When I planned my word count for this book, I went to the higher end of book length for the genre I was writing in – 90k words. It’s not a ‘must be’ length. It’s a length that allowed me space to be short, if I needed it.
My original maths told me that with a scene length from draft 1 averaging about 1200 words I needed around about 75 scenes to hit 90k. So, I planned around about 75 scenes (which I was only able to do because it was a revision – if I had planned that much on a new story, I might have killed it long before it stated)
Right now I am just shy of 22k words in, split over 25 Scenes. Some scenes were added, some changed, and some removed, but I’m still expected around 75 scenes, maybe slightly more.
So I have redone the maths to make sure I am still on target and found my average scene length is a lot shorter than the first draft. A lot.
At this point the story is likely to hit about 66k words total which is a huge difference to the original number.
I could do a few things to change the story, but I do quite like the current plots and threads and characters as they are.
Average novel lengths for this kind of Genre are between 60k and 90k, so my estimate is still above the minimum that someone would likely accept as a submission.
Since the 90k was a number I set, not one enforced, I am going to lower the word count goal and change my target and deadline I am working towards.
My new target is 66K
My new deadline is the 31st January.
Even with the new date and target I am ahead of schedule so I hope to be finished sooner. But, just in case life gets in the way, there is a buffer.