I, too, am one of many people trying to write a novel. I hope that it comes up somewhere around 300-400 pages. Currently, it’s at 75 with the next 50 or 60 heavily planned out, and a pretty good outline for the rest.
However, in order to get the right estimates, I need to know how many words are on the average page for your typical novel. Just eyeballing some of the books I’ve got lying around, it looks like yer typical novel has fewer words per page than a Word document (well, of course… the pages are smaller, the type is set slightly different, etc.).
So what’s the ratio? Is it one Word page for two novel pages? Or two Word pages for three novel pages? I’m asking now 'cuz I’m at the point where it’s REALLY important… if my first ratio is right, that means I’m almost halfway done, and if I want to add or subtract to the story (I can easily do so… I have SO many scene ideas, most of which have to wait for books later in what I hope to be a series). But if the second ratio is closer, that means I still have some distance to go before I need to start worrying about it.
Of course, story is most important, so if it winds up taking 600 pages, then so be it. However, it’d be nice to know what sort of progress I’m making.