by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
At the moment, the only thing specifically that I’m concerned about with this first novel in what is planned to be a six novel project is word count. I’m just about at the midpoint of this first novel I really risk blowing past the ~100,000 word count sweet spot that I need to shoot for.
But this is the first draft. And I’ve come up with really interesting character and a really interesting conceit that can be the cornerstone of a six novel project that hopefully — hopefully — will ultimately be open-ended. That’s why starting this novel at the very beginning of 25 years ago gives me a lot of room to work with.
You, the audience, will get to see the ebb and flow of these characters and how they interact with each other over the course of a quarter century. I’ve come up with a really interesting heroine for the first novel — Mare of Easttown if she looked like Olivia Munn — and the novel, even as a first draft, flows really well.
But the issue of it being too long.
I’m just going to write the damn thing the way I want to for the first draft, then turn around and re-write it will an eye to trimming as many words as possible. And when I finally get around to having beta readers in summer 2023, I will also direct them to think of as many different ways to cut word count as possible.
My fear, of course, is a combination of the limits of my writing ability combined with the nature of the story will make the word count an existential problem that I am going to have to just work with.
And, yet, I am really pleased with what I’ve come up with. I’m really excited about starting the next novel in the series, as well. Though I will admit that there is a chance that something will happen and I’ll have to reduce the number of books to something a bit more manageable because, well, lulz, I’m not going to live forever.
