Word Count Wars.

I’m in somewhat of an odd position.

Usually in a writer’s ongoing war with word count, you’re slashing and burning your way to reducing it down in the editing process. You’re working to tighten up the structure and make sure you’re conveying your message with an economy of words and maximum of impact. Instead of this usual modus operendi, I’m actually adding word count and it’s an odd sensation.

I’m in the process of reworking a piece of fiction that I’d written that had topped out at just over 10,000 words and in the process of that rework, a friend, and one of the other two sides of what we jokingly call the Contextual Poly-editorial Triangle that her, myself and another friend have formed, gave me the good advice of seeing if I could work the word count to over 15k for it to qualify under the novella category for submission to publish.

It’s sound advice, the commission rate on novellas is higher and the marketing push done by the publisher is more comprehensive, including the work receiving its own cover artwork. Under this word count it would only qualify it as short fiction and my best bet if I can’t reach that word count is to submit it to an anthology, where the maximum word count is 15k, but they prefer less.

I’m treading a fine line  of  if I’m  adding value to the story with new words, but I worry about going over the edge into adding word count for the sake of hitting a target. If I feel that is becoming the case, I’m certain I’m strong enough and have enough faith in my story to halt the adding of words and let the lower word count speak for itself.

Current word count: 13, 506/15,000