My major charactes are all causasian. That cause me consider about those comfortable spots and how to leave them.

If a writer doesn't expand he shrinks.

The novel above has a young black man as a protagonist. It will be interesting to see how I approach this challange to myself. It is important to see the world thorugh other people's eyes.

as to how you know your novel will be 80,000 words.

I have set a target of the number of chapters and the number of words per chapter.

I the novel turns out too long, I will work to cut words and, perhaps, subplots, so that the novel comes in on target. If it is too short, I can expand a character arc or add subplots.

I write science fiction myself, and I keep on getting completely stymied by actual plotting. Ideas? If I could sell them for a dime a dozen I'd be a rich woman. I start lots of things, and then, nothing happens. The few things I've completed, I almost immediately knew what the ending was, and so all I had to do was write towards that.

I also need a critique group, and I haven't been able to find one that works for me. The one I'd most like to join probably wouldn't let me in, because it's all s-f professionals, but boy, could I learn from them!

I'm not the best judge. Lots of fantasy/sci-fi writers there.

http://www.scribophile.com/

Perhaps I should give them a try. I take it you've submitted some stuff there and have gotten useful feedback.

I've tried two different critique groups in the last couple of years, neither of which has worked out for various reasons. I do keep on going to s-f cons, and I actually am fairly well acquainted with several s-f writers, but none who are likely to be in a critique group with me.

Do let us know how your progress is, and if we can read it any time.

how they either get "it's wonderful" or "it's horrible" but nothing useful. It's preferred that submissions for open critique are 3000 words or less, but there's no limit to the number of submissions you make, so long as you earn them. You do that by racking up "karma" points you get from critiquing others' submissions and spending those karma points for your own submission.

Most of my crits have been line edits. I only joined in November and haven't devoted the time to develop a relationship with a like-genre writer so that we can swap books/chapters to allow for storyline/character arc edits. However, that's what I'm learning is the big strength in this site.

I'm Veda Dalsette on that site. Here's a sample of a current thread on the Writing forum.
http://www.scribophile.com/forums/writing/61159/
Not sure if you can see it w/o joining first. They have both free and paid membership.

I decided it was worth the investment, if only for a year.

I decided to combine them. I've pared it down to 127K, but that's way too long. A good friend is reading the book to suggest what could be cut.

I've started my next book, a cozy mystery set in the present. Writing in the present is difficult for me. I like doing mid-20th century, because there's more opportunity for privacy.