The writing's still going strong, but I'm running out of additions fast. I planned several new sections - only instead of getting, say, five thousand words from a section, I'll get half that. It's not that I'm a lazy writer. It's bad estimating; I still don't know how many words fit a scene.
I finished the fourth chapter today. I planned to get there around 61,000 words on Monday. Instead, it's Thursday, and I'm not quite at 57,000. That's an enormous gap.
What to do? I could try rewriting the sections, but I'd just pad them - and that's bad, in my book.
I could add new scenes, but it's not going to be easy since I've already made a framework and started filling it in.
The agent suggested I get to a *minimum* of 60K words, preferably 75K. I know I can hit the first mark. The second ... might not happen.
It's discouraging.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteI stumbled over your blog while stumbling over another blog. I don't know if comments from the general public are cool here, but thought I'd pop in.
You're right about padding. Readers notice and respond by putting the book down. I'm as guilty as the next writer, though. I seem to have the opposite problem nowadays. The book I'm querying now was 135,000 on first draft. After edits, 84,000 (give or take).
Between my husband and critique group, they managed to get most of the cutting done. I'm not so good with severing limbs. < : )
Liz