Math

I'm borrowing trouble here, so I'm not too stressed about this. But I just did some projections. As I continue rewriting The Devil's Wall in dual-POV, I'm adding content along the way. And adding length.

Draft 5 was about 72,000 words. If things keep going according to my current plan, I'll finish draft 6 at 39 chapters, and roughly 97,500 words (I'm averaging 2,500 words per chapter). That is far too long for a YA debut novel, which should clock in securely in the 70,000-80,000 range.

As I'm writing historical fiction, I've got a little bit of wiggle room to go over. Historical fiction tends to be longer, so there's more time to establish the setting (the same is true of fantasy). Also, I tend to cut significantly in editing -- draft 4 was about 83,000 words. And finally, Act III, the concluding sequence of my novel, separates Evgenia and Anna, and there frankly isn't much for Anna to do until the climax. Which means I'll have to shorten it anyway (my beta readers who read the extensive torture sequences in Act III will be happy to hear that).

All in all, I guess I'll be happier if draft 6 does clock in long. I'd rather have more to work with and cut back. In my other novel "Diagnosis" I'm facing the opposite problem -- draft 1 totaled 47,000 words, and I'm kind of dreading filling the rest of it out.If you'd like to see typical word counts for novels by genre, check out this handy guide (scroll down a bit for the genre list).

ETA:  It's 7/2 and I just finished the rewrite. Clocked in at 96,500 words!!! My initial estimate was right on point....This is a good thing. More to cut. This is a good thing....