The information in this post first appeared on my website a couple of weeks ago.
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I've now completed chapter 27, bringing the book’s total word count to 122,500—just a few hundred words shy of A Tortured Soul, which remains the longest of the first three books in the series, and my longest book to date.
From a timeline perspective, we’re nearing the end of this part of Paul’s story. There’s about a month left in-universe, and I estimate that I still need to write eight significant events until we reach a natural break-point in the narrative where I end Book 4 and begin Book 5.
This means we’re probably looking at another 8 to 10 chapters. With the current average chapter length being about 4,500 words, that’s roughly 30,000 to 50,000 more words to go.
I expect the final word count of the first draft will fall somewhere between 150,000 and 170,000 words—significantly more than I initially anticipated when I began this journey.
So, how long will it take to finish? At this point, it’s anyone’s guess. I completed Chapter 25 on December 10. I completed two more chapters by the end of the first week of January, so if I keep up that pace, we’re looking at about two weeks per chapter. That would put the first draft’s completion around May—though I’m not making any promises or setting firm deadlines.
My hope is to finish the first draft before then, but once that’s done, I plan to set it aside for about a month before returning to revise and edit.
I would very tentatively and optimistically suggest a summer release.