My novel is taking shape. I just recently passed the 70,000 word milestone. Alas, I'm still fleshing out some major events in the second act, and there's also still work to do on the first act! For a while now, I've been convinced that this project is going to produce a fairly large manuscript.

During critique yesterday, a few of my compatriots suggested that I consider making the story-line I've written so far into the novel, and that I pursue the story arcs that were supposed to wait for the third act, later. (For example, put them into a sequel.) This is a little bit of a bummer. In many ways, the first portion of the book was created as a life support system for the themes I wanted to hit in the second portion. But, the general consensus is that what I have is meaty enough on its own.

So, I've been wrestling with the idea. We'll see. Focusing on the material I've already written could make for a tighter novel... but it also changes the scope (and, likely, the target market as well). Hmmm.