The chronicles word counter!

[LittleStar]

Book 2 Title: Where Dreamers Wake (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 62,206 of projected 80k
Start Date: 15th January 2016
Projected End Date: 29th January 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.

Status: Day Seven

Book 2 Title: Where Dreamers Wake (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 72,648 of projected 80k
Start Date: 15th January 2016
Projected End Date: 29th January 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-28th January 2016.

Status: Day Nine

I was coming to the end of this book with days spare so I figured I could allow myself a little break... I've had two slow days of writing and a day of work. Brining my total up to 72k and rounding off book 2 nicely. This one was a little closer to my original 60k estimates, but it certainly had less diversion from the main plot.
The way the series is set out is more like a standalone and a trilogy following after. So book 2's secondary plots are more the begining of three book arcs, rather than contained to one book.

If that makes any sense.

Anyway Book 2 done!! And I'm taking another day off tomorrow (technically it should be spent on book 2, but no need)
But I am back to having to pick another title -_-

 

[LittleStar]

Book 2 Title: Where Dreamers Wake (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 72,648 of projected 80k
Start Date: 15th January 2016
Projected End Date: 29th January 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.

Status: Day Nine

Book 3 Title: Why The Soul Fights (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 9,943 of projected 80k
Start Date: 29th January 2016
Projected End Date: 11th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.

Status: Day One

I was actually ready to start writing in the late afternoon of yesterday, but I thought it better to have a full rest before moving on with the writing. I made a good start, and am up to just under 10k today and off to a good start.

There's lots of set up already and plot happening quickly. I didn't remember much about where this story went to be honest, so it was nice to see where everything was fitting into place and how the characters are growing into themselves.

I'll project around 80k for this one as well, but who knows. I feel like this one is going to be a little longer, maybe closer to the 90k mark, but we'll see next week.

It's another day off tomorrow (day job) so I'll be back to it on Sunday. Hopefully for another full 10k stint

 

[StuartBurchell]

Title: The Skylanders of Draviis
Genre: Military Science Fiction
Start Date: 17th November 2015
Word Count: 4220
Status: 1st Draft

Taking a break from editing/rewriting The Hammer of God. This is the sequel, aside from completing the prologue, I have been expanding on the notes I have for Skylanders. I suppose I better point out that the Skylanders do not equate with Skywalkers.

 

[LittleStar]

Book 3 Title: Why The Soul Fights (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 9,943 of projected 80k
Start Date: 29th January 2016
Projected End Date: 11th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.

Status: Day One

Book 3 Title: Why The Soul Fights (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 33,286 of projected 80k
Start Date: 29th January 2016
Projected End Date: 11th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.

Status: Day Four

So it's been a few days since I updated my word cont here, but thankfully I still haven't had any unplanned days off writing. Though the days might be filled a little bit more with slacking off duties than they were for books 1 and 2... Imagine what I could reach if I didn't have any slacking off or snacking! (not all of it is unnecessary slacking off, I have real life chauffeur duties that werent foreseen).

I have bumped my wordcount up to 33k now on day four, so for ten days at this average I will be hitting the projected 80k mark, which is good. Though maybe I'll need to step it up a little bit, as I'm not sure 80 is going to be quiet enough... Meh, but who knows. It still too early in the piece to really tell.

But for now...

 

[LittleStar]

Book 3 Title: Why The Soul Fights (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 33,286 of projected 80k
Start Date: 29th January 2016
Projected End Date: 11th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.

Status: Day Four

Book 3 Title: Why The Soul Fights (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 51,103 of projected 80k
Start Date: 29th January 2016
Projected End Date: 11th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.

Status: Day Six

Two good days of work has seen me bump up around 18k, so I'm sitting at over 50k now... and it seems maybe I've got about three or four days left, so maybe 80k for a complete draft isnt a horrible estimate after all.

As I was planning everything, book three always looked like it was turning out to be my least favourite of the books by quite a way. I don't know of the plot was off or the pacing of what... Or if it was just suffering from being the filing in the trilogy sandwich that makes up the last three books of this series. But as it happens while writing it, certainly the last day or two, things have picked up and it's become a lot more exciting, and I can see how the finished product might start to look (though it's still hidden deep in the chunk of stone, that still looks vaguely like a blowfish instead of the David).

