Meredith Mansfield, Author

It’s beginning to look like my first draft of MAGE STORM will be on the short side.  I’m probably about two-thirds done and less than 30000 words.  That makes the projected first draft about 45000 words.  A young adult novel should be between 50000 and 75000 words.

That’s fine.  I prefer the first draft to be short rather than long.  I’d much rather have the task of adding words than cutting them.

Especially when the first draft, like this one, is being written at almost NaNo speed,  I know there will be places where I need to add description.  I know that there are places where I put in something like “And then this happened”, where I will need to go back and create a scene to SHOW that happening.  I also know that I need to spend more time developing the friendships.  There will also be places where I want to get deeper into the main character’s point of view.  All of those things tend to add to the word count. 

So, short is good.  It gives me room in the second draft to add the things I didn’t have time for in a speedy first draft.  But, when the story is rolling out like this, I just fasten my seat belt and ride the roller coaster.  They don’t all come this easy.  You just have to enjoy the ones that do.