Guess it’s that time in the show where I talk about my project, huh?

WIP: “Evan & Ronny”
66,352 / 100,000 Words

Nifty little contraption, huh? That’s Jen Hayley’s writing progress bar. You can get the code here.

But looking at that little bar fills me with a little dread. Research tells me that most publishing houses are content with long books. Just as long as they’re around the 80k mark. These days, that’s the average length of a book (at least in the U.S.), which comes to around 300-350 pages, depending on page and font size.

Granted, we are seeing more thicker books, and some first-time authors do land their doorstop novels in bookstores. And I read somewhere–can’t remember the article title, magazine, or writer, blast it all–that most people place a greater importance on bigger things, and that includes books. It makes sense, right? Longer story, bigger world and more conflicts to explore. Characters with deep, deep problems that will require hundreds of pages to resolve. It’s gotta be an adventure worth following.

But many editors are wary of long works, especially from newcomers. They’re going to be putting a lot of money into printing those bad boys, and it’s a big risk.

This is probably the longest novel I’ve ever written, and at this point, it might exceed 100k words. Thing is, I’m writing as tightly as I can, keeping heavy description to a minimum, summarizing where needed, fleshing out action and dialogue where appropriate. Yet there are certain scenes, conversations, and little bits that add color that are impossible to leave out, at least at this point. This is only the first draft, and I have every intention of murdering the darlings that have no business existing in my work.

That’s the damndest thing about worldbuilding. In order to give it life, you need to throw in some details to round it out. Especially when you’re recreating Earthling society in another galaxy and throwing in some extraterrestrial elements.

This is going to be a hassle to edit, and I’m almost dreading it. Yet at the same time, I love writing each word, even as the counter in Word climbs higher and higher towards the mighty and intimidating 100,000 mark. Cutting out extraneous material… well, first I have to determine which bits are extraneous… is going to be a nightmare.

But what if it turns out that I can’t edit much out? How do I explain that to an agent or editor? Would they be willing to let me pull a Gabaldon and publish a 100k+ behemoth?

Or… maybe I should worry about this when it comes time to edit the third draft.