Elevated (and Expanded!)

When I started Elevated, it was meant to be a novella and my goal was to fit it into twelve chapters of 10-12 pages each.

I just started chapter nine of the second draft and the story keeps getting bigger. I'm still following the outline I set out with, but little details have a way of becoming significant story points and I am apparently really bad at judging the difference between a scene and a chapter.

At the current rate of expansion, Elevated will be sixteen-chapter novel with the average chapter running to 15-16 pages. But I already expect that the second derivative (acceleration of expansion) is going to be more significant to the final size of the story than the first (current rate of expansion.) There are already little things in the outline that I know are actually much bigger. The elevation ceremony and wedding each get one sentence. I suspect they'll actually take a full chapter or two.

This could end up being 300+ pages when it's done. On the plus side, I've been writing it almost non-stop since Friday, so the delivery schedule shouldn't change.