Chapter 23 is dead!

[jpskewedthrone]

So I finished chapter 23 today after a marathon writing session in which I produced many words. It didn't end where I thought it would end though, so the "final" scene was bumped to chapter 24. (And now you see why my books just keep going and going and . . .)

In a revelatory moment this morning at the gym, I discovered exactly how this book is going to end. And I mean exactly. The last scene, the last action, and the last sentence. The scene I was contemplating for the ending . . . has been bumped to the beginning of book 2. Are you sensing a pattern here? This is perhaps why "trilogies" end up not really being trilogies. (Although so far my one and only trilogy is actually just a trilogy and this current project looks like it will follow that pattern.)

In any case, I have one week left in which to finish the first draft of this novel. Then there will be a 10 day break while I rush off to Kansas City and grade AP Calculus papers (and try to sell everyone there my books). Once I return, the rest of June will be revisions, revisions, revisions so I can send this sucker in, hopefully in a much smaller, shortened form. Here's the current gigantic, colossal word count!

181,000 / 100,000 (181.0%)

Well of Sorrows

Comments

[ruthannereid.livejournal.com]

Wow. Just wow. I almost want to tell you to just keep going and get two books out of it - but then, I'm starving for more reading material. :D

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

Chapter 23 is dead! Long live Chapter 24! (But not too long - we do want you to finish *g*)

[vcmorris.livejournal.com]

Yowzers & WooWoo! And, congrats, too! It's always grand to be able to see the ending so very clearly.

I hear ya though... Blood Slave is begging for a better and more appropriate ending than I gave it. But at least I have the option to ignore its plaintive mews in the corner while I do other things. I'm not quite so infamous, erm, famous as you just yet. :)

How do I get one of them there, fancy-shmancy Word Count meters?

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

That's a heck of a word count, dude. Holy phallic bubble-bursting word-count ticker, Batman!

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

And it's GROWING!

Word Count Method

[vespican.livejournal.com]

To satisfy my curiosity, is your word count based on what your computer says it is, or is it an estimated count based on a set number of words per page? I've been told many times, that one should use an estimated count of 250 per page if a manuscript is in Times Roman, or 200 per page if in Courier. With that in mind, my first story, BEYOND THE OCEAN'S EDGE, sits at 396 pages or 99,000 words. By using the word count provided by the operating system, it comes out at close to 120,000 words.
While I've been told that most in the writing publishing industry use the estimated count, I've also seen cases where agents and others want a more specific count. I'd say that for anyone submitting work, that they should be aware that recepients might want it "the other way," and be prepared to provide the word count method preferred.

And, looking at your current word count, I'd say you have enough to make two decent books. Of course, that would depend upon just how much cutting you do during revision. Currently, my two completed manuscripts total 197,000 words, and I'm only a third to one half way through the original story they are based on. Perhaps I'm writing in the same way that they used two hundred years ago to describe how the English built ships for their navy. It was something to the effect of building a never ending ship, and slicing it off whenever there was enough to be considered a new vessel. (I think there might have also been a "dig" at the design qualities of the ships as well. Sort of a mass-produced commodity, instead of original, extremely well engineered, individual craft.) Any way, it might be that I'm writing and writing on the same basic story, and slicing if off in book length chunks.
By the way, I still haven't had a chance to pick up copies of any of your work. I'm sort of "house bound" right now, recovering from some minor surgery. In a few days, I should be up and about, and I'll definitely make it a point to look for one of them. My wife and daughter didn't pick up on it as a hint for my B'day, but there is still Father's Day.
Dave

Re: Word Count Method

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Word count for the meter is based on estimated word count at 250 words per page. For the Nin90 word count (posted over there, not here) I use what the computer tells me I wrote.

Most publishers and agents will want the estimated count, not the "actual" word count, since different processors will count the words differently.

I fully intend to cut this book down to 120,000 words if possible. I'm not sure that's possible, but that's the goal. I need to get it within something close to that for my editor to accept the book.

Re: Word Count Method

[vespican.livejournal.com]

I was assuming you used the estimated count method. I do understand that that is what most folks in the publishing industry want. Yet it seems that there are the occasional oddballs who prefer an actual count. I suppose one should be aware of just what a particular industry denizen wants when submitting.
I imagine that it would not be impossible to cut down to 120,000 or so. After all, I cut my first one from 135,000 to around 99,000. I can remember only removing one actual scene. Everything else was a matter of removing a little excess here, and a little excess there. Funny, but when I was in high school and went back and re-wrote something, it usually got longer. Now, even without trying, things tend to get shorter. (I lost ten pages in two run throughs of my second.)
Dave