Chapter 53 is done
I’ve finished chapter 53 of my novel. With that, I now have 125,000 words. Only twelve chapters and 25,000 words left to go.
And FYI, Dad, Zeno’s and related paradoxes are inapplicable to this situation, because there are not an infinite number of words to be traversed between this point and the end.
So are you being paid by the word or did you just decide that 150K is what it would take to tell the story?
I pose the question based on my own personal experience. I recently completed a novel which I expected to take between 60 and 80K and but ended up just over 100K.
I’m guessing your chapters are rather short?
My chapters average about 2000 words. Long when compared to books with shorter chapters, but short when compared to books with longer chapters. For some reason, 2000 words seems to be my natural chapter length.
I was originally aiming for around 100K. During the writing of the first ten or so chapters, that goal shifted to around 120K. When I had about 90K done, I realized I would probably need around 140K. Then I realized I needed to flesh out one part of the plot, which added four chapters to my outline.
Fortunately, the plot from this point until the end of the novel is very clear to me, so I should be able to proceed without further complication.
If I average 2000 words per chapter from now through the end of my outline, I’ll finish at around 149K. A short epilogue should put me very close to 150K.