Pages/Words
Posted by CM under Legalese, Ornithology, Writing on Mon 16 Apr 2007
‘ve converted my progress meters to page-count bars on the right. I tend to write very loosely, for whatever reason, and so I’ve decided to go by page count instead of word count. Yay.
Plus it makes it looks like I’ve done more. In reality, I really only have a few scenes to write in Book One, and then it’s revision time. As for Book Two–the progress bar is about right at 25%. I’ve gotten through 20% of the plot, and I’ve written 5% of the nonlinear scenes.
Yes, this is all futile. So, what mathematical tricks do you employ to make it look as if you’ve made progress? And do you manage to fool anyone?
April 16th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
It’s all about courier font. Times new roman 14 pt. doesn’t even come close. My finished MSS is 400 pages long, so I’m telling everyone it’s 100,000 words (despite the fact that the computer word count is around 90K). Let’s see… uhm, taking out contractions works pretty well for bumping up the word count.
April 16th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
But why would you want to take out contractions? I could add in more adverbs, too. But I loves me my contractions. Nobody’s taking them away, y’hear me? NOBODY!
April 16th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
So if you really want to bump up that meter, don’t use the 250 word per page method. Use the “functional word count” method. Count the words on ten random lines throughout the manuscript. Find the average. Multiply the average number of words per line times 25 per page. By this method I have one billion words. It’s great!
And Sara, my 399 page “100,000″ word manuscript has 89,000 words by computer count.
April 17th, 2007 at 12:14 am
Whoa. One billion words. I’m not sure I can trim my manuscript 1000%. Maybe that method is . . . extreme.
April 17th, 2007 at 12:57 am
I have the exact opposite problem, as you well know. My manuscript is 100K by MSWord count. Argh. There’s NO way I can cut another 10K words without changing the plot completely.
I think 90K is preferable to a publisher now. I only *wish* my manuscript were 90K.
April 17th, 2007 at 11:52 am
I have my WIP saved in separate chapters, so I have no idea what my total word count is. I have an excel sheet with my chapter page count on it (yes, this is what I do to feel productive). I also like to organize my desktop and surf the web for ‘important industry business’. lol. I think eating chocolate is also productive. Only because it makes me happy, and I’m writing romance here, not Orwellian drama.
April 17th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
You guys are nuts.
Nuts, I say!
There is no “looking” as if you’ve made progress. You’ve made progress!
Don’t make me start singing the “glad song” from Pollyanna….
April 17th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Oh, Gillian. Don’t tempt me!
You are going to Nationals, right?
April 17th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
But of course.
Doesn’t every massive National convention need a requisite number of bumpkins standing in awe in the lobby and saying “Shucks, you could fit a corn field in here” ??
Of course, it’s Texas. I may blend right in.
April 17th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Hey, Gillian, did you just diss the great state of Texas, my birthplace?
April 18th, 2007 at 1:21 am
They always say not to mess with Texas, but it seems to me that messing with Texans is a much more dangerous prospect….
April 18th, 2007 at 4:02 am
Texans are not capable of BEING dissed, ladies. They have that “everything bigger and better” thing going for them.
Trust me, I’d never dis a midwest state…born in KS, then moved to Arkansas, then Nebraska….then KS! (My geographical borders are large. If you’re in the middle, you’re midwest)
Want to hear dissed? Try telling a table full of East coast honeymooners that you are from Arkansas! They could not grasp the concept of two midwest kids actually finding their way to the Bahamas.
April 19th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Progress. . . guess the only way to measure it is to actually WRITE something every day (and I’m not talking responses to blogs).
Can you tell I’m PROCRASTINATING???
I love the little word meters, plus on the zodouko (sp?) site, you can play that opposites game too (you come up with a phrase opposite the current one)
April 19th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Yes, I count by pages. Feels more productive!