The chronicles word counter!

[A. S. Behsam]

Okay, so I thought I would give a little information aboutThe Autumnal Equinox's planning, writing, and drafting, now that some of you are beta-reading it.

Title: The Autumnal Equinox

Genre: Romantic / Fantasy

The Date the Idea Came and I started planning: March 28, 2008 (I thought it was 2009 for a long time, then I checked the 'content created' date of the first document I wrote about the plot and the characters and realized it's that old!) I was actually writing another, very different book when this idea came to my mind and I put that book on hold.

Two years of planning before I started to write.

Started Writing First Draft: March 27, 2010
Finished First Draft: March 17, 2012
First Draft Word Count: 189.000 words

Started the 2nd Draft: April, 2012
Finished the 5th Draft: December, 2012
Fifth Draft Word Count: 140.000 words

Started the 6th Draft: April, 2012
Finished the 6th Draft: Still Going
Six Draft Word Count Until Now: 135.000 words

My Plan is to get this down to 120.000 words, or even to 115.000 words, so wish me luck. I need loads of it!

Wow, I can't believe I've been working on this since I was 19! O_O

And oh my God! I'm a killer! I've killed 54.000 words so far! D:

~Aty

 

[Abernovo]

Good luck, Aty. I'm not sure you need it, though.
You're doing great.

 

[Glisterspeck]

Another chapter of Gernrik edited, this one from the middle of the book. Only dropped 50 words from ~2,000. I had thought these middle chapters would have more fat to cut. Hmph.

Sitting at 59,934 words.

 

[Glisterspeck]

Another chapter edited. This one's still too rough, but good enough for now. Dropped 306 words to 59,628. Will probably cut another 30-50 in a final polish.

 

[Juliana]

1312 words today. Up to around 13,300 total, now. 3 and a half chapters to go until I finish first draft. Then lots of polishing ahead.

Next book is buzzing around in my brain, very excited to start but don't want to get the voices mixed up as current WIP is much younger in tone and next one will be upper middle grade (and also much longer!).

 

[Mouse]

Yesterday I managed to write over a thousand words for one character. Over a thousand words in one sitting. (For me, that's amazing). This character writes himself. Trouble is, I can't write anything else! Today - 0 words.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

So, I'm going back to basics with Galaxy after a couple of weeks musing. (And Mr Springs telling me my original start was so grim, he'd put it down. I'm starting to regret the bit where I said just be honest... ) Some of the earlier stuff will survive, so there will be days where I miraculously add words and look like crazy-speedy.

Anyway as of today, starting from 0 and now I'm on 3898, all of which need editing, none of which were stolen.

 

[LittleStar]

Short story - Grace
Genre - children's poignant fantasy
Start date - 19th January
Finish date - 4th February
Word count - 19002
Status - First draft complete, was a tear jerker finish, I hope at any rate. Onto a first draft of a flash fiction for a uni project, has to be done by the end of the month, should be done in a few days, just have to come up with an idea first. Then after I'm back onto the redraft of Grace.

So Grace's redraft is on the back burner and the short fiction has been put on the front. I have reworked several older stories with a view to send them out to the world.
So we have,
Hana Yori Dango, (a Meiji era, end of samurai short) - 3474
Reflections in a microcosm (semi dystopian genetics story) - 3287
Indescribable (a heartfelt monologue) - 555
A Dream of Spring (post apocalyptic ice age story) - 2329
Clarity (a dual viewpoint short) - 1369

There are others knocking around but none as polished as these ones. They are ready for sending off I think. As it happens I have already submitted A Dream of Spring, and it was returned with comments to the tune of double the length and we'll take it... Not bad for my very first submit, no? That will be done in a week or two once my uni work is out of the way.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

I, Singularity now 59,066 words.

 

[A. S. Behsam]

@Abernovo: Thanks a lot! Aww, I hope so ^_^ Trimmed The Autumnal Equinox down to 128.000 words, and the editing is not even finished yet! That's like HUGE for me! I think I might actually be able to get it down to 120.000 like how I wanted!

lol Everyone here is writing and I come here and report how I murder my darlings...

 

[subtletylost]

29,000 I am amazed. Doomed, now with new working title Daughter of Death, is over the 29000 mark and still going. I have part of three different chapters that aren't in the word count.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

So, I'm going back to basics with Galaxy after a couple of weeks musing. (And Mr Springs telling me my original start was so grim, he'd put it down. I'm starting to regret the bit where I said just be honest... ) Some of the earlier stuff will survive, so there will be days where I miraculously add words and look like crazy-speedy.

