I’ve had a really great writing week. I shot right past my 10,000-word goal and am happy to say I’m sitting at 55k (or 198 pages). Next week I’m going to focus on editing what I’ve got so far. I’ve had a few Aha! moments as I’ve been writing, and now I need to go back and make those Aha! moments make sense. I don’t really have a choice – I won’t be able to bring the story home if I don’t clean up the first half.
Unfortunately, I think this draft is going to be really long. I had hoped to wrap up around 80k, but based on the plotting I’ve done, I’m guessing I’ll finish up somewhere around 110k or 115k, which means (big sigh) that I’ll be cutting a lot of it during revisions. Nobody likes a wordy thriller. No sir.
So tell me, are your first drafts too long or too short? Why is it I suspect most of you are in the too-short category, leaving me all by myself in Too-Long Land…?
(Don’t forget, it’s Free-For-All Friday at Killer Chicks! Today’s question for you to ponder: What’s your favorite true crime story? I’ll give you a hint of my answer – it involves a serial killing couple from my hometown in Ontario from the ’90s. Gruesome stuff.)
Wow, great job on the smashing of the word goal!! I wish I had your drive!
My first drafts are ALWAYS, without a doubt too short. But then scenes will come to me late at night and be like, "Put meeee innn theeeereee, Caaaitlinnn" (like a ghost, for some reason). So that beefs it up a little 🙂
PS. Killer Chicks = awesomesauce. Just FYI 😛
You rock, sister! 55K! Isn't it nice to surpass our goals?
I think it's better to have to cut than to add.
I think it's easier when it's too long. It's easier to chop words than add them…in my experience anyways.
Wow! Awesome progress. My first drafts come in short. When I edit I chop a lot but I tend to add more than I cut. Weird, I know.
Good for you for hitting 55k!
My first draft of my last manuscript fell 212 words short of what I was shooting for. That's pretty darn close to "just right" in my book, considering it's just under a page.
Great job on hitting 55k!!
I'm a putter-inner and my books always fall about 15-20,000 words short of my end goal. But I love layering and detailing, which I always save for the end (I'm a dessert after dinner kinda chick too).
Lately, I've been aiming for 100K only because I've been told that a writer who hopes to be published for the first time shouldn't expect to have anything longer than 100K published. (Correct me if I'm waaaaay off base here.)
All four of my manuscripts are too long (130-150K). And they have "slow starts" (I've been told). So, mucho revisions are in my future…
Caitlin: You make me laugh! If I heard that voice I think I'd crawl under the bed and never come out, LOL!
Lynda: Just once I'd like to try it the other way. Cutting's not really hard but it is tedious (for me, anyway!).
Jennifer: Hi! That happens to me too. Cutting then adding then cutting then adding. My final drafts hardly resemble my first drafts… if I could just write it perfectly the first time!
JB: That's definitely a bullseye in my book.
Joann: Agree, layering and detailing is the best part of writing. I'd probably enjoy it more if I was simultaneously trying to cut.
Milo: It's good advice, I was told the same thing. But when we're as rich and famous as Stephen King, we can be as wordy as we want and it won't matter! I'm sure that day is just around the corner 🙂