The chronicles word counter!

[ACFantasy]

Let's see, this month's goals...

Write and submit a short story about fire mages for Shimmer: Done, at 4400 words!

Write and submit a short story about mermaids for Crossed Genres: Done, at 6000 words!

Write and submit a ~10,000 word short story about cyborgs and music for Kaleidoscope (an anthology): Just begun, no words yet. Deadline is 12/31, but I'm on winter break now, so I'm hoping that I can get a lot done in the next 10 days.

(Stretch) Another 6000 word story for Crossed Genres, this one about a guy trying to rescue a dragon (the theme this month is 'runaway'), since they let you submit two stories a month. I want to wrap the Kaleidoscope one first, but if I finish that early, I might take a crack at this one.


Congrats Mouse! And to you too, Bowler, 38k is no small feat.

 

[DaCosta]

We are a busy lot. Well done all of you.
Not much writing time for me over the Christmas break as family comes first - naturally.
Will you guys be writing? How do you find the time?

 

[ratsy]

Well I finally finished my story to submit to Gary for the Malevolence anthology. It comes in around 3900 words. I am really proud of this story and hope it is well received. Either way, it was fun and a good way to stretch the writing muscles out.

 

[ACFantasy]

We are a busy lot. Well done all of you.
Not much writing time for me over the Christmas break as family comes first - naturally.
Will you guys be writing? How do you find the time?

I'll be trying to write, at least. I want to do a 10,000 word story for Kaleidoscope.

(Update on that, btw: outline done. Now I need to start the draft).

As for the time... dribs and drabs, mostly. I'm with my family, but we're not together 24/7, so I have a couple hours here and there to write a scene.

 

[ACFantasy]

Alright! Submitted my story to Kaleidoscope. Wound up being about 9200 words, which is just about right. Woohoo!

 

[Bowler1]

The Many now over 40k, after a full edit so now I'm pushing on into the action. More aliens, more spaceships and finally some shooting action. The set up is complete.

A 10k short off for submission. Wait and see now.

Not much of an increase in word count, but whole load of work has gone into my edit.

 

[ACFantasy]

Bowler1, nice!

If you don't mind me asking, where'd you submit to?

 

[Glitch]

Mine is still growing, for now! My average per chapter has now dropped to under 1k. I'm concentrating on getting the story down and will flesh it out on next revision.

Title: Ancient Technologies
Genre: Science Fiction, set in current time.
Start Date: August 2012
Word count: 43,646

Got a bit of writing done today. Plus some over the Christmas break.


Title: Ancient Technologies
Genre: Science Fiction, set in current time.
Start Date: August 2012
Word count: 49,319

 

[Glisterspeck]

Siege of Gernrik. 171 words cut from my last villain chapter. Sitting at 59267. Just have the primary character's seven chapters to go. Prolly not going to get to 58k on this pass. Was hopeful, as most of my feedback so far would include adding words, not cutting, and though it's an arbitrary limit, I'd like to keep the first half no higher than 60k.

So, I'm back at this one now. Got some very valuable feedback over the summer that I only started churning on mid December. Tons of changes, including cutting three of the four POV characters' introductory chapters (the ones I had up for critique) and many other heavy issue fixes at the beginning of the book to get reader's more invested.

That said, after all changes so far, I've cut another 5,000 words and am sitting at 53,000 for the first part. Gads, does it get easier after some time away!

 

[Glitch]

Got a bit of writing done today. Plus some over the Christmas break.


Title: Ancient Technologies
Genre: Science Fiction, set in current time.
Start Date: August 2012
Word count: 49,319

Woo hoo. Just passed 50k


Title: Ancient Technologies
Genre: Science Fiction, set in current time.
Start Date: August 2012
Word count: 50,405


And good work to all the others posting in this thread

 

[Glisterspeck]

Have two of the four POV characters through a rough edit and shed another 1,200 words on Siege of Gernrik. More importantly, I'm starting to thin out the prose enough for the reader to get to see the story. I hope.

 

[Bowler1]

Bowler1, nice!

If you don't mind me asking, where'd you submit to?

I use "The Grinder" to find publications to submit to. You'll find a thread on here for submissions as well, listing agents and loads of other stuff. You'll find that thread in writing resources. Hopefully that helps.


