 I just finished the second, er, third draft of Blue Knife. It's complicated. Basically, Blue Knife is a contemporary horror/fantasy story set in a sleepy New England town.
It also happens to be, at this moment, my longest work. I once told myself I'd never have a story this long, as I tend to prefer tighter stories. However, a problem with the first two iterations (a screenplay and the first novel draft) was that I wasn't letting the story breathe. And weirdly enough, this version feels more focused and captures the atmosphere I wanted when I first conceived of the idea, though the story at first leaned more toward fantasy than horror. I don't plan on the novel being this length once I start revising. Granted, a story should be as long as it needs to be, and I don't know what certain additions will do to the final count. That being said, most of my novels tend to undergo some major cutting during the revisions and final proofreading. Dove Keeper went from 84K to 82K. Birds in a Cage went from 94K to 88K. Rabbit Heart lost about 3,000 words, if I recall correctly. I can only hope the final version of Blue Knife, a story I've struggled with to finally have a version I feel comfortable with, tells the story the best it can. I know the 100K milestone isn't exactly huge for people who have written much lengthier manuscripts, but as someone whose novels tend to range from 55K to ~90K, it is a pretty big deal, though I do want to caution that word count isn't everything when determining the vitality of a project. Anyway, just wanted to share this update!
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