88.5k

Today I took the train in and added another five hundred words to "Confessions" after breaking the 88k mark on the way home last night. I really want to make it to 90,000 words by the end of the weekend, but I'll settle for 89k and change. I've really allowed this middle act of the novel to mushroom into what it wanted to be, not a pointless diversion as it felt like before the Big Data Loss but the heart and soul of the story itself, where the protagonist is offered a glimpse of the larger world that's out there beyond his doorstep. What he does with that experience upon returning home will make up the third act, which I'm suspecting will come out at a somewhat more fast and furious pace than the previous two. At this point I'm going to hazard that the book will end up between 120,000 and 150,000 words, meaning I should be finished with the first draft before the year is out - an inspiring thought!