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Measuring one’s words
So, back to writing about writing, which beats navel-gazing in that you don’t get a stiff neck. I’ve started putting together a Master Fic List, because some of my friends have them and they seem like something the Cool Kids have. I never got to be one of the Cool Kids.
Meanwhile, I’ll start at the middle, or possibly the end, and jump around randomly.
If the end is the current moment: at the current moment, I’m working on the final chapter of a story titled Revision, which is probably going to come out around 15,000 – 18,000 words. And this is a fine moment to point out my word meter, which I added to this site late last year, but has probably escaped much notice, the introverted little thing. It’s quite a ways down on the home page, in the right-hand column, below the links list. I originally used one of the really pretty meters hosted by zokutou, but they let their site go into limbo some time after NaNoWriMo. I gather that this has happened before. If they don’t pay their bills and bring their site back, I really hope someone else starts hosting the meters, because they were far and away the prettiest ones around. Heck, I'd host them myself if I knew how.
With the zokutou meter, I was able to provide mouseover text for each segment: the left-hand (completed) portion was tagged ‘current story progress’ and the right-hand (unfinished) portion read “estimated total based on a Scientific Wild-Assed Guess”. I miss the mouseover text.
I stole the word meter idea from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jackwabbit, who did NaNo last year. I use it to track progress on whatever story I have going at present; I used it for Aftershocks and 101 Uses for a Dead Uzi. This required me to actually learn to edit the word meter code, because Aftershocks is a novel and 101 UDU is a short story. The standard NaNo meter is set at 50,000 words, because that’s the NaNo challenge. So I re-edit the code depending on how long I think the story is going to be; then I re-edit it as I make progress.
I do have a sense of story length when I start, which grows more accurate as I proceed, but it changes. Since I don’t have to write to a specific publisher-dictated length, I have the freedom to let a story find its own length. For me, that means keeping the thing from sprawling; I’m writing action-adventure, after all, and it’s essential to keep the writing tight. During the writing of Aftershocks, my estimate changed at least four times, mostly growing (reluctantly) longer. This meant that the meter looked like a slowly advancing tide: it would reach a point, I’d reset the total length, and the amount I’d completed would suddenly retract to a smaller section of the overall meter. Then it would start to grow again.
At the moment, as I said, it’s tracking Revision, which you can read here if you aren’t already following it. I’m on chapter 5, which is going to be the final chapter. {Yes, I'm confident of that. Mostly.) Chapter 4 crawled along extremely slowly, and I’m hoping the slow pace will pick up again. I took the plunge and started posting WIP beginning with Aftershocks, most of which came along at a steady enough clip that I was able to post a new piece every week. Revision is much shorter, with a much less complicated plot, and you’d think the damned thing would be more cooperative, but noooo.
Anyway, back to writing. I need to see how much trouble I can get my boys into by the end of the day!
Meanwhile, I’ll start at the middle, or possibly the end, and jump around randomly.
If the end is the current moment: at the current moment, I’m working on the final chapter of a story titled Revision, which is probably going to come out around 15,000 – 18,000 words. And this is a fine moment to point out my word meter, which I added to this site late last year, but has probably escaped much notice, the introverted little thing. It’s quite a ways down on the home page, in the right-hand column, below the links list. I originally used one of the really pretty meters hosted by zokutou, but they let their site go into limbo some time after NaNoWriMo. I gather that this has happened before. If they don’t pay their bills and bring their site back, I really hope someone else starts hosting the meters, because they were far and away the prettiest ones around. Heck, I'd host them myself if I knew how.
With the zokutou meter, I was able to provide mouseover text for each segment: the left-hand (completed) portion was tagged ‘current story progress’ and the right-hand (unfinished) portion read “estimated total based on a Scientific Wild-Assed Guess”. I miss the mouseover text.
I stole the word meter idea from
jackwabbit, who did NaNo last year. I use it to track progress on whatever story I have going at present; I used it for Aftershocks and 101 Uses for a Dead Uzi. This required me to actually learn to edit the word meter code, because Aftershocks is a novel and 101 UDU is a short story. The standard NaNo meter is set at 50,000 words, because that’s the NaNo challenge. So I re-edit the code depending on how long I think the story is going to be; then I re-edit it as I make progress.I do have a sense of story length when I start, which grows more accurate as I proceed, but it changes. Since I don’t have to write to a specific publisher-dictated length, I have the freedom to let a story find its own length. For me, that means keeping the thing from sprawling; I’m writing action-adventure, after all, and it’s essential to keep the writing tight. During the writing of Aftershocks, my estimate changed at least four times, mostly growing (reluctantly) longer. This meant that the meter looked like a slowly advancing tide: it would reach a point, I’d reset the total length, and the amount I’d completed would suddenly retract to a smaller section of the overall meter. Then it would start to grow again.
At the moment, as I said, it’s tracking Revision, which you can read here if you aren’t already following it. I’m on chapter 5, which is going to be the final chapter. {Yes, I'm confident of that. Mostly.) Chapter 4 crawled along extremely slowly, and I’m hoping the slow pace will pick up again. I took the plunge and started posting WIP beginning with Aftershocks, most of which came along at a steady enough clip that I was able to post a new piece every week. Revision is much shorter, with a much less complicated plot, and you’d think the damned thing would be more cooperative, but noooo.
Anyway, back to writing. I need to see how much trouble I can get my boys into by the end of the day!
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As for pruning, I'm still working on that skill, but I try to cut rather than add. As they say, murder your darlings. You might have the greatest sentence ever, but if you don't need it, you don't need it. Kill it!
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"Murder the darlings" is one of the best pieces of writing advice EVER, and I'm still gratified that you pointed out that collection of Wil's deathless wisdom.
A funny thing happened about halfway through writing Aftershocks: I had a right proper darling kicking around, a really juicy interaction between Ruth Collins and Dexter. Oh, I wanted to use it. But the plot structure was not supporting it. So I gritted my teeth, invoked the spirit of Supreme Wil, and consigned it to oblivion.
Then the next section of the plot structure promptly lined itself up -- and I got to use it after all.
I remain convinced that it would never have worked if I hadn't been willing to murder it.
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But does my brain deceive me? I thought it was Stephen King who taught me to murder, in On Writing? Of course, I read that book on the Wil's advice in Just a Geek, so...who knows? It very well might have been in both places.
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Oh, and I heartily recommend the book. It's great, and I'm not usually one for such things.