Nagging Fears

Thank the gods!

I'm sitting here at 30k and thinking 'but the climaxy bit that leads to the BIG climaxy bit is just about to start! What in tarnation I'm going to write for the other 10k? How will this ever make a full length book?'

Yes I was having a turn. At least I'm not alone

I often do, up until the 30-35k mark then I always, always, always realise, "Actually...this is gonna go way over 50k."

I think until you write various scenes, confrontations and conversations, you think you're not going to make it, but the storylines which take you over the 50k mark often come from tiny little details you fling in without thinking. Later on in the book, they develop and carry you over the finish line.

Not me. I already have a list of scenes that I am going to fold into the already written part after hitting 50K.

Maybe if you take a day to read your work you will find big areas that need to go in, and write them.

Yeah, I was having some mini-panic attacks about coming up with enough plot to get up to 90K... But what the heck, I just turned the characters loose, and now they've got me past the 60K mark...

I admit that I have felt I may not have enough story to make it to 50K. I am a little more than halfway done and know that I could finish this in 15K. Perhaps it is time for my MC to start misbehaving.

I plotted 60 beats of 848 words. Based on the beats I've written, and using 848 as a baseline for the ones I haven't yet, I'll fall 1900 words short.

I'm hoping later beats turn out longer than I expected, or I'm going to be in trouble.

I have enough story still to write. I'm quite sure I can complete the 50K and to finish the story I think it could go over considerably; but I don't like some of it very much. That's really worrying me today. Especially after reading (somewhere) something along the lines of week 3 being when your characters should take off and things all come together. It's all still very chunky.

I think I may have solved it - murdered one of my MC's. Shame, he was a sweet lad.

My story was simple; woman married to boring husband, has hot lover, decides to bump off husband to be with lover. Once she came up with the murder plan, I decided to throw a few difficulties in, starting with a brother landing on her doorstep to stay for an unknown time, some broken toes, a husband who suddenly wants them to start a family... then every time she thought things were going her way again, I dropped her in it from a great height. I'd already written the end, but I had a whole lot of fun getting from A to B with the odd red herring along the way too. I kept thinking about the MC being stuck in a tree and I hadn't thrown enough rocks. (Credit to the Uncle Jim thread! ) Now I'm expanding it, some of the sub-plots are weaving in nicely and it's turning into a much bigger story. It's also been a lot of fun!
Good luck, just keep writing and it will take over!