DOM. DOM. DOM. DOM!

Dark One’s Mistress, meet the 30k mark. ^_^

I always love the feel of hitting this point in writing. The ability to look back and see how the characters have changed and the story has flowed. I’ve always thought of it as the half-way mark, though in terms of numbers, I’ve 5,000 more to go. Pittance number-wise when seen against the 70,000 I’m aiming for and it’ll take me another chapter before I’m near it.

But, while I’m feeling good with the story so far and know where it leads … my plotting has now slowed to a crawl. It’s down to rehashing and refining what I’ve got lined up for my characters. I know that feeling. It means the whole story is plotted and my muse is just waiting for me to get it type all up so I can get on with the editing.

See, every time I’ve written a chunk of story, especially if it’s near the end of a chapter, I’ll get out my calculator and do the same thing: find out how many words I’m averaging per chapter (believe me, it changes each time) and how many chapters I’d get if I keep up at the same rate over what I’ve plotted.

The numbers I have right now don’t sit well with the numbers side of me. According to the figures, I’m on a nice stride for twenty-seven chapters. In fact, my original aim was twenty-seven chapters at a nice, steady pace. My plotting, however, doesn’t seem to be aiming for twenty-seven chapters.

As of last week, I have twenty-two chapters all planned. Which I suppose isn’t all that bad for what equates to sixteen days. Yes, the whole story takes that much time. Frankly, I’m amazed I’ve gotten this far on one pov (I’ve never done that before for more than 30,000 words).

Usually, my plotting only has to go so far as giving me a few chapters at the beginning and the end. I’m all “know where your ending’s at and go for it” when it comes to a first draft. But the chapters have always mystically filled up as I get near them. Those five chapters are defying my natural flow. And they’re sitting there right where my plotting says they cannot be, resisting any attempt at having a plot stick.

The longer I stare at them, the more I’m agreeing that they’ll have to be removed. Adding chapters would be quite illogical to the story and will slow the plot. In which case, the middle of the story happened one chapter ago. Not sure how to feel about that. It’s like knowing there was a book fair the day after.

Anyhow, it’s playing merry-hell with my rational side as I cannot be in the second half now when it’s meant to be ahead. My mindset’s all screwed up because of five silly chapters and a plot that doesn’t need them.

See, brain. I can confuzz you gud too.

Wait … what?

5 thoughts on “DOM. DOM. DOM. DOM!”

I am watching the numbers, too. I'm at 62k right now, and still at least one chapter away from the events that send the characters spiraling toward the climax. And although I have a synopsis for the climax, I don't technically know how it's all going to happen.

I wanted to bring this story in around 80k. That's not going to happen. Then I thought, maybe 90k, and I'll cut 10k in revisions. Now I'm hoping I can keep it under 100k and use a scythe in revisions. Urghh…

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I cannot seem to make the word count go down with my revisions. It’s always up, up, up. That’s how my last story went from a teetering 66,000 to a steady 70,000. Even then I was tempted to put in another chapter, but a) I’d no clue what they’d say and b) the pov structure of her-then-him would require two chapters and that brought me back to point ‘a’.
On the other hand, extra chapters were required in The Rogue King, taking that from an already huge 130k to a massive 186k (I’m gonna have start calling it 187k soon. Honestly, every time I read it, I add to it. And I read it quite often, cause I love’em. I shudder to think what the word count will be on its sequel when I get around to rewriting it.)

Logic, and numbers, tells me I only have to add around another 6000 words to the first eleven chapters and I’ll be, more-or-less, back on track. That’s about 550 words per chapter. I sat down today and trolled through the first chapter, tweaking stuff and what was my grand total of extra words? 276.
Ah well, it IS the first chapter after all. Wouldn't want to drag that out too far. Maybe chapters 2-11 will make up for it.

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