The chronicles word counter!

[J5V]

I'm going to upset this thread by saying that I'm currently engaged in 'quality' mode with a title I've had brewing for a few years. After that, there's another 15% to do.

 

[abrucestewart]

Novel: Ancient Shadows
Genre: Alternative History / Lovecraft
Word Count: 6,519
Status: Completing drafting out, with some scenes written. Need to finish drafting and begin writing sequentially! Please feel free to nudge me...

ABS

 

[reiver33]

After a long, long hiatus I've returned to 'Not Here, Not Now' (modern demons and suchlike). Chapter 5 is complete giving a current word count of 23k. The narrative arc (in my head) is for another 3 chapters, so the whole thing should come in at around 35k - a nice awkward number. Then I can file it away and move on to another of my half-finished projects!

 

[literary_batman]

Novel: A Memory of Heroes (working title)
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Word Count: 122,247
Status: Finished draft one. Working on draft two and gonna add a few more chapters. Decided to read the whole thing cover to cover with no editing whatsoever before I make any more changes.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Novel: Origin Stories
Genre: YA Super Heroes
Word Count: 120,608
Status: Finished, and accepted by a publisher (does happy dance)

Novel: Secret Identities (sequel to Origin Stories)
Genre: YA Super Heroes
Word Count: roughly 50,000
Status: So, nearly half-finished first draft.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Is it possible to get a synopsis, David?

 

[Cli-Fi]

Novel: Dynasty: Roots of an Empire
Genre: Science Fiction/Time Travel
The Big Picture: How would a world with Time Travel as common place as the cell phone work?
The story includes: Flying Pigs, Time travel devices, political bickering and backstabbing and corporate marriages. Autonomous cars, 3D printing, VR Hacking, and a paradox. Oh yeah and there might be a religious cult or two thrown in the mix.
Word Count: 28,000+ (EST.) I have a lot written in various places and chunks of it written by hand and on wikis. The future history of this world is all sorted out and whatnot. So I need to include a lot more. But I'm only on Chapter Seven, and I plan on this being a trilogy but we'll see.
Status: Less than half way done Book one.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Is it possible to get a synopsis, David?

This is what I've written (free range version, as yet untouched by the hand of editor) for the back cover blurb.

Jennifer Creek is a very, very normal half-Japanese, half-Australian seventeen-year-old girl, who knows it’s not easy being an unlicensed, teenage super hero.

Her first date with Allan was date-crashed by a super villain who wanted to fry the heart of the boy who broke hers. And a mad scientist tried to give the whole world a zombie apocalypse for Christmas. And then her little brother Max turned into a ghost-in-a-time-machine.

And her best friend’s father is Doctor Apocalypse. And he’s about to drop an asteroid on Paris.

But the hardest part of being a teenage super hero is lying to Allan about her secret identity.

Until Jenny’s secret identity is revealed to the officially licensed super heroes.

Then the hardest part of being a teenage super hero is the way they enforce the licensing rules by dragon.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Haha wow!

 

[StuartBurchell]

Title: The Skylanders of Draviis
Genre: military sci-fi
Word Count: a mere 7006
Start date: 17th November 2015
Status: slow

Ok, I think I have done a final edit on my first book, The Hammer of God, just a little tidying on that before I can start on this in earnest. Done some short story ideas, completed three (westerns!), but I work + travel to (and back) work takes a massive chunk of the day and I'm perpetually tired...but I am trying...

 

[Heijan Xavier]

Novel Title: Sons of Nohon-Book 1 (of 5 Gd willing): Almost Endless City
Genre: Sci-Fi, Religious, Dystopia, Dark Humor, Unsatisfying Romance
Start Date: Ashes of 9-11 2001
Re-Start Date: Around 9-11 2011
Re-re-start Date: April 2016
Word Count: Prologue 5400, Novel Cliff notes scattered about 2 parts and 17 chapters: 12,700.
Maps and Sketches (I'm an art teacher by day): 36

The 135 year old King is too weak to rule anymore and is cryogenically frozen until the technology arises that can resurrect him. His nation, isolated from the world, and struggling to reconnect finds a civil war begin to brew in its most free and peaceful city. Normal people find they have abnormal responsibilities and decide which side, if any, with which to align.

Malakatu-The city of Kings-Kind of a cross between Manhattan and Coruscant

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Heijan I LOVE that art. Concept sounds cool too!

