WIP Wednesday #15:The Book Must Die!

A short update this week, because I’m 53,000 words into a 50,000 word draft, and I’ve got…oh, say, another 4-5,000 words to go?

This sort of overrun happens more frequently than you’d think. At least to me. 50K always seems like such an easy target, but inevitably, I end up passing it by several thousand words. I never manage to budget enough space for that final, climactic battle. You’d think it’d be simple, but then you go adding characters, and when you do that, you need to give them some sort of closure, and then it…just…snowballs.

It’ll get pruned, of course. Editing inevitably shaves off the excess fat–the repetitious dialogue, the unnecessary restatement of theme and plot-points that comes from working on a thing day in and day out to a tight deadline…while stuff like that is practically invisible to me after I’ve gone book-blind, a good editor can spot them instantly.

Anyway, I’ve got work to do. Sing me out, Eartha.