Just 23ish days to finish this and another first draft though!
Think I'll make it?

 

[LittleStar]

Book 3 Title: Why The Soul Fights (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 51,103 of projected 80k
Start Date: 29th January 2016
Projected End Date: 11th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.

Status: Day Six

Book 3 Title: Why The Soul Fights (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 65,343 of projected 80k
Start Date: 29th January 2016
Projected End Date: 11th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.

Status: Day Eight

So I had a good day yesterday and a half day today... I think there's two days left of writing on this book, which is still on target for a draft per 10days of writing. Just coming to the climax of book three, all the nice exciting showdown scenes

I have come to realise that about a month of sitting on my couch (though I am extremely adept at it (10-15years experience!) assuming I can change my position often) is my limit. I know there are better ways to sit, but it's how I'm most comfortable writing for the now. Its a reccuring problem i have had for years, but who would have thought sitting down would mess up my knees more than my day job, which usually involves walking for 10ish miles a day!

Coming to the home stretch though!

 

[LittleStar]

Book 3 Title: Why The Soul Fights (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 65,343 of projected 80k
Start Date: 29th January 2016
Projected End Date: 11th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.

Status: Day Eight

Book 3 Title: Why The Soul Fights (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 75,041 of projected 80k
Start Date: 29th January 2016
Projected End Date: 11th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.

Status: Day Nine

The last day or two of writing I have found it harder harder to focus myself on the work, (probably because I've foundd myself enjoying a new iPad game instead). I've still hit on target for my finish, but it's just been more of a strict with myself kinda time.

That said, today was a slow day, and coming to the end of the novel, so I was affording myself some extra slack... And was going to sit at around 6k for the day, leaving me a full day tomorrow.

But I couldnt finish on such an exciting scene.
My last hour or so had a staggering 4k words written would you believe!

And I estimate about 5k left to write, which brings me pretty darn close to my estimate. Maybe I'm getting better at guessing... We'll see tomorow.

 

[LittleStar]

Book 3 Title: Why The Soul Fights (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 75,041 of projected 80k
Start Date: 29th January 2016
Projected End Date: 11th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.

Status: Day Nine

Book 3 Title: Why The Soul Fights (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 80,169 of projected 80k
Start Date: 29th January 2016
Projected End Date: 11th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.
Book 3 Finished: Why The Soul Fights, 29th Jan-11th Feb 2016.

Status: Day Ten

Another two weeks (ten days writing) and another draft finished. I said yesterday I was getting better at length estimates... Said I had about 5k left to add, I added 5,128 words. Pretty darn close!


The last few scenes were good and went to plan (despite the months I spent planning, I'm very surprised how near perfectly they have stuck when it came to actually writing them out). I believe I have an unprecedented 18days to knock out the draft of the final book in the series. Does that work out as 12 days of writing? ... Some days more than 10 at any rate, so I'm confidant of a finish on schedule by March 1st!

Book three is done. Woot. And I already have the title for book four in mind Double woot!

 

[LittleStar]

Book 3 Title: Why The Soul Fights (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 80,169 of projected 80k
Start Date: 29th January 2016
Projected End Date: 11th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.
Book 3 Finished: Why The Soul Fights, 29th Jan-11th Feb 2016

Book 4 Title: Where the Weary Rest (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 7,162 of projected 80k
Start Date: 12th February 2016
Projected End Date: 26th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.
Book 3 Finished: Why The Soul Fights, 29th Jan-11th Feb 2016.

Status: Day One

So day one of book 4 in my series, and I'm off to a decent start. It was a fairly slow day, but i wasnt very strict with myself... that's fine really, wth a projected end date of the 26th I have a few extra days to play with before the end of the month if I need... However, in planned scenes (which doesn't always equate) there are 6-7 extra scenes than there were in book 3, so it might be a tad longer. Will see.

If I did my maths correctly I hit a milestone at around 6k words today... 250k written since Jan 1st... A quarter of a million words! I'm a little flabbergasted that I managed to achieve it (though in truth 260k was my estimate for all four books total...) But it feels great to be getting the drafts down and learning about my characters all the while. And honestly I'm just enjoying the story.

