S. Worthen | Weblog

How do you know what size a project should be? Article, short story, poem, book, whatever. Does the idea occupy a clear quantity of words or binding? Do you like writing certain lengths, so everything fits that? Do you commit to lengths, personally or in contract, and add or edit out whatever additional material is needed to fit them?

I'm interested in the question generically, but personally, this is about the Stew Project again. When I proposed the paper, I thought it might be paper-length. I've done the paper, and now I think it might be book length, but I'm not certain I'll know that until I've written it and found out. This may well be a product of my inexperience in writing book-length projects, however, or may reflect how much more work I could yet do on this.