Well, in case you haven’t noticed, I’ve updated the current word count: 154,825.
That’s a lot. It’s longer than Pride and Prejudice and almost as long as Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
The trouble is, I’ve also finished the outline for the second half of the book, and I would guess I need another 75,000 to 100,000 to finish the story, including the “exciting conclusion.” That puts the book at around a quarter of a million words. For a first time writer, that’s idiotic. I won’t even try to enable myself. It’s just too long, period.
Points of reference, courtesy of Amazon text stats:
- Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson: 208,253
- Storm Front by Jim Butcher: 87,530
- Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey: 276,706 (this one makes me feel better because I think my perspective audience is similar, if less randy)
- Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson: 382,948 (another with a vaguely comparable audience)
These don’t help too much. All of these books are wildly successful, and, by and large, far better written than my book will be.
Still, I’m not giving up. I’m hoping to finish a first draft by the end of this summer. *knock on wood*
Of course, it’ll take me another year to cut the excess and make the writing pretty. But progress is progress, after all.
Kristin McFarland 
You could pull a George R.R. Martin, cut the book in half, then spend the next 8 years on the second half 🙂
I’ve been trying to tell her that! I figure knock a net 1/4 of the book off in editing, do a little repacing so the first half is faster paced ( which she’s already agreed must be done ), then split the book into two parts. Plus then twice the money 😉
She doesn’t listen to me though.