Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

So, I've been working on The Thief Book a lot lately. I'd hoped to have this draft done by the end of April, but outside forces changed things up. But, I made good progress, and by May 1st, I only had five scenes yet to go. No problem, right?

Well, it wouldn't have been a problem if I'd just been able to write those five scenes. The problem? Things just kept getting worse. Not for me. For my characters, I mean. I'm fine. But, in the process of rewriting the book, I'd upped some of the stakes along the way, which meant I had about three more problem strands for my characters that need to be resolved and otherwise dealt with. So, I can't just wrap things up super fast like I'd hoped.

Starting point: 5 scenes to go.
5000+words later: 3.5 scenes to go.
The currently very tired part of me wants to introduce my head to my desk repeatedly.

That's the other thing. My first typed copy of this book weighed in at 70k. Since I'd been imagining this book as more of a 60k story, I was quite surprised. (Well, it turns out I was a bit of an epic failure at estimating the length of my handwritten draft.) But, I'd assumed that during the rewriting of the end, I'd pare down 7-10k.

Guess what else I fail at. Making this thing shorter. It's already at 70.5k again, and I still need to write in 3.5 scenes. Minimum. (Head meet desk. Desk meet head. You two are going to be great friends. +_+) (Sorry about my humor. It's late and I didn't sleep too much last night.)

I guess this is the part when I'm happy I get more than two drafts. So, when I finish this draft up, I get to look forward to yet another round of slash and burn edits. **half-hearted fake cheer**

How is everyone else's writing going? Having fun with your WIPs?