Tag Archives: word count

Fun Tidbits

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My novels are really starting to develop a mind of their own, and I thought I would share a few of the things that have come up in the last few days.

  • chloe ends up in rehab/treatment facility because she came dangerously close to attempting suicide
  • kiora goes to a private prep school in D.C., and apparently is more extroverted than I had planned her to be
  • kyle, who is one of kiora’s secret service agents, is married and has a 10 year old daughter
  • blake (kiora’s dad) is apparently the secretary of education
  • mike is in love with chloe
  • george and hermione are headed towards a relationship
  • there are other ways to go to the underworld besides dying
  • there’s a ritual involving the giant prehistoric chicken, and it go either bad or good, depending on the intentions of the person in charge of the ritual

I also added a new link under the resources section: it’s a link to Q10 which is completely awesome.  I don’t use it nearly enough, but every time I do, I’m reminded of how great it is.  It’s pretty similar to notepad, but even cooler.  even with the internet on, it’s impossible for me to get distracted by anything because you can’t minimize the screen.  Or if you can, I haven’t figured out how to do that.  Actually, it’s probably a really good idea if I don’t know that.  I don’t need distractions because I’m distracted enough as it is.  Plus it makes the most awesome sound when you type.

Secret Service: 10,311; I’ve pretty much shown kiora at school or at home.  She lives in D.C., and I’m totally not taking advantage of that.  I must focus on that in the coming weeks.  And I’m not showing a lot of conflict.  Some, but not much.  What makes this more sad is that I have a pretty decent list of possible conflict.

Harry Potter and the Giant Prehistoric Chicken: 10,012;  I’m finally all caught up.  However, I’m still not feeling the story, so I may just randomly change directions, and ignore everything I’ve just written.  If I still find myself bored with it in a week, I’ll reevaluate and take things from there.  I think there are things that aren’t allowing me to have fun with this, which I’ll talk more about tomorrow.

2006 Sequel: 10,021; it’s taken a very interesting turn.  it’s definitely deviating from my plans on this one.  I have a great list of things that would get in the way of her writing, but sadly, I’m not using it.  But I’m taking this newfound idea and running with it. 

Total Wordcount: 30,344, which means I’m all caught up.  let’s hope it stays that way.

Slowly Catching Up

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 Today was a good day writing wise.  In a couple novels, I’ve actually skipped writing whole chapters, which isn’t too unusual for me.  What is unusual is that I’ve skipped over so many chapters this early in the month.  Sometimes there are times when there are scenes (or even whole chapters) that I can’t write for whatever reason.  Sometimes it’s a scene that I know I need to write, but I’m bored with it.  Sometimes there’s a scene I know I need to write, but I’m absolutely clueless as to what the scene is.  I make a note of it- usually along the lines of “insert such and such a thing here.”  I usually don’t go back and write it, but this year, I probably will, because there are quite a few important chapters.  Also on the plus side is the fact that there are things I know I need to write if I’m at crossroads with any of my novels.  

Secret Service: 8500; I didn’t add the thousand words yesterday like I had hoped, but I’m doing pretty well with this one so far, so I’m not too worried if I get a day behind.

Harry Potter and the Giant Prehistoric Chicken: 5473; I managed to get (mostly) caught up, and if I can keep the ideas flowing, then I should be able to catch up with no problem.  Skipping ahead so much is still kind of weird, but in this case, it’s really working out.

2006 Sequel: 9005; I’m hoping to add a thousand words tonight, but other than that, there’s nothing to add.

Total Wordcount: 23020

Too Hot To Get Anything Done!

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Today was not a super big writing day, but I did make some progress with my harry potter fanfic, so it wasn’t a total loss.  I think today I was in the mentality of oh, I’m a day ahead, I don’t have to worry about writing too much.  and combined with having trouble with my harry potter novel, it was really hard getting any writing done.  Plus, the weather’s ridiculously hot right now, and it has the effect of me not wanting to do anything.  But all things considering, I managed to get nearly a day ahead for one of my novels, and started to get caught up with harry potter, like I said earlier. 