 

[LittleStar]

So January's come back around again, and with it I've dropped my days at the day job to make my way through a few more first drafts and a bunch of heavy editting leftover from last year.

I'm taking it a bit slower this year, having proved to myself last time that I could use discipline and force myself down to 9-5 writing, this year it's a bit more relaxed, but still quite intense. I think I averaged 8-9k a day last year, so...

Title: All About Alys
Genre: Romance
Current Wordcount: 8,018
Projected Wordcount: 55-60k
Start Date: 1st Jan 2017
Projected End Date : 8th Jan 2017

Status:
So a romance, set in my extended universe but otherwise a pure, SFF free romance. This is the story that wanted to be told next, I have no control Ive never written one before, but very oddly, in a roundabout way, I think I'd class myself as more romance writer, just in SFF settings usually.

The opening went a little slower than I was anticipating, the detail/attachment was less than I'd intended, and it left the opening couple of chapters not really as good as i had hoped in my brain (but when is it ever) it was a bit disappointing to be honest but first draft and all that good stuff, right?
Next 4 chatters picked up though and I started to like the main character a lot more, which is what was missing from the opening, I'd realised. So that can be fixed in redraft.

I'm unsure of the final wordcount i wanted to put 40-60k but wanted to am for a smaller margin, just for funsies. And similarly, I thinkive over egged my completion date, I'm aiming for the 6th as the end date, but as 3rd and 7th are day job days for me, I wanted a bit of leeway.

Up to chapter 7 of 28ish so far, and I'll pick up with a potential car crash dinner scene in the morning.

 

[LittleStar]

Title: All About Alys
Genre: Romance
Current Wordcount: 8,018
Projected Wordcount: 55-60k
Start Date: 1st Jan 2017
Projected End Date : 8th Jan 2017

Status: Day One
So a romance, set in my extended universe but otherwise a pure, SFF free romance. This is the story that wanted to be told next, I have no control Ive never written one before, but very oddly, in a roundabout way, I think I'd class myself as more romance writer, just in SFF settings usually.

The opening went a little slower than I was anticipating, the detail/attachment was less than I'd intended, and it left the opening couple of chapters not really as good as i had hoped in my brain (but when is it ever) it was a bit disappointing to be honest but first draft and all that good stuff, right?
Next 4 chatters picked up though and I started to like the main character a lot more, which is what was missing from the opening, I'd realised. So that can be fixed in redraft.

I'm unsure of the final wordcount i wanted to put 40-60k but wanted to am for a smaller margin, just for funsies. And similarly, I thinkive over egged my completion date, I'm aiming for the 6th as the end date, but as 3rd and 7th are day job days for me, I wanted a bit of leeway.

Up to chapter 7 of 28ish so far, and I'll pick up with a potential car crash dinner scene in the morning.

Title: All About Alys
Genre: Romance
Current Wordcount: 14,982
Projected Wordcount: 55-60k
Start Date: 1st Jan 2017
Projected End Date : 8th Jan 2017

Status: Day Two
The car crash dinner scene was less of a car crash than could have been. Maybe a slightly awkward fender bender instead. And I join them next time on a kind of first date, but also very much not.

I feel lie the main two characters are really coming out now, so certainly see e failings of e opening chapters... I guess this is owns some writers need to 'write themselves into' a scene/chapter/novel, and people tell them the axe the first 10k etc. Well thanks to thorough prior planning I can't do that without compromising story, so I'll settle for a good editing instead

(This was yesterday's work, but I didn't get around to updating (today was a day job day, so no more added)).

 

[LittleStar]

Title: All About Alys
Genre: Romance
Current Wordcount: 14,982
Projected Wordcount: 55-60k
Start Date: 1st Jan 2017
Projected End Date : 8th Jan 2017

Status: Day Two

Genre: Romance
Current Wordcount: 20,398
Projected Wordcount: 55-60k
Start Date: 1st Jan 2017
Projected End Date : 8th Jan 2017

Status: Day Three

I wrote less today than usual, only around 5k, though I did have a couple of hours of life taking over in the middle. I'm pretty happy wth what I put down on e-paper though.

