Wordcount Wednesday

Over the past week, I pulled out the manuscript for Failstate and did a read-through. There was a lot of red ink spilled on those pages. And I confronted the horrific structural problems. As I learned last week, I apparently thought that a week had eight days at some point during the first draft. What made matters worse was the fact that to make everything fit, I really do need an eight day week.

Okay, so that's an exaggeration. I think I have it all figured out now. I hope, anyway. And tonight, I was able to tackle the first six chapters. And it was there that I hit my next snag.

I had hoped that this book would ultimately be only 80,000 words long. When I finished the first draft, it weighed in at approximately 110,000 words. So I hoped that I'd be able to axe 40,000 words along the way.

I don't think that's going to be feasible. I did slash one subplot which might bring me down 10,000 words. Maybe.

Weird thing is, the first two chapters actually grew in the rewrite. Not by much, just a couple hundred words, but still, it spooked me a little. And with good reason. I just did the math. The original six chapters were 10,080 words long. Now they're 10,241 words long. If this trend continues, my book will eventually have its own gravity well, strong enough to create a singularity that will swallow the Earth!

Ahem. Sorry. Maybe that's a bit dramatic, but I'm in that kind of mood. We'll see how the next couple of days go. I might have to pull out the scalpel and cut deeper and honestly, I'm not sure what would have to go then.