When I had originally written this short story, planning to submit it to magazines, I learned that my maximum word count was 20,000. That first draft was in the 12K range, and was (now that it’s been beta-read and critiqued) understandably unpublishable.
But as I’ve progressed, I’ve mentioned that the rewrite keeps exceeding my expected benchmarks. I had planned on only 16K for this second edition, and…
There’s… four or five more sections, basically chapters, left to the story, and it doesn’t look like I can pare it down through edits. It’ll go through a few rounds when it’s finished, to be sure, but it looks like I’ll have a short novel on my hands.
Maybe it can go the Louis L’Amour route and be a pocket-novel for sci-fi nerds who want a quick read for an afternoon.
Stay safe out there, folks! I’ll keep whittling away at this rewrite.
-JB Swift
Swift's Corner 