The chronicles word counter!

[Ursa major]

After the first stage (of many) of a root and branch "word use" edit** - so much for the previous "polishing" - WiP1 has now been pared a little bit more, to 138,500 words.


Or, to use the publishing industry's favourite method of inaccurate word counting, only 122,000. At least this sounds as if it isn't too large to get published. Now for making the content more publishable, starting with Stage 2 (of many).



** - I was goaded into action by starting to read Anna Mini's blog about the Frankenstein manuscript_(scourge of revisers everywhere). There are, so far, twenty-plus parts to this.

.

 

[mygoditsraining]

New WIP -
Title: Justice in the Sword (working)
Genre: Urban fantasy
Word count: 1,564

Got fed up kicking my heels waiting for beta readers to finish with Power in the Blood, so I've started work on the sequel. It's a little bit daunting starting on a book that has even less of a chance in Hell of ever seeing publishing daylight (being the sequel to an unpublished work) but I had some ideas for where the characters might go and felt like writing it down. It's good to keep my hand in, too.

 

[Ronanida]

In interesting thread, to say the least. I have two WIP:

Title: Tal'mokor Chronicles
Genre: Fantasy
Word count: 9,000 + (need to check this, I don't have the file on this computer T.T)
Status: On hold until I get out of my writer's block for the plotline. After joining the forum, I'm probably going to go back through and slaughter-edit the entire thing again *cries* I hate it when I have to do that.

*~~*

Title: As of yet, Untitled
Genre: Modern-placed fantasy, a little bit of sifi
Word count: 2,972
Status: Ongoing, been obsessed with this one, started on it yesterday

 

[anthorn]

Title Fated children
Book one Tracing the Shadow.
Genre Fantasy.
Word count 79'300 of a 100'000. Thats 400 pages I think

 

[Jon_Sauve123]

Unfinished
Novel: Our Shattered Universe
Genre: Science Fiction
Word Count: 43,104
Status: So I think I like sci-fi more than fantasy. A good, worthwhile idea sci-fi idea only comes about once or twice a year to me, whereas I get good ideas for fantasy a lot more often. I guess that's my curse. This will be my 14th novel, and the predicted length is probably over 100k words. But likely no more than 115k.

I wrote two other novels between the last one I posted about and this one. So here are those

Novel: The Choosing
Genre: Horror/Fiction
Word Count: 136,961
Status: This is definitely the weirdest book I've ever written. It starts off as a speculative fiction piece, then morphs into fantasy, then horror, and everything kind of smears together.

Novel: The Allnighters
Genre: Horror
Word Count: 81,679
Status: A compact novel. This was my first attempt at actual horror, though some of my love for sci-fi sort of crept in when I wasn't paying attention. Another weird one. I wasn't sure at all where this one was going until the end when everything miraculously (and fortunately) tied together. That's usually how I write, the words pouring out seemingly at random. But I'm always spinning a web somewhere in the back of my subconscious. I write the first half of every book confused to hell, then have quite a few "ah-hah" moments. Then more confusion. And at the end I'm very surprised that everything fits together. I kind of wish I could plan things out consciously and make notes, but that's rare.

 

[Mouse]

Ooh ok, as I've just started working on the novel again...

Unfinished
Novel: The Barbarians' Key
Genre: YA fantasy
Word Count: so far just over 25000, but some of that at the end is notes to remind me who's done what with who.
Status: Well, I reckon I've just written myself into a possible Froghurt-from-Lost fire arrow moment. Oops.

 

[Nik]

P for Pleistocene

Unfinished
Novel: P_for_Pleistocene.
Genre: SF {ISOT ??}
Word Count: 60,000+
Status: After another flat-spot, a friend's comment about the unexpected things you find in your kit inspired me. I wrote a lot, finished typing the current chapter today. That's Day#20 done. Next chapter, they've a stroll to the ridge to look at mineral veins and possible places to dig a cave. With luck, they'll find some herbs among the clints and grikes..

Meanwhile, the wolves, who have gone through three alpha-males in four encounters, are developing caution...

I've only posted up to Day#13 on my usual site, due to a morbid fear of having to retcon chapters. Today, I caught a continuity glitch: D'uh, what did they do with the buck's hide and the wolf's head ?? Fortunately, the fix was well inside my buffer...

 

[Boneman]

Blimey, haven't posted on here in ages - can't even find my last post! But: in the rewrite of Gateway of Tears, following critique by Major American Author, I find I'm at 119,301 words. Some will come out as I progress, and new sections will come in. No idea of final count, but probably in the region of 130,000...

 

[Ursa major]

Now half way through the root and branch "word use" edit, after which comes the dreaded Read It All Out Aloud (with or without recording) stage.

WiP1 has now been pared down even more, to 133,300 words (from Word's word count) or 113,750 based on the number of pages, which include 6 volume breaks (and five pages of maps in the optional appendix ).

 

[Ursa major]

I'm three quarters** of the way through the root and branch "word use" edit.

