Discussion thread -- SEVENTY-FIVE WORD WRITING CHALLENGE June 2013

[AMB]

Thanks, Perp.

 

[stormcrow]

EloiseA - Thank You for your review and comments! Made my morning.

I'm not going to have access online for the next 36 hours or so, so it's nice to temporarilly 'check out' on a positive note!

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Thanks Victoria and Eloise for the comments!

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Thanks for the review, Eloise!

 

[chrispenycate]

People, please count your words carefully. There's already one of this month's submissions that's a word over, and will soon disappear (if it hasn't already), and another where a compound word is being seriously questioned… (if you have any doubts, annoy a mod. Don't know a mod? The Judge, Teresa, Ursa and myself are all eminently annoyable on these matters.) But don't count carefully just for me –*I know just how devastating it can be to have your piece withdrawn, as I did it myself. Posted an earlier version of an entry which hadn't been quite whittled down far enough, and thus do not have an unbroken record first until now. I've already put the two onto my chart, into the spreadsheet for voting, their submissions into the file in my portable letting me read the stories while in transit between existences (my life is now packed into cardboard boxes – where I will be come the moment to vote is unclear).

My muse delivered me an idea the moment I saw the theme, said "that would work well in verse", then rushed off, leaving me to worry about scansion and rhyme. Lazy wench.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Arrgh, sorry, Perp! I didn't see yours before! Ty!

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

Mmmm, could be interesting

 

[Luiglin]

People, please count your words carefully. There's already one of this month's submissions that's a word over

I had to double check mine before posting as MS Word counts the ellipsis as a word ... which is damn annoying.

 

[ratsy]

Thanks for the comment Eloise

 

[Perpetual Man]

Arrgh, sorry, Perp! I didn't see yours before! Ty!

That's quite or right springs, I'm posting so irregularly and behind schedule at the moment, that I don't know what I've posted.

You are most welcome, and a most welcome to AMB too

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Whew. Almost forgot about the thing. A lot of my mind the past few weeks.


I got something up. Interesting choice there.

 

[Cathy M.]

Im right at 75 words, I counted around 12 times to make sure. Phew!

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Wow, Karn, you got in just in the nick of time, there!

 

[EloiseA]

I just want to apologise for posting a word too many. My entry has been removed. It was quite unintentional and I did check with Wordpress count but obviously I messed up.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Don't trust any auto-word-count...count the words yourself. And always remember to count auto-word-count as three words, most auto-word-count programs see hyphenated words as one word...

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I just want to apologise for posting a word too many. My entry has been removed. It was quite unintentional and I did check with Wordpress count but obviously I messed up.

Oh, hard luck,it's really annoying, I liked yours, too. You will now be an obsessive checker - I do what TJ suggested now and go backwards so I don't get distracted with the story.

 

[The Judge]

There's certainly no need to apologise, Eloise -- it's all too easy to make a mistake in counting. I've had occasions when I've counted a story three times and got three different answers! But as DEO says, never rely on the machines to count for you -- they miscount deliberately as part of their grand scheme of world domination. In particular, they take no account of mis-joined words and/or wrongly used hyphens -- and another excellent story has had to be pulled on that basis, too.

So a general reminder to everyone -- COUNT BY HAND AND CHECK YOUR WORDS/SPELLINGS! If in doubt, ask. If still in doubt err on the side of caution and treat it as two (or three or whatever) words, not one.


NB another trick I use is to divide the story up into lengths eg the 75 worder into lines of 5 words each. Even I can manage not to miscount 5 words on a line, and all I need do is check I've got the right number of lines and no odd words hanging over.

 

[Ursa major]

I use a variation on that, TJ, though it does** require a hard copy. I go through the text with a pen, putting a / after five words and // after ten (adding the cumulative total of //s next to each //.).

And being somewhat obsessive, I do this more than once. (It uses a little extra ink/toner, but one can print quite a few 75-worders on a sheet of A4.) And I use word count to check my count. (And also the grammar checker's word count, which isn't always the same.)


So far, this has all worked. *fingers crossed *


** - Actually, one can mark up the story in Word using the Inking function (found under the Review tab in Word 2007 and, presumably, later versions).

 

[jastius]

(cringes in abashment) I always use the auto count... but my obsession with ellipses has its perqs... ellipses are counted as words in auto count .. so when i take them out and replace with normal punctuation, i have some wiggle room.. another save is including your title to begin with.. then you have the extra words..
i find an easier way to stick to the count is to break up the allotted words into 25 for beginning ... 25 for the middle and 25 for the finish...
that way you have a gauge.
anyways, its too bad eloise.. i read your story and it was all shiny sparkley amazing like the rest of your stuff.. you can post it here in the discussion thread if you want, i believe (when are people allowed to do that, anyone? i know they are at some point)

 

[chrispenycate]

(cringes in abashment) I always use the auto count... but my obsession with ellipses has its perqs... ellipses are counted as words in auto count .. so when i take them out and replace with normal punctuation, i have some wiggle room.. another save is including your title to begin with.. then you have the extra words..
i find an easier way to stick to the count is to break up the allotted words into 25 for beginning ... 25 for the middle and 25 for the finish...
that way you have a gauge.
anyways, its too bad eloise.. i read your story and it was all shiny sparkley amazing like the rest of your stuff.. you can post it here in the discussion thread if you want, i believe (when are people allowed to do that, anyone? i know they are at some point)

After voting, so it doesn't influence the vote in any way. Like alternative stories, those that missed the deadline, and explanations of what your story was meant to mean, before amputation down to acceptable size rendered it incomprehensible.

After my runnin with wordcount I always try to leave a word spare, in case some hyphenated or invented word is considered inacceptable.