I recently hit the half-way point in the manuscript for my work in progress, a sci-fi novel about deep space travel. Half-way at least in terms of expected word count. I’m not yet to the second half of the story. So this could mean a longer final word count, or a good bit of editing — if I want to stick to my original target. For reference, Wool, a novel by Hugh Howey that I recently read, clocks in at 151k words. But at the pace I’m currently going, I might get to around 180k, on par with Dune.
What I’m finding is that character interactions and development is taking more space than I anticipated. A lot of this comes through dialogue, which reads faster and often comes more quickly in the writing phase. But overall there’s a good bit more than I thought I would include. This is a good thing, though, because it means my characters have a lot to say. It also means they are leading the way more than my plot outline.