Anyway as of today, starting from 0 and now I'm on 3898, all of which need editing, none of which were stolen.

Taking this one slowly (for me). Partly because I want to get it right, sci fi wise, so I'm doing research as I go, partly because confidence is low at the mo, so I'm being good to myself in between and also because I'm being distracted with twitter pitches and what not.

Anyway, got to 9975 a few minutes ago, and that'll do for this week. All new stuff, including the dreaded sex scene.

 

[HoopyFrood]

I'm writing! I'm actually writing! I can't remember the last time I did this. Not anything that hasn't been for courses and that all ended two years ago.

Annnnyway.

Random idea has set off a film script (of course)

Title: Ahahaha, I'm naff at titles. So far it's saved under the .celtx name of Beastie.
Genre: Horror (woo!)
Pages: Just onto the fourth so far. Dramatic opening over, now for the two characters to take a breather and find out about each other.

 

[Glitch]

Title: Ancient Technologies
Genre: Science Fiction, set in current time.
Start Date: August 2012
Word count: 13,695

Got the reveal down. Now for my characters to push forward in chapter 12.

Title: Ancient Technologies
Genre: Science Fiction, set in current time.
Start Date: August 2012
Word count: 13,644

Haven't done any writing for a few weeks. Realised it was because I had duplicated a minor reveal. It seems my subconscious won't let me move forward until I resolve these little issues; same thing happened with the character relationship I posted in GWD.

Anyway, the second reveal had different character reactions. I've been able to integrate the two reveals into one without harming the story. I think it does actually improve it overall.

So a slight step backwards, but I'm now confident I'll be moving forward in the coming days

 

[HoopyFrood]

Title: Ahahaha, I'm naff at titles. So far it's saved under the .celtx name of Beastie.
Genre: Horror (woo!)
Pages: Just onto the fourth so far. Dramatic opening over, now for the two characters to take a breather and find out about each other.

Boom! Up to page ten now. Gods, it's so good to be writing again. It's so nice to be thinking about ideas, to suddenly find your mind's back on the story without your even realising.

Anyway, ten minutes in, talking over and tomorrow (in the script, I mean) sh*t starts going down. A postman may have to die.

 

[Glisterspeck]

Another chapter edited. My villain POV. Don't seem to be cutting as much from his chapters. Down 190 words to 59,438 in total. Only one chapter left for the villain, then it's just Unkel's seven chapters left to edit. Don't think I'll be able to cut 1500 words from that, which was my goal after getting below 60K. Oh well.

 

[Glisterspeck]

@Abernovo: Thanks a lot! Aww, I hope so ^_^ Trimmed The Autumnal Equinox down to 128.000 words, and the editing is not even finished yet! That's like HUGE for me! I think I might actually be able to get it down to 120.000 like how I wanted!

lol Everyone here is writing and I come here and report how I murder my darlings...

I'm doing the same, though I've only got half as many words as you. I've been seeing a lot of talk about publishers wanting to cap at 120K, so when I got to my halfway point, I decided to edit it down from ~72,000 to 60.

 

[ratsy]

Finally got a laptop so I can write more frequently...i hope. My wip is up to 14,121 as of right now.

 

[Mouse]

The collab with amw is now a wonderful 37,845 and my MC is shedloads of fun to write.

TBM gets a prod every now and then, just to check it's still alive.

Brand new thing (now provisionally titled with the cheesetastic 'Locke and Key') has been giving me gyp. Two chapters written and then I came to a complete stall because I can't hear the MC's voice. But, I had a bit of an epiphany earlier and had a little idea for one of the other characters, so I might switch POVs to him for a bit. The word count is still at whatever I put last time I posted here.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Brand new thing (now provisionally titled with the cheesetastic 'Locke and Key') has been giving me gyp.

You're treading onto Joe Hill's comic toes there, I'm afraid

Boom! Up to page ten now. Gods, it's so good to be writing again. It's so nice to be thinking about ideas, to suddenly find your mind's back on the story without your even realising.

Anyway, ten minutes in, talking over and tomorrow (in the script, I mean) sh*t starts going down. A postman may have to die.

Up to fourteen pages now and the first hintings of Beastie McBeast are about to happen.

The postman gets to live until tomorrow now (in script timeline).