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.)