When I set the target lengths for a book, I usually put 80,000 words. It’s a purely arbitrary figure and has no specific significance. But it does give me a target to aim for. Likewise I usually decide on a deadline date,
Scrivener, my writing program, is then quite happy to do a simple calculation and inform me of the number of words per day I need to write to achieve that target. The daily target therefore changes as the writing progresses.
The deadline for Dark Roads is 30th June 2020, and when I started I need to put down something around 400 words a day. I’ve currently done 76k and need only do 70 words a day from here on in. This helps with targets and staying active in the production.
But, it doesn’t actually indicate when the story is fnished. At 76k, I’m thinking there’s quite a long way to go yet, certeinly more than the nominal four thousand more words. There’s at least one chapter, close to the beginning that I haven’t even started on and a character that I need to bring back into the storyline, plus the ending is still some way off. So the question then is, how many words do I need? And how long is too long?