Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Word Count Wednesday

You know, I was thinking I should have counted all the words I edited this week.  Because that would be a lot!  Maybe I'll make up a number.  I edited at least four billion words this week and am coming to the end of my editing and soon this book will be gone to press.  Woohoooo!

All right I didn't edit four billion words but it felt that way.  And hopefully today, I will be editing the last chapter.  The. Last. Chapter.  I can hardly believe it.  When I hit those choice words---The End---then it will be party time bay-bee!  If I invite you to my end-of-editing party, will you come?

How did you do this week?

8 comments:

Jennie Bennett said...

Party on! I'd totally come :)

Melanie Goldmund said...

I wrote 959 words this week, but then I stopped and can't seem to get back into the story. Funny -- I can imagine that it can be a good story, but I can't seem to do the work in order to get there. A sign that something's wrong, or am I just lazy?

I would totally come to your end-of-editing party, especially if there were Double-Stuff Oreos there. :-)

Julie Coulter Bellon said...

Okay, I've got you two down for my party guest list.

As for whether something's wrong or you're just lazy, I seriously had that happen to me once, I envisioned everything about it, but then I sat on it for a bit and couldn't get back into the story until I sat down and wrote a loose outline for it in a notebook. Then, when I sat at the computer, I went along with my handwritten notes and voila! The story was unclogged and on the page. Maybe something like that would help. :)

Jon Spell said...

I'll bring the Oreos (and some Goldens for me)

I wrote a couple of pages last night and ... I came to a choice: keep writing or get some sleep. I chose sleep, but it was hard. I should have written a little bit more, because then I hard time leaving it behind, even snuggled in bed.

Also, I hate it when I know about a particular device, but can't remember what to call it. My Googles last night weren't coming up with the answer, either. Pook!

It's a little passwordy device that uses a time-based algorithm to produce a password that is basically good for that minute. You click a button and it produces the time-sensitive password and off you go. You never have a password to remember, but you have to have the little device.

(Julie: I don't think it's an encryption key. Well, I guess it could be. I don't know!)

But, I do know who to ask. =)

Debra Erfert said...

I had some great advice on my mainstream romance/suspense I'm readying to query. I was told to start the story at an earlier place--which was odd considering I alway see critiquers say cut the first chapter and begin later in the story where it may be more exciting. Instead I started my story where it was more exciting and recounted why my character did her skydiving during dialogue with other characters including a new love interest. I was told that if I actually had my MC go through the scene of finding her boyfriend with the other woman and showing the heartbreak she went through leading to her decisions would make her more sympathetic.

So...I wrote a whole new chapter this week. I placed it as the first chapter in Bucket List of Hope, and used the first half of the original first chapter as a prologue (Ms. Shreditor critiqued it a little while ago). After going through the whole manuscript again and blending the additional information into the story, I wrote an additional 3,500 words.

I'll make a lemon meringue pie. Next to chocolate I love lemon the best.

Janice Sperry said...

Party! I'll bring milk to go with the Oreos.

I've been working on a little thing here and a little thing there. I think a word count would just be depressing.

Jon - I know exactly what you're talking about. I used to have one. It had a little digital screen that changed the password every thirty seconds or so. I had to wait until right when the password changed to log into the system because it was really slow and sometimes the password would expire before it went through. I think it was called a key, but it was a long time ago so I don't remember for sure.

Melanie Goldmund said...

Julie, I do have an outline, but perhaps it's too loose and I need some more details? Thanks for the tip, though, and I'll keep trying.

rebecca h jamison said...

I took a break from editing to start my new project yesterday and today. I wrote 1600 words, all very rough.

I'd love to come to your party. It depends when it is.

As far as getting stuck goes, it helps me to write for a while in a different place in the story. Sometimes it helps to go back and revise. And I'm no help with the password thingy.