The chronicles word counter!

[HareBrain]

Doh! I calculated it as 7,600 words (using a calculator!!!), just shows how brain-fried I am at the moment. In fact i did write about 3,000 more, but threw them out when I realised it was going nowhere I wanted it to go (I don't consider wholesale chucking out a "rewrite", more a "dewrite" ).

 

[crystal haven]

Doh! I calculated it as 7,600 words (using a calculator!!!), just shows how brain-fried I am at the moment. In fact i did write about 3,000 more, but threw them out when I realised it was going nowhere I wanted it to go (I don't consider wholesale chucking out a "rewrite", more a "dewrite" ).

Well done with your writing. Keep going.

 

[chopper]

Malessar's Curse
Grand epic of tragedian scale
43000 words and counting

back on the trail after diverting through several short stories.

47000 and rising.....

just had the first fight scene - ripped thriugh 2000 words in an afternoon!

 

[HareBrain]

Novel: The Goddess Project (first in as-yet-nameless series)
Genre: non-medieval fantasy
Wordcount: 20,700
Aim: 120,000 by April 6th

Now 33,600, against a target of 40,700. Oops.

Trouble is, I'm having to actually write it myself. Where are my time-displaced monkey pages, dammit?

 

[mygoditsraining]

Story: Kisokuen'en no kenkaku (The Short of Breath Swordsman)
Genre: guilty pleasure - the result of watching too many chanbara.
Wordcount: 1500
Aim: 8-9 k if it doesn't turn out too badly I may serialise it as a set of wandering sword tales for my own amusement.

 

[HareBrain]

Novel: The Goddess Project (first in as-yet-nameless series)
Genre: non-medieval fantasy
Wordcount: 20,700
Aim: 120,000 by April 6th

With seven weeks now left, I'm at 35,200 against a target of 50,000, and only about 1,600 up on last week's. Hmm. Unfortunately my last count included quite a lot of stuff I had to take out as being way too wrong for the plot, and which I had to replace to be sure of having a reasonable foundation for what comes next. The weekly count should be higher now I'm out of this sticky section, but we'll see.

 

[HareBrain]

My weekly update: now at 40,200.

 

[Michael01]

1. While I may have a few complete drafts, I'm considering everything unfinished. As far as complete drafts other than novels:

Short story: Hex Moon 5850 words
Short story: The Dawn 3337 words
Short story: A Scout's Heart 5122 words
Short story: Called to His Work 3598 words

2. Unfinished documents:

Novel: Untitled for now (tentatively "Heaven's Gate")
genre: Future fantasy
word count: 4647
status: On hold. Actually, I have an 80,000 word manuscript, but it's in serious need of a makeover, so I'm considering it an extremely detailed outline.

Novel: Mystic Moon
genre: Dark urban fantasy
word count: 51,613
status: On hold. Sequel to Estranged Earth.

Novel: Tiger Claw
genre: Dark (prehistoric?) fantasy
word count: 8580
status: On hold.

Novel: Estranged Earth
genre: Dark urban fantasy
word count: 96,566
status: Active, but the word count is fluctuating since I'm doing a major rewrite. I'll post weekly updates whether the count rises or falls.

 

[Boneman]

Harebrain, that's looking good......Did you notice we all stayed off the wordcount thread just so you'd follow the previous week's? I think you could include what you took out as it was actually written......

Blimey, Michael, that is serious word counting! Good on you for all those projects, do you have 4 brains to go with them? I find I can daydream about other projects and write 'whatif' synopses, and the occasional short story as weekly exercises, but have to stay with one book until the bitter end.....

I'm going seriously backwards now: I didn't like where my book ended, so now the count is 140,102 (as against 168,822). But on the bright side, I now have 34,085 words of the second part of the trilogy!! This contradicts what I've said to Michael, but it's just one story, told in three books, honest.....

 

[HareBrain]

I'm going seriously backwards now: I didn't like where my book ended, so now the count is 140,102 (as against 168,822).

No, that's going forwards - you should aim to cut at least 10% of the first draft. (Actually, what I heard was cut 10%, then 10% of what's left, and again, tightening all the time. If you end up with just nine words you've gone too far.)

 

[Michael01]

And I didn't mention my novellete, Sanctuary of the Mind, which is over 11,000 words! It has some formatting issues. I might add it in there one day, but I expect the count will go down on that after a rewrite...

