It's also interesting that Ship of Adventure only has 29 chapters and yet is longer than 'Valley of Adventure' which has 31 chapters - so it seems the 'more chapters = shorter book, less chapters = longer book' rule still applies. Fascinating! I'm really intrigued by this.

My brain hurts!

How were these counted, Tony? Just out of interest? Presumably someone counted them word for word, to get such accurate figures that aren't rounded up to the nearest thousand?

I have to admit that with the continuation novels I have written for the EBS website, I don't even look at the word count. I just write, and finish when I've finished.

Curiosity had me going to my current novel stored on my computer and the word count says 50,177, so I guess we differ Tony by 1,000 words.

I know my latest I'm just editing says it is about 72,150 words - but taking out the chapter headings, chapter numbers, contents page and title page makes quite a difference. This knocks it down to about 71,100 words - so around about 1,000 words difference!

I do tend to just write until my story is finished...and I rarely worry about word-count - though I admit I was surprised I'd written such a long book! It reads very fast though!

I think you have just explained to Julie why her word count is different to mine, Rob!

I have no idea how the figures that I quoted above were reached as they were all produced by an earlier writer of weekly serials who wanted the books that were written to be the same length as Enid's average (discounting the appreciably shorter books). I even have full details of how many words there were in each chapter!

sixret wrote:Now that you've mentioned it, I am very curious to know. What is the typical range of Enid Blyton-word-count for her books?

I wouldn't even know how to do a word count.

A word count shows up at the bottom right of any word document you are writing Chrissie. Well it does on my computer anyway.

I hardly ever use Word Document, only when I cannot print out a certain text from my computer. Then I copy and paste it into Word Document and can print it out.

Mind you, to count words in an EB book, you simply just have to count them...one by one, by hand!!

I certainly won't be doing that Rob.

Nor me, Julie! I did do a rough estimate - chose an average-looking page and counted the words, then multiplied - which came to roughly 2,000 words per chapter, then x 30 which of course gives a rough estimate of 60,000 words...but it seems that's more than in reality!

Chrissie777 wrote: I hardly ever use Word Document, only when I cannot print out a certain text from my computer. Then I copy and paste it into Word Document and can print it out.

What program do you use, if you don't use Word, Chrissie?

Rob Houghton wrote:Mind you, to count words in an EB book, you simply just have to count them...one by one, by hand!!

Rob, who would have enough time to do that?
I always assumed that the EB publishers know the amount of words.

Rob Houghton wrote:Thanks Tony...although I'm a bit surprised by those figures. Interesting that Rilloby Fair is the longest book chapter-wise (31) but shorter in word-count...and the same for Rubadub. I can hardly believe that, as both are so substantial and seem much longer - and both have more chapters than Rockingdown, which has 29 chapters.

Ring O Bells also has only 29 chapters and yet is longer than Rilloby by around 1,000 words, and longer than Rubadub by over 2000 words, despite them both having 30 and 31 chapters! So it seems that when Enid wrote less chapters, the book wasn't always shorter, but was actually longer. I wonder why this was?

I'd been cheated into thinking Rilloby and Rubadub were actually longer, because of number of chapters!!

It's also interesting that Ship of Adventure only has 29 chapters and yet is longer than 'Valley of Adventure' which has 31 chapters - so it seems the 'more chapters = shorter book, less chapters = longer book' rule still applies. Fascinating! I'm really intrigued by this.

The difference in chapter numbers and length of book is surely down to the length of each chapter. In my experience, some chapters need to be longer than others because of the content. A natural break and progression to the next chapter can't always be tailored to fit a set amount - at least if it is, it can be hard to do!