McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Accountability, author's timecard, word count written, feeling lonely out there?
Kali:
Another day, another 2100 words. This won't last. This just happened to be a particularly vivid scene and is about to come to an end. I'm not even sure what, exactly, I want to have happen in the next scene. I know in a large-scale sense what has to happen next, but the pondering of how to get there means that the word count is going to tank. I'm just enjoying this while it lasts.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Kali on September 23, 2010, 08:23:21 PM ---For really impressive word counts, neuro is my personal deity. I look like a slacker! ;D
--- End quote ---
I accept chocolate in lieu of worship. Anything more elaborate should be negotiated in person.
--- Quote ---I like the idea of a weekly word count. That means if you have one really good day, you can give yourself a break on a bad day or even take a day off from writing. I myself wouldn't take a day off the story, but there's always stuff to be done that's not actually writing; synopsis, blurb, more character sheets, always stuff to do!
--- End quote ---
When I'm not in between-jobs deathmarch, I very much think weekly; I am the sort of person who can really only do anything well in large chunks, so my pattern is to come home Friday, have dinner, and write usually for six to eight hours.
--- Quote ---Today, I actually have managed 2300 because I knew the high points of the scene. This scene goes on, but I know what bits I want to hit in the rest of it, so tomorrow might also be a good day. I also got the blog post done, though not the synopsis. I might work on that tonight if I feel the urge, or I'll poke at it tomorrow. We'll see. Definitely this week!
--- End quote ---
Go you.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
All the big things and remaining medium-sized things from the first pass done except for the new denouement chapter. Also some photo stuff done, which is a helpful different bit of my brain to exercise. at this point.
Kali:
As I have barely been managing the struggle to keep my head above the waters of clinical depression, my dog's death has had a rather predictable effect on my productivity. The word count can, temporarily, kiss my plump white buttocks. I've given myself the weekend to be a basket case, then Monday it's back to work.
But I did dig up some information on manuscript formatting today on Nathan Bransford's blog, and adjusted my ms accordingly. Some of it I knew (12 pt font, double spacing, 0.5" indent of paragraphs) but some of it I didn't (page break at chapters) and some of it I knew and assumed I had long ago changed in the default page setup for Word but hadn't (1" left and right margins) so I had to go back to do that. Additionally, I didn't have a title page with my contact info on it, so I made one of those.
Did you know that if you use double-spacing, 12 pt. Times New Roman font, with 1" left and right margins, one MS Word page is approximately 1 book page? Apparently, that's one of the reasons this formatting is preferred (plus it's easy to read). So, while the "250 words per page" pagecount comes out to be around 332 pages, the formatting pagecount is at 289 pages. I find that interesting for no reason I can specify.
Some days, that's all I'm up to. My first full day in almost 16 years without Cheyenne at my side is one of those days.
Tomorrow, 1.5k words!
jeno:
Oh, no. Kali, I'm so sorry.
Productivity be damned. Take the time you need and be kind to yourself. Do some busy work, check out agent blogs. Minutia was made for times like these.
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