The Many - now over 43k. I've been working on an action scene all week about 2k long. The reader may well zoom through it in no time, but for me, it was hard work. Don't get me wrong, great fun, just hard to get it down right. Anyway, steady progress, if a bit slow.

 

[Mr Orange]

been a bit slow on my main WIP as i've been putting together something i think i will submit for Gary's "Malevolence" collection

Main WIP:

The 25th Hour
Status: 51851 words

A "Malevolent" tale:

Lucy
Status: 4132 words and first draft finished.


Now I just need to get someone to read over it and make sure it's not rubbish. any horror beta's around?

been a while since i posted on here, but.....

The 25th Hour
Status: approx 60000 words... finished but last 3 chapters or so are just outlined as i kind of lost faith in it.. so the very first rough draft is done and it's on the shelf to look at again some time this year

Lucy
Status: 4500 words or thereabouts and submitted

Sleeper Cell (submission for Space anthology)
Status: 5800 words, finished and being polished and cut for submission

Dust (submission for Aliens anthology)
Status: 1800 words or so, outlined and coming together nicely

The War Behind (next novel WIP)
Status: In my head, struggling to get out

 

[Brev]

Good work everyone.

'The Shaded Heart' - Epic fantasy, is on hold, sitting at about 15k, and simmering in the background of my thoughts, ready to pick up when I'm done with the Brownie Stone edit.

So, new year, new project, and I've had a rethink. With Epic being such a hard sell atm, and so that it 'fits' better with my other finished work, I'm starting over on 'The Shaded Heart'. This time writing it as a contemporary fantasy / magical realism novel. One of the three MC's will have to undergo a bit of a drastic makeover, but without the need to give much page time to world building, I can concentrate on the central relationships, the main conflicts and character building.

Currently 4k in, and feeling good about it.

 

[alchemist]

By December 11th...


Bartley (working title)

Urban Fantasy novel

Status: 64,000 words. Things have sped up a little again (although looking at it again, it's 15k in four months, which is pathetic really). There's lots of heather and I've had to research:

Deer stalking in Scotland
Russian swear words
Electronic surveillance
The works of Kipling


And I'm no longer a sex scene virgin

By January 11th...

Bartley (working title)

Urban Fantasy novel

Status:75,000 words. 11k in a month is a lot better than 15k in four months! With a bit of luck and a fair wind, I can get this momentum to carry me to the end. My characters are about to collect for the climactic battle.

Recent research includes:

Images of nuclear reactors
Recent Russian history
Top speeds of military transport planes
What you call the parts of a helicopter


And after writing my first sex scene, I -- nah, I won't spoil the surprise for my beta readers

 

[Juliana]

Haven't been in here for a while, nice word counts, everyone!

I've been busy editing, now I have a week to write a synopsis so I can send Dream off to a kid lit competition. And work on my query; going to be brave and try subbing soon...

 

[DaCosta]

Quick update:

'Within'
72,697
With developmental editor.

'Beaten'
No progress - on back-burner.

'Untitled Urban Fantasy'
Now titled: Beyond the Veil.
70k (First draft complete)
First read through in progress. Also had a great time creating various websites for this WIP.

'Within' Dark Urban Fantasy
Back from editor. Lots of work to do. Have put to one side while I focus on:

'Beyond The Veil' Urban Fantasy
73k
Complete. Been through it about fifteen times/sent to betas/worked on suggestions. Now awaiting copyedit. Submitted to agents.

'Devil May Care' (sequel to Beyond the Veil)
First draft finished @ 77k
Currently doing the first read through to tidy plot and rework a few characters that refused to behave.

'Beaten' on hold.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

I, Singularity now at 82,709 words...been re-writing Our Hero's sidekick's introduction, and it's been frustrating for several weeks, but now the Muse is amused, and it's working...

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Wow.

Feel weird today. Finished the first draft of the YA novel I began at the start of the Xmas holidays. This novel has consumed me for almost a month.

This weekend I've got to write a short book-within-a-book, then I'm done for the first draft. Feel kinda exhausted.

 

[Bowler1]

A book in a month, well done Stephen - impressive. I'm not surprised your a little tired.


Good luck with your submission DeCosta. From what I've seen of your posts on here your knocking on that door, so if you get lucky, share the good news.


The Many - 45k. Nice progress this month, but I'm only at the half way point... I think. The muse is behaving, so I'll keep chipping along.