WiP1 has now been pared downto 129,900 words (from Word's word count) or 112,000 based on 250 × the number of pages minus the title page. (I write in Times New Roman).



** - I suspect the process is further advenced than this, but I'm probably putting of the day (or so) when I have to read the whole thing out loud to myself and a digital recorder***. (Oo, goodeeee.) I'm also adding a new scene to the beginning of Chapter 1 proper - 200 words arranged into near-random sentences are included in the above totals - which is either an attempt to make one of the POVs start less passively, give the reader a better idea of the societiy's attitude to certain technologies, another delaying tactic, or, possible, all three.

*** - Whose life as a replay device will be curtailed soon after I've heard the reording(s).

 

[chopper]

excellent score, MGIR. Also, a great line. (And I like the idea of first and last words!)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

Midwinter Fury (Vol.2 of the Empire Dance)
Episodic space opera
38000 and rising
Two more scenes to write to complete this one, but they're both bad-ass epics.

now just one more scene left to write, but i'm already on 53000 words...and rising....in fact, i've had to shunt an entire battle across to the next volume.

and Malessar's Curse is still waiting....

 

[Dale R]

Unfinished.
Novel ?
(probably be classed as science fiction/fantasy)

Just finished first write of second chapter.
Word count, just under 19000.

Would like to get the third done within a couple of weeks.

 

[Mouse]

Ooh ok, as I've just started working on the novel again...

Unfinished
Novel: The Barbarians' Key
Genre: YA fantasy
Word Count: so far just over 25000, but some of that at the end is notes to remind me who's done what with who.
Status: Well, I reckon I've just written myself into a possible Froghurt-from-Lost fire arrow moment. Oops.

Now 28000 words. Just altered a character's personality completely so have had to go back and edit their reactions!

 

[mygoditsraining]

Novel: Power in the Blood
Word Count: 0

Have decided to start over; a few of the really major problems that the MS suffered from were due to the fact it was written in first person. While I really, really like the voice of the piece, there's too much going wrong with the plot for me to stick with a straight re-working, so it's right back to the start but in 3rd person limited.

At least I have my narrative arc sorted (with a few changes), and a really thorough working knowledge of what I want to happen so it should be a lot faster getting v2.0 done.

 

[Ursa major]

Is there really nothing you can scavenge, ctg?


On the other hand: having rewritten a half-completed book (or so I thought), I found that virtually nothing was left of the original, so perhaps you are merely being realistic. (To be fair, the two versions were written more than a decade apart.)



Oh, and with just that new scene to write, WiP1 has reached 129,450 (word count) and 111750 (based on page count). The great reading out aloud is getting scarily close. (So over 70,000 words have been ripped out; I hope they aren't going to haunt me....)

 

[mygoditsraining]

Is there really nothing you can scavenge?

Well, there's a lot that will transfer over, but all of it will need to go from first person to third...a minor character is being cut, a major one expanded to fill the gap, some of the revelatory stuff is being given up front as a second, antagonistic POV and that will have to be written from the ground up.

There's a lot to do.

Before I start it, though, I've written out a sequential list of the major scenes, then minor scenes (where they fit in) and from that re-built the detailed synopsis to encompass all the changes. With that roadmap in hand, all I'll have to do is concentrate on the words themselves, not so much about where they are going.

 

[The Judge]

Good luck with it, mgir. I admire the way you've planned it -- I'm a write-and-see-where-it-goes merchant (which may explain why it tends to go all over the place...)

Ursa -- do we get invites to the great Reading Out Aloud sessions? You could hire a hall and sell tickets!

 

[Ursa major]

* Briefly interrupts applying extra soundproofing to the walls to give TJ a funny look. *


As well as providing a different way of reading one's text - it's harder to skip text that "has to be okay" than when scanning a page or screen - I suspect that even when alone, the process inserts a bit of human embarrassment into one's editing, i.e.: "Did I really expect someone to read that!"

 

[The Judge]

A funny look? Did I say something out of place?

The reading aloud, I hope it goes well (even if I can't sit in and listen...); I find it invaluable for spotting errors. I don't get embarrassed when I'm on my own, and even resort to accents for the dialogue (American, Australian, Scottish -- they all sound a mix of South African and Welsh ) without feeling self-conscious, but the odd times I've had to read out stuff at my critique group I found myself gabbling and going pink. Hearing myself on a recording device, though, oh no. In my head my voice is low and sultry, and I don't care to hear the high-pitched squeaky truth!

 

[Ursa major]

That's what I'm doing: using a digital recorder. I've read the first scene (although it's been altered - again - since); there's now a copy on my laptop (in which I sound not much older than a teenager, at least in my own opinion ).


I really ought to do some reading and breathing exercises**: another excuse not to scare the horses (aka me) by reading more of WiP1 out loud.




** - If I can find the notes from a presentation Skills course I did in 1990. ("Ngah ngah ngah ngah ngah ngah ngah....")