Word count whoopsie

Whoops. So in editing Flora last week, I realized there were more knots left untied than I'd thought. Right before starting, I'd debated whether or not to change the word count from 60K to 70K, but had figured (at 58,500 before starting the editing process) that by the time I filled in the little hole near the end, I'd be right at 60K words.

Yeah. Not so much. I'm now scarily close to the 70,000 mark. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I'm going to have to try and tighten (in a major way) in order to fill in that hole, and still keep it at 70K. And I'm only on page 225 of over three hundred. *gasp* I sure hope that my plan works.

Maybe it would be better to change my count to 75K. Or 80. Heck, I may as well turn it into a series and write all three of them in one book. ;) I'm just kidding. Kind of. But being as this is YA, I'm trying my hardest not to make it too long.

In other news, I read Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver yesterday. Yep. The whole book, in one day. (Sometime in the near future I'm going to attempt reading leisurely. I'm sure I would probably get more out of the book. But it's so hard, I want to know the ending, so I read as fast as I can so I don't have to wait!) Now, technically I'd read about five pages already, but I figure that's close enough to the beginning to where I could count it as reading from the beginning. And... wow. I can honestly say the feeling I was left with wasn't the feeling I thought I would have at all. Not going to say anything else, because I don't want to spoil it for anyone. ;) Now I'm trying to figure out which book to read next, The Sky is Everywhere or Linger. Guess it will depend on my mood.

The reason for me bringing up Before I Fall is because it has quite a long word count, and I am *so* going to do some research and find out how long it took her to write such a lengthy MS.

Which brings me to today's question: How about you, writers? Have you ever been surprised at your lengthy word count? If so, was it hard to decide what to cut? Or are you the opposite, struggling to come up with enough words?


3 comments:

Lydia Sharp said...

BEFORE I FALL is uber-long, but I read it in less than two days. That was definitely a "wee morning hour" book. Couldn't put it down.

As for giving my stuff the chop, it depends. Some of it I can just tell it needs to go, as early as a second draft pass. Other stuff I hang onto for a while and then reluctantly snip. Those are the one I usually save in my snippets folder... just in case.

Nicole said...

so lengthy I've gone from a single title novel to a trilogy...*hee* Some things can't be cut!!

http://damselinadirtydress.blogspot.com

Kathi Oram Peterson said...

I know what you mean about word count. First I don't have enough, than I have too many. But if my editor is okay with it, so am I.