So I have a dilemma. For my current WIP, I was aiming for around 120k. It’ll be split into four parts. So, that’s about 30k per part.

I realized the other day that 45k in, I’m still not done with the first part. Almost, but not quite.

I know why I went off like this (though it’d be too long to explain here, maybe some other time) but the question is: what do I do now that I’ve noticed the issue?

If I keep going with my current outline, I’ll end up with something between 180 to 200k words (that’s 600-700 pages if I use the same formatting as my previous book).

Another option would be to leave Part 1 as is but adjust the rest of the book. If I do that, however, I’d end up with shorter followup parts, which kind of rattles me.

I’ll need to make adjustments to my outline either way, because I had 10 scenes to write in Part 1 that I decided to skip. So that would have blown my word count even further. Removing those completely would create plot issues, however, so I’ll have to rework things…

Ugh.

It’s a mess.

I’m tempted to just keep going but I’m concerned how much more this beast will grow.

Any thoughts, anyone?

By the way, I know one option would be to split the book into two, but I don’t love the idea for a whole bunch of reasons.

Ah, dilemma, dilemma…