Onwards to the end, and then... errr, back to the beginning I guess!

 

[StuartBurchell]

Title: The Skylanders of Draviis
Genre: Military Science Fiction
Start Date: 17th November 2015
Word Count: 5418
Status: expanding world building of primary world.

 

[LittleStar]

Book 4 Title: Where the Weary Rest (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 7,162 of projected 80k
Start Date: 12th February 2016
Projected End Date: 26th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.
Book 3 Finished: Why The Soul Fights, 29th Jan-11th Feb 2016.

Status: Day One

Book 4 Title: Where the Weary Rest (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 39,625 of projected 80k
Start Date: 12th February 2016
Projected End Date: 26th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.
Book 3 Finished: Why The Soul Fights, 29th Jan-11th Feb 2016.

Status: Day Five

I haven't updated my progress here for a few days now, so thought I best had, just incase anyone was worried

I have been writing, though I have taken this project a lot slower. The first four days each had around 7k words, and a bunch more breaks than normal, but today I had a couple of nice tense scenes so I thoght I'd push through and I hit 10k (and 5 words). The plot is running nicely, and the characters are still developing right to the end which is nice to see.

More tomorrow, maybe a short 7k day, maybe a full 10k... Will see. Still confident I'll finish by the end of the month though

 

[LittleStar]

Book 4 Title: Where the Weary Rest (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 39,625 of projected 80k
Start Date: 12th February 2016
Projected End Date: 26th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.
Book 3 Finished: Why The Soul Fights, 29th Jan-11th Feb 2016.

Status: Day Five

Book 4 Title: Where the Weary Rest (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 63,296 of projected 80k
Start Date: 12th February 2016
Projected End Date: 26th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.
Book 3 Finished: Why The Soul Fights, 29th Jan-11th Feb 2016.

Status: Day Eight

The last few dys have been odd for writing. Ive still been taking it fairly easy, having longer lunch breaks and more/longer stretch/snack breaks in the day but I've still hit 10k or near enough for two of the last three writing days. Yesterday though I had guests, so my writing was very limited, I only wrote around 5k ... And after everything, probably about two half-days or more over the course of this book, and I'm still only 2k ish behind this time in book three. Time warp? Or am I getting quicker at typing from all the practice?

Anyway, I've split my remaining scenes up into roughly what I might write in a day, and figure its going to over run my wordcount and days. By that logic that I'm going to over run my 10 writing day standard by two days(three if there is more than I expect), and run closer to 100k than 80k, so probably the longest of the series. And if I've done my sums right this all brings me exactly to the 28th at best estimate, or 29th if worst case!

Good thing it's a leap year, or this whole challenge would have been a total failure!!

Finish line is well in sight now though

 

[Dan Jones]

You're a machine Littlestar. Though I do not envy you all those edits and rewrites!

I'm up to around 80k on Man O'War, but it's becoming slightly longer than planned. I can feel a serious edit taking place in subsequent drafts.

 

[LittleStar]

Yeah, I'm not looking forward to that either. First drafts are my thing. But saying that I'm hoping to quickly learn how to redraft and edit properly, and keep some sembelence of productivity once Feb is done (actually once March is done, because March might be for Fallout 4!).

 

[ralphkern]

Fallout 4 has really damaged my monthly word count! 15500 for Endings.

 

[LittleStar]

Book 4 Title: Where the Weary Rest (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 63,296 of projected 80k
Start Date: 12th February 2016
Projected End Date: 26th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.
Book 3 Finished: Why The Soul Fights, 29th Jan-11th Feb 2016.

Status: Day Eight

Book 4 Title: Where the Weary Rest (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 89,786 of projected 80k
Start Date: 12th February 2016
Projected End Date: 26th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.
Book 3 Finished: Why The Soul Fights, 29th Jan-11th Feb 2016.

