Howdy,
As NaNoWriMo passes its midpoint, I continue to be pleased with my progress on my YA WIP. So far in November, I’ve knocked out 8 chapters for a hair over 19,000 words. I’d like to write two more before the end of the month. Best of all, I still feel like I’ve knocked out 19,000 of the right words, words that tell a better tale and will require less revision than past efforts. That’s the hope anyway!
I do have two concerns. First, I’m worried, well, mildly anxious that the story is a wee bit bogged down. My concern is ameliorated by the knowledge that I think any ruts will be easily smoothed out with a well-honed editorial cleaver. My second concern, which is related to the first, is that I fear the story is going to be longer than anticipated. I’m not sure if this is good or bad, at least at this point. Initially, I plotted the story to have approximately 41 chapters. At my current average chapter length, that put me at around 99,000 words. Not bad, not bad at all. If the final draft is the first draft minus 10%, that puts me about 89 – 90,000 words. I think that’s a decent length for a YA fantasy.
My problem? Right now, I think I’m edging toward more like 45 chapters, which will put me at 108,000 words. That puts the final draft darn close to 100,000 words, which is darn long for a YA, even a fantasy. At least, that’s what I’ve been led to believe based on what I’ve read.
In total, my first draft is hovering right around 65,000. That is savage, in my opinion, just savage. Considering I started the draft in September, I’m writing with record-breaking speed. Even if I need to mercilessly wield the editorial cleaver later down the line, I’m still very pleased with the speed that I’m writing this first draft. It will get me to an end product much, much faster than ever before.