Esmeralda Stone

I did it. I folded, and I looked, and I’m (a little) horrified. I’m of course talking about my word count for Lasting Remains. We traveled in August, and I compiled what I’d written of Lasting Remains into a Word doc and emailed it to myself. You know, just in case there was some weird disaster while we were gone where my computer and external hard drive blew up or got taken by aliens. Because of the August compilation, I knew this book was already at a higher word count than Loving Remains. How much higher? About fifteen thousand words higher.

Loving Remains published at right around eighty-five thousand words. Pretty standard for a contemporary romance, and my books probably fit more in the contemporary romance mystery genre (if there is such a thing), so ninety to a hundred thousand even seemed reasonable. When I compiled Lasting Remains in August, I was already at ninety-nine thousand words. I lied to myself and said I must have included some of my note files because I wasn’t even halfway through the rewrite at that point. And how the hell could I already have that many words? There’s only one more chapter in this book, for goodness sakes!

I refused to check again, not wanting to impact the story. Well, I caved at the end of last week and looked, because I’m finishing up the last couple of chapters. I was just shy of one hundred and thirty-eight thousand words. I’m not going to lie; I did one of those nervous giggles when I saw it. And by the way, I double-checked and there were no note files.

So, what have I been doing to combat this slightly insane word count? Writing more words, of course. Because the rewrite needs to be completed. After that, I’ll start the more detailed editing before handing it off to my husband and a couple of other wonderful people who willingly slog through the mistakes that will be there.

I have no intention of cutting for the sake of getting the word count down. I’ll cut if something’s unnecessary for the story, but otherwise it gets to stay. Because, what’s the correct word count when writing? The one that tells the story the way you want it told.