Tomorrow's chapters are exciting though, begining with the 'first kiss' chapter and I think ending with an sibling upset.
Also, speaking briefly with my partner (before they've even read a word of it) I mostly decided for the advantages of framing the narrative for an extra punch in the emotion. I'll finish as it is, and reassesses, so there might be at least two, maybe 3-4 more chapters to write once ths draft is done.


As for the genre I've chosen to write in, I'm finding next to no difference from my fantasy, sf, horror, et al. writing. Apart from a fair amount less world building (almost all?) and different takes on action and plot excitement, they are seemingly identical.

Over the last year or so I've become more and more convinced that I'm not an SFF writer... I'm just a plain old writer. A writer of (hopefully) well developed and realistic characters. Whether they be in a spaceship fighting aliens, or taking a gentle stroll along a riverbank, its the characters and how they interact/inform each other that makes the story.

 

[LittleStar]

Title: All About Alys
Genre: Romance
Current Wordcount: 20,398
Projected Wordcount: 55-60k
Start Date: 1st Jan 2017
Projected End Date : 8th Jan 2017

Status: Day Three

Title: All About Alys
Genre: Romance
Current Wordcount: 27, 936
Projected Wordcount: 40-45k
Start Date: 1st Jan 2017
Projected End Date : 8th Jan 2017

Status: Day Four
I was happy with today's work, and the end is in sight. Lots of tense scenes saw a few fights, a few kisses, a couple of elephants and a great deal of confusion in their lives/relationship. One element I'd inserted in my planning hasn't really slotted into this draft as much as I'd wanted it, so either that's a task to add in during first round of edits, or I'll cut that small plot angle, it was well enough without I think.

I'm not steaming through quite at the pace of last year (around 10k short at this stage I should think) but they're very different kinds of stories I'm telling at the moment, and truth be told I'm not pushing myself as hard this time anyway... That said if we're talking draft count, instead of word count, I'm coming in at twice the speed. 1 week completion, instead of two

(I've got one project lined up for a coupe of weeks time that should be written, read through, edited, beta-read, and edited again in a single day. Granted is a children's picture(less at the moment) book, but it sounds impressive nonetheless )

All About Alys is going to be around the 40k mark so I've amended the rojected wordcount. End date will be the 8th though (5 full days of work and a bit extra), a full day tomorrow, then half a day or so of work on Sunday and I can knock off early and start thinking about project number two

 

[Wruter]

Go, Littlestar! I'm not at all envious of your productivity!

*weeps*

 

[LittleStar]

Go, Littlestar! I'm not at all envious of your productivity!

*weeps*

The secret is lots of snacks


But dont be too jealous, my exceptional 'productivity' for the rest of the year goes a long way to making up for it all

 

[LittleStar]

Title: All About Alys
Genre: Romance
Current Wordcount: 27,936
Projected Wordcount: 40-45k
Start Date: 1st Jan 2017
Projected End Date : 8th Jan 2017

Status: Day Four

Title: All About Alys
Genre: Romance
Current Wordcount: 33,652
Projected Wordcount: 40-45k
Start Date: 1st Jan 2017
Projected End Date : 8th Jan 2017

Status: Day Five

Today went well as well. I liked the chapters, quite strong, character emotions stuff. All leading into the final few chapters and the ending image, all to be written on Sunday, as per my projected end date It should come out somwhere very close to 40k, though I'm leaning more and more towards the framed story idea, which should add an extra 5k or so at some point.

 

[LittleStar]

Title: All About Alys
Genre: Romance
Current Wordcount: 33,652
Projected Wordcount: 40-45k
Start Date: 1st Jan 2017
Projected End Date : 8th Jan 2017

Status: Day Five

Title: All About Alys
Genre: Romance
Current Wordcount: 39,953
Projected Wordcount: 40-45k
Start Date: 1st Jan 2017
End Date : 8th Jan 2017

All About Alys - 1st-8th Jan.

Status: Day Six

Done. All About Alys is completed. First draft at least, and darn it all if I didn't come under my wordcount by 47 words! Mabe I should go add a few more in eh? Was a bit more than half a day to finish the last few scenes, but I got it done on time. Six days good (not flawless) discipline and I'm happy with it.

I do still think that framing it might give an extra punch to the story, but that will come in a redraft later this year sometime (or later in Feb if all other redrafts and edits go massively better than planned).

Now a break for the rest of the day I think, and a victory bourbon (the biscuit, not the drink), then tomorrow I'm back on the road to first draft city, Autonomous.