In your defense, Boneman, I wrote that future fantasy manuscript over 20 years ago and sat on it. I started on Estranged Earth not long after I finished that first one, and everything else was written sometime in the last ten years. So I haven't been very consistent, unfortunately. Here's hoping that's changed now!

Anyway, thanks for the encouragement, Boneman. I appreciate it.

Over 170,000 words on one project is just awesome. And HareBrain, that is looking good. "Non-medieval" fantasy? Are you being deliberately vague? You've piqued my curiosity.

 

[ctg]

No he isn't. Take a look into steam-punk genre and you'll see many things that aren't exactly medieval nor futuristic.

 

[HareBrain]

I suppose it's steam-age but I didn't want to call it steampunk because that's not how I think of it - the fantastical element isn't related to the technology, well I suppose part of it is ... anyway I hope that's cleared everything up.

 

[Michael01]

Yes, it does. Interesting...

No he isn't. Take a look into steam-punk genre and you'll see many things that aren't exactly medieval nor futuristic.

Ctg, what's that about? Of course I know there are plenty of fantasy sub-genres besides medieval. That would be exactly why I asked, since there are so many sub-genres to which HareBrain might have been referring.

 

[ctg]

Like the original cyberpunk (dark near-future, <100 - 150 years), the steam-punk deals with the technology, but with a twist. The man scientist which this genre usually portrays can create magnificent things, like death rays or towering robots that are always powered with steam based technology or the clockwork machinery. You can find both of those from Victorian era gadgetry.

So there you go, does that sound like a good fantasy settings for you?

 

[Michael01]

Of course it does! Who said it wasn't? Ctg, I know what steam-punk is. What about my posts made you think otherwise?

EDIT: I'll admit I only learned about this specific sub-genre a few years ago, and I've only read one example that seems close enough to qualify (Teresa Edgerton's The Queen's Necklace - great book, by the way). But I do know about it. I've also played .hack//G.U., and watched a bit of Sakura Wars - steam-based technology in both.

 

[ctg]

I honestly thought you did not know what steam-punk stands for, so I thought to give my little insight to the mystery behind it. Personally much closer to my heart is the gaslight era (1880 - 1920) as there can be so many mysterious things in there. Which makes me think that maybe I really should writing that era rather then something futuristic apocalypse that the people really don't want to know about. In the gaslight-punk, I believe one can have emerging technologies based on the electricity, but also all the steam-powered and clockwork gadgetries. Throw in good measure of UFO's and Cthulhu-mythos based monsters and you'll soon knock on the door of pure fantasy mixed into the old Science-Fiction.

 

[Michael01]

Thank you. I do appreciate the effort. For one, the fact that I just learned about steam-punk a few years ago makes me think there might still be sub-genres I don't know about.

Personally, it's the sub-genres I want to write. I like the idea of stretching the boundaries, so that's why my stories have so far been dark, urban, and science fantasy. Steam-punk seems to do that too. If I can find other ways to stretch the boundaries, I plan to give it a try.

In the gaslight-punk, I believe one can have emerging technologies based on the electricity, but also all the steam-powered and clockwork gadgetries. Throw in good measure of UFO's and Cthulhu-mythos based monsters and you'll soon knock on the door of pure fantasy mixed into the old Science-Fiction.

Now you're talking! Sounds like you've got some great ideas brewing, Ctg.

EDIT: Aww, what a hijack! Sorry everyone.

 

[chopper]

47000 and rising.....

just had the first fight scene - ripped thriugh 2000 words in an afternoon!

51000 and still rising....

 

[HareBrain]

I missed these points:

I think you could include what you took out as it was actually written......

I was a bit thick when I posted my target, not realising at the time that writing 10,000 words a week and having a 120,000 word story at the end of ten weeks (starting with 20,000) were not necessarily one and the same thing. But the final goal is more important than the weekly output, so I'm not counting the bits I write then throw out. (Why I think anyone would care about this I have no idea.)

But on the bright side, I now have 34,085 words of the second part of the trilogy!!

That's fantastic - in just a few weeks? Since the wordcount for the first part is going down, you're not just transferring whole chunks between volumes, are you? Are you working on both at the same time?