Reflecting for SDI

After a mammoth amount of writing on Saturday, I am two and a half chapters into part 3 of the Madman Novel. Which for the record is about 4,500 words at this stage. This brings the total word count to roughly 42,000. This is not really all that much, considering the target length will be more than double that.

I've been both bemoaned for, and told to, have a word count target. Strangely, the professionals I've consulted have all given me a different target to aim for, while the laymen tend to say do whatever works artistically.

I say, why not do both? I know that parts 1 and 2 are too thin at the present because I've been writing this for the last 4 years and I know how much information I need for part 3 to work.
When i set out writing, I was going to structure Madman as 9 part story and part 1 at that stage was around 10,000 words, so I had a full length novel right there.

I then began part 2, which was racing toward 20,000 words and made me feel like I should do Madman as a 3 part novel, with 2 sequels. As a went on in part 2 I realized part one was a horribly mediocre effort so I went back and filled in the blank spaces. Both parts then grew and grew until I felt part 1 was solid.
Then the dreaded writers block struck and I was left with a solid part 1 and a part 2 that was too thin by comparison.
I found myself caught in my thoughts about the minor characters' back stories, while the Madman rotted in his cell. The story stopped being Madman and became Madman and Acquaintances.
So, after having Madman dissed by my first prospective agent, I thought "Fuck it. Everything she hated about what I wrote, is exactly what I was aiming for." So I realized I was on both the right and wrong track at the same time.
Her complaints were that the story was too confusing for her senile head to follow, and lacked substance beyond violence. Considering that I had set out to hide the substance within the violence, and that the story is meant to be confusing at first, I wasn't too upset.
But confusing books don't sell. So that meant that if I wanted to keep my integrity and make a work of fiction that people liked I needed a bigger, fatter, grittier back story for the entire WORLD that Madman is set in.

Now, my SDI project is developing and "selling" that world. This involves creating the back stories, fleshing out the philosophy, the science and the history that are key to the story, and placing all of this in the Madman related media.

And this ties into my point about word count. I need roughly 90-120 thousand words to have a complete story. I know this, because I need to disperse all of the fictional lore throughout the novel. I'm doing this by first, writing part 3, then going back so everything fits together. Then I'm going to go over the entire novel many times, adding and subtracting until it is finished. I need the ending, before I can flesh out the middle.

As for the comics. They are Cannon and they are the back stories I cannot or will not include in the Novel. The comics are designed to lay a ground work for the book, and are also there to make up for compromises in style that I had to make in the book.