When I’m working
on a second draft
of a story,
I have a goal
– to add 500 words per chapter.
This goal might sound silly.
A story should be as long
as it needs to be.
Maybe the chapter
doesn’t need
500 more words.
Maybe another writer’s chapter
doesn’t need this.
MY chapter does.
I write lean
(this is an outcome
of having been a journalist
early
in my life).
I write TOO lean
for most readers.
So I force myself
to write fluffier
by setting myself
a goal
of writing 500 words more
per chapter
than I originally wrote.
Goals are often personal.
If your goals
work for YOU,
ignore other people’s responses
to it.