by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I saw some writing advice from some grand Harvard poopah on Twitter and most of it I agreed with. It was great advice. But for one bit of it. The advice suggested that you will “always” slash half your word count between your first and second draft.
I call bullshit.
I am very focused on my vision for this novel and I’m giving myself somewhere between 100,000 and as much as 160,000 words. The first draft is probably going to fall around maybe 120,000 words.
But fuck you if you think I’m lashing that to 60,000 words in the second draft.
The reason that’s not going to happen is I’ve worked so hard on this novel and also I see that as much as 160,000 words as my opportunity to rant about the modern world. I’m simply not fucking writing a novel of 60,000 words. Fuck you.
So whatever I have to do to meet my vision when it comes to word count, that’s what I’m going to do. Or, put another way, someone would have to give me some money and with an assurance of being published in the traditional sense for me to cut my word count too far below 100,000. I’m fully prepared to self-publish if need be.
