I did a rough estimate on my word count to date for The Enemy Within and it’s about 50,000 words or half my required minimum.
This makes me feel much better about the pace at which I’m going. After all, I haven’t even finished synopsizing the movies and TV shows yet, so there’s lots more to come, plus some insightful (let us hope) analysis.
That being said, it’s a long way from a polished 50,000 words. I still have questions about how I’m going to divide up the material—for example, should Arlington Road (Jeff Bridges vs. a conspiracy of far-right terrorists) be synopsized in a post-Cold War chapter or in a chapter on homegrown conspiracies?—and the 50,000 words needs lots of rewriting before I’ll be satisfied. But I think I’m on a good track.
I’ve also hit 30,000 words on Brain From Outer Space though that’s having to slow way down, between the Big Pulp stories and work on Enemy Within.