Status: Day Eleven

So I passed my projected end date for completion of this book yesterday, and at that point my wordcount sat at the very aesthetically pleasing 81,918. But I still had a couple of days left before I came to the end of the draft, so I needed those extra days after all.
So today was the first day of writing that I havent hit my book/14days target, but I'm alright with that. Added another 8-9k today and am pretty confident my above rethink of my wordcount will be about right, around 100k for this draft. Though writing today I struggled with a few scenes and realise there is a flow problem... But considering I'm around 350k and in the last 10-15k of the series and this is the first real clear developmental snag I've hit, I'd say that's pretty decent going

I may complete this series on Sunday with a really good days work, but certainly will finish up on Monday.

 

[LittleStar]

Book 4 Title: Where the Weary Rest (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 89,786 of projected 100k
Start Date: 12th February 2016
Projected End Date: 26th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016.
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016.
Book 3 Finished: Why The Soul Fights, 29th Jan-11th Feb 2016.

Status: Day Eleven

Book 4 Title: Where the Weary Rest (Working title)
Genre: Fantasy mostly
Word Count: 100,185 of projected 100k
Start Date: 12th February 2016
Projected End Date: 26th February 2016

Book 1 Finished: Beneath Imagined Skies, 1st-14th January 2016 - 90,162
Book 2 Finished: Where Dreamers Wake, 15th-27th January 2016 - 72,648
Book 3 Finished: Why The Soul Fights, 29th Jan-11th Feb 2016 - 80,169
Book 4 Finished: Where The Weary Rest, 12th-29th February 2016 - 100,185

Status: Day Thirteen

The End!
What's next?

January 1st to February 29th was my start and finish dates for this project. My goal was to draft an entire 4 book series, a reserved estimate of 60k for each book totalling 240k or there abouts. urned it not a total of 343,764 words written! I was going to be happy with 180k and three books to be honest, but is is astounding to me!

Who wants to take a stab at how many typos I have in the whole series at the moment?

Initial word count estimates aside, I have gotten so much better with predicting as the series went on it seems, (80k was almost bang on by my usual 10th day, and adding an extra 20k brought me almost perfectly to my actual finished count) though look g at my estimated finished date and today's current date tells me I was pretty darn accurate from the start!

The series ended well I think, I finished up all the final action scenes and over coming the baddie yesterday, leaving myself with just a chapter or so to clear up, resolve, and find that nice ending image that I was hoping for today. Just around 3-4k work this morning. And I must say that while writing the last few paragraphs there was an un-intended third meaning to the final image that I think is more powerful than both intended meanings combined. It was really lovely to see that coming from nowhere even after all this planning.


I certainly consider my self set challenge a success, not n,y have a got a great drafts to work from, but I've fond how I work best, being a thorough planner, and also fond out just how quickly I can work. Full time writing, I can so do you!

So now I'm back to working 5days a week in my day job, and relaxing in my spare time for a while, before I turn to the literal mountain of redrafts and edits I have stacked before me!

 

[Wruter]

Congratulations Littlestar, a very impressive feat of productivity indeed. How detailed was your planning? Did you know every single scene going in? Did you make character profiles and such? Planning and plotting are a complete mystery to me so any pointers would be appreciated. Again, congrats!

 

[LittleStar]

Congratulations Littlestar, a very impressive feat of productivity indeed. How detailed was your planning? Did you know every single scene going in? Did you make character profiles and such? Planning and plotting are a complete mystery to me so any pointers would be appreciated. Again, congrats!

Thanks.
There have been a couple of threads about this topic in the last few months in the GWD forum, if you search from them I remember posting there and others did as well

My plans were very detailed. I knew every scene, except one I think, and had them written in detailed note form including snippets of conversation or at least the area it was going. The only thing that was really missing was description and the rest of the flesh. I didn't make character profiles so much, I knew roughly what they looked like, I can polish all of that in edits, but I knew from the plans I had written what their characters were, where they needed up etc. so I knew what decisions were most likely for them at the time and for their development.

It's the way I think I prefer to write, but then some people find that it destroys the creativity. Though i think it was The Judge in one of the other threads that noted that I was basically just writing very loose first drafts, rather than planning...

 

[Wruter]

Thanks Littlestar, this stuff is fascinating to an inveterate pantser like me, I'll see if I can find those threads. You should teach your methods to George RR Martin...