Secret Service: 6696; I haven’t worked on this one today, but I’m pretty sure I’ll manage to write around 1000 words today.

Harry Potter: 1670; i’m having the worst trouble starting it off, so I may have to take a different approach, and jump to life at hogwarts, with vague sentences about different stuff that happens over the summer.

2006 sequel: 7868; I’ve managed to get ahead almost a day, although I did get to a point where I wanted to add on but just couldn’t get myself writing, so I used Write Or Die.  It really is a great resource, and while I don’t use it all the time, it’s great to use when I need it.

Total words: 16234

I’m 3770 words off schedule, but I have no doubt that I’ll be able to catch up with the Giant Prehistoric Chicken.  A change in approach may be what jumpstarts it.  I can always write the beginning later in the month.  This is why I love doing multiple novels- no matter what, I always have something to work on, and it’s really helpful and times like this, when I have trouble starting off.

A Good Day For Writing

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Getting ahead yesterday turned out to be a really big help.  Granted, it was just with one of my novels, but it meant that I could focus on trying to get more ahead.  I’m hoping that I can get a day ahead of schedule, which should give me some time tomorrow to focus on the Giant Prehistoric Chicken 

This year I’m finding that I have a couple ideal writing times.  Mornings between 10:30 and 12:30 are working out really well.  The other ideal writing time for me is after 5:30 pm until the early hours of the morning. 

So here’s my word count totals so far:

The Secret Service Novel: 5081; some new characters

Harry Potter and the Giant Prehistoric Chicken: 414; I’ve decided to give this one a break for today, and decided that for now, I would write it out of order.  If I can get to 13336 for the other two, it should give me some time to catch up.

2006 Sequel: 5010; this novel is very quickly becoming a rant, however, I am showing Chloe to work on things that she had always ignored and brushed off before, so it makes sense that she would be talking about her problems more.

Grand Total: 10,505 words

So below is a picture of my handwritten progress sheet.  I pretty much highlight each goal I hit.  It’s also in addition to the spreadsheet I’m doing.

It’s That Time of Year

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Yesterday was a frustrating day writing wise.  I was hoping to get a lot of writing done, which I did, but not as much as I had hoped. 

With 3 novels going simultaneously, the average wordcount is 5001 words a day.  I can’t afford to get behind, and if I do, I’m hoping that I can quickly close in on my word deficit.

My Secret Service Novel- I ended up with 1206 words, so just a few hundred words short of 1667.

Harry Potter and the Giant Prehistoric Chicken- only 414 words, which was a big disappointment and my major source of frustration yesterday.

My 2006 sequel- 1672 words, which I was really happy about.

Given that I’m pretty frustrated with the Hary Potter fanfic, I’ve decided to put that off for a day or two, and try to get ahead with my other two novels.  The words will come, it’s just a matter of finding the right inspiration.

I have an excel spreadsheet with several columns.  The 1st column is the day, the 2nd is where I should be with my wordcount, one column for each of my novels with each days wordcount, a column for my total wordcount, and a final column for how many words I’m behind.  I’m going to update it everyday with my totals.  It’ll definitely help me keep track of where I am and where I need to be. 

Like I said a paragraph or two up, I’m going to try to get ahead with my secret service novel and my 2006 sequel.  The 1st week is a really important week to get ahead with my wordcount.  For one thing, even though I have plenty of writing time, I can’t guarantee that everything will be perfect this month.  Having extra words will help make up for days I can’t write, or for the days when I don’t write/when I have writers block.  And if I can get ahead and stay ahead, perhaps I’ll even finish early this year (for at least one anyway), which should open up some time thanksgiving weekend if/when I need it.

Including today’s totals (which aren’t up to date yet), my word count is: 5063.