Category: Metrics

Word Metrics 1/2/10 and a General Update

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It’s perhaps a bit early in the day to be posting word metrics – it’s only 11am here and I might do more writing yet. Still, I’ve got a bit of breathing space in which to post a blog entry, so I’ll go ahead anyway.

I’m not actually sure what percentage I was on last time I posted one of these, but I think I’m making respectable progress. I’m about a quarter of the way through and I think I really understand all my characters and what they want. I also have a clear idea of what the end is going to be like, though bits of the middle are still decidedly fuzzy.

This also brings my yearly total to 12265. Not bad for a month’s work, I reckon, although some of it will never see the light of day, being just character studies or things written because I’d burnt out on the novel but still wanted to write something.

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And now, because I have time, a quick update on everything I’m doing apart from writing.

What I’m Reading: Currently ‘The Warrior-Prophet’ by R. Scott Bakker. I really enjoyed the first book in this series (which, incidentally, is a few years old now. not something brand new) and I’m enjoying this one too, although there does sometimes seem to be too much philosophical discussion and not enough actually happening.

What I’m Listening To: Not as much metal as I used to, as I feel like I’ve exhausted all the decent metal bands. New music in the genre just seems to be derivative or in styles that I don’t particularly like. Having said that, I’ve just discovered Green Carnation and I’m particularly liking their album ‘A Blessing in Disguise’.

What I’m Playing: Too much World of Warcraft and not much else. As with most MMOs, I go through weeks of playing it obsessively, before abandoning it entirely for a while. I have also been playing a bit of Assassin’s Creed and the first of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games. The former’s game mechanics began to annoy me so much that I’ve given up with it, but the KOTOR games are always good so I’ll probably keep going with that one.

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And that really is everything from me for now. Time to get back to work.

‘The Magicians’ and Word Metrics 18/01/10

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First up, I wanted to mention a book I finished recently: ‘The Magicians’ by Lev Grossman. (Incidentally, I’m not planning to use this blog for full reviews, but I will mention books I enjoyed or found interesting.) The Magicians is something of a mix of Harry Potter, Narnia and modern American college life. There’s magic and other worlds, but also sex and alcohol and a group of teenagers/20-somethings who don’t know what they want out of life and are facing a lifetime without purpose.

It’s an interesting book and one which displays a sense of wonder and a very depressing view of becoming an adult in equal measure. It’s not always a likeable book and neither are the characters, but despite the bleakness, it’s incredibly compelling.

On a final note, why is it that when fantasy and SF makes it into a more ‘literary’ book, it’s always so grim? I can’t think of a single SF novel that’s made it into the General Fiction section of the bookshop where I work without being about a dystopian future. I don’t read a lot of lit. fic. but I get the impression it’s all very depressing.
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Now, briefly, some word metrics. I’ve gone back to a novel that I abandoned before Xmas, which stands at this:

My current total for the year comes to 5025. Yeah, that’s a truly pathetic amount but I’m working on it. It’s taken me three days, but I’m finally decided which of my many projects I’m going to work on until completion. Now that I’ve made the decision, I can press on and stop dithering.

And with that said, time to get back to work.

Word Metrics 08/01/10, and Good News

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Time for another update on the state of my writing. My short story, Jun and Yuniko, stands thus:

It’s coming along quite nicely, albeit not at any great speed. Still, I think I got the structure right when I planned it out the first time so now it’s just a matter of writing the scenes into their respective places.

I’ve also added a few hundred words here and there on some other writing projects – mostly ones that I have no plans for and which I’m just playing around with. I always need to be writing something, even when I have no intention of even finishing it. So, here’s my updated yearly word count:

Total words so far this year: 2616

Yeah, it looks underwhelming. That’s a week’s work and it’s pretty low by my usual standards. However, certain things are very soon going to come into play that will mean I’ll be able to write more.

Put simply, I’ve been offered a new job. I’m still waiting for confirmation of a start date, but this is great news for me. Finally, I have the security of a permanent job with regular hours. And, as I’ll be working evenings, my mornings and some afternoons are going to be given over entirely to writing.

So, here’s to 2010: the year both my new career and my writing will hopefully both make progress!

Word Metrics 3/01/10

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In an effort to keep myself honest about how much writing I’m actually doing on a day to day basis, I’ve decided I’m going to update the blog regularly with word metrics, as well as all the other posts I’ve got planned. These could be word counts for novels or for short stories, or for all sorts of half-baked story ideas that I know will never get off the ground but which I need to scribble down because otherwise they’ll never leave me alone.

First up this year is a nameless short story that I started a couple of days ago. As is usually the case when I can’t come up with a name, I’ll just call it by the names of the main characters: Jun and Yuniko. So, here’s the progress on that one, spread over a couple of days.

Which brings me to another count that I’ve decided to keep this year.

Total words composed this year: 1430

I know I write a substantial number of words every year but I’ve never bothered to keep track of them as a whole before. Last year, for example, I know I finished two novels and a couple of short stories – together, they probably reached about 150k words, and that’s not including all the other half-finished bits and pieces kicking around on my hard drive.

I should probably point out that I’m not aiming for any particular number of words over the course of the year. This is purely out of interest (and because writerly stats always make me unreasonably excited) but, all being well, I’ll be updating my word metrics every few days.

And if I’m not writing? Well, I’ll have to admit that too.