Stephen King calls that The Formula in his excellent book titled On Writing. The first draft of my first attempt at long form writing is 43,838 words, so if I do what Mr. King says, I’ll have a novella (prose! fiction!) starring the character I get asked about the most often at comics conventions.
Whether it will remain at 39,454.2 words after additional and inevitable rewrites is a mystery to me. But for now, I’m happy that I got this far, and wonder what it will look like to me after it stews in its own juices for six weeks or so…
