The file 'fixer' on my hard drive currently is up to 26272 words (after writing out the dog, it was a bit longer before that).
Compare to some of Raymond Chandler's classics:
The Big Sleep -- 66000 words
Farewell, My Lovely -- 80000 words
The High Window -- 70000 words
Of course, publishers nowdays want big bricks of books, from 80K to 120K words. Raymond Chandler would have had trouble selling his novels to a publisher today. But then, I don't think a novel which is deliberately written in blog-sized chunks (one chapter = two blog postings) works in today's publishing environment anyhow, so I don't know how long the story is going to be, but I really don't care either. I do know that with the threads I've introduced in the first 26,000 words, untangling them all is going to take quite a few more words.
As for where I'm going: what, you think I know? Geez. I know what the last chapter looks like. I know who one of the killers of the three dead people is (you haven't met the other two bodies yet, or, rather, you've met one of the bodies, but he isn't a body yet). I know you're going to be surprised by what comes out in the last chapter, because I've been deliberately misforcasting it in a number of places (okay, so sue me :). But what happens to get me to that last chapter? Beats me. Kathy's just going to have to rattle the trees some more and see what falls out...
- Badtux the Authorial Penguin
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