The chronicles word counter!

[THX1138]

Novel: Alien Crew (original story but book 2 in the trilogy)
Sci-FI
Words: A tiny 2000

I started this a few months ago (after years of planning and research), but the MC was just a thoughtless, emotionless stick figure. I have been working on this issue this past few months and am now ready to restart the story. It's been driving me nuts not writing it.

 

[msstice]

Hi,

Interesting thread. Here's mine at the moment (I'm pure pantster!)

Novel: BOUND - epic fantasy
Words 141,563 (as of about lunch time)

Novel: MOODY - urban sci fi (title may well change, the books not two weeks old yet!)
Words 51,600 (ish)

Novel: THE KEEPER 2 - detective / police procedural / female sleuth - Sequel to The Keeper
Words 4,300 (ish) (I only started it yesterday!)

Currently I'm sort of half blocked on all three and jumping between them almost at random as I think of something!

Cheers, Greg.

I wonder what would happen to me if I tried to work on three separate stories at the same time. My analytical brain says I would freeze up, but I wonder if the effect would be the same as being slightly drunk: the writing actually gets a little better.

 

[sknox]

First, a thank you to msstice for resurrecting this thread.

I'm at 41.5 on my current story, The Tower of Guard. I also check once in a while on the background and character sketches and the rest, imaginatively called Notes. Early in a project there are more Notes than Story, but I passed that bar some time ago. Notes currently stands at 20.5k.

Health issues have kept me from gaining any real momentum for the past few months, but I slog on. My original goal of releasing in March 2023 is looking less and less realistic, but not so much that I stop pretending to aim.

 

[AllanR]

30.5k. That makes 4.8 for the week.

35k. A 4.5k week.
I did delete a 1k scene though.

 

[sknox]

44.1k
Wrote a scene where my protagonists finally (!) figure out what they're up against. They are still underestimating what he might do, though. It's not the enemy that's the real danger, it's making mistakes about the enemy.

 

[msstice]

44.1k
Wrote a scene where my protagonists finally (!) figure out what they're up against.

Sounds quote interesting. Happy to beta read when it gets closer.

 

[sknox]

Thanks for the offer! Aiming for late winter to finish draft. When it's ready, I'll hunt you down ... er, will let you know.

 

[msstice]

Bk1: +956, -740 => 111283

This is the product of three days of wrestling with revising one scene. It's heavy on dialog, and I just can't seem to get it right. I may finally have it in a decent shape where the back-and-forth flows naturally and what comes out from their mouths is interesting and not repetitive. I might take a chunk from this and post on Critiques to get pointers on how to improve my dialog skills.

 

[msstice]

Bk1 +353, -215 => 111423

Still slowly working my way through the dialog heavy bit ...

 

[AllanR]

35k. A 4.5k week.

39.3k, makes for 4.2k this week, slowing down....

 

[Anne Martin]

Novel: The Eleventh Book
Genre: Literary Fantasy
Word Count: 25357 (15.5 chapters)
Status: My progress has slowed even more. The sections are taking about 3 chapters (of 2000 words or so) to get through, and they have a pattern of starting quickly, slowing down until I figure out what I'm doing, then picking up the pace again in the third chapter of the section. I'm in the middle of the second section now, which is usually the slowest portion, but I have mostly figured out what I'm doing for this section, so after the holiday is over, I should be back to full speed. That said, I may go longer in this section.

 

[msstice]

Bk1: +605, -602 => 111390

This was over several days. I'm declaring draft 2 of ch2 done. The dialog flows a little better and is more interesting and less repetitive. It will require more work, but I should move on.

 

[AllanR]

39.3k, makes for 4.2k this week,

41.1, that's only 1.8k for this week. I ran into a snag but I think I plowed through it.

 

[msstice]

Bk1: 111831

Several days on chapter 3, rewriting dialog and cleaning things up. I'm focusing on stuff mentioned in Mixing dialogue and prose, a thought on presentation. (i.e. trying to minimize mixing of action and dialog) I'm also reordering dialog to make it more logical and more cause-and-effect.

 

[Anne Martin]

Novel: The Eleventh Book
Genre: Literary Fantasy
Word Count: 32,222 (19.5 chapters)
Status: My progress had slowed, but it is moving quickly again, and should continue that way until I reach the end of chapter 20. I've reached the gate of the City of Dis (the entry to the sixth circle of Hell). Between yesterday and today, I've written about 3000 words. I'm still on track with 1600-2000 words per chapter. At this rate, it is looking more like a more healthy 80,000 words by the time I get through it. I have a few novella under 45,000, but my shortest novel (Writer's Block) is about 70,000, so this is looking on par with that one.

 

[msstice]

Bk1: 112016

I've gone back to revising Ch1. Ch1 takes place on "The frontier" and Ch2 takes place "Back on the ranch". I just realized that I can split up Ch1 at a cliff hanger into New Ch1 and new Ch3 so the ordering is New Ch1, Ch2, New Ch3. This raises the tension quite a bit because Ch2 involves people guessing what's happening at "The frontier" and something's actually happening.

 

[AllanR]

41.1, that's only 1.8k for this week.

Now at 43.3k, making this week at 2.2k. Still a bit lower than I want, though I pretty happy with the quality.

 

[msstice]

Bk1: +808, -281 => 112545

Longest bit of fresh writing I've done in a while. Still in the process of reorg-ing ch 1. Tomorrow I will expand out some bullet points I did (fresh writing) and then split the action in the chapter, so I can splice Ch 2 into the middle.

Somehow the word count keeps ballooning: it seems only yesterday I managed to get below 100k.

 

[AllanR]

Now at 43.3k, making this week at 2.2k.

The City of Eternal Spring....
2.1k this week puts me at 45.4k. Getting close to finishing the first draft (probably by the end of the month)

 

[msstice]

Bk1: 112545 -> 113607

I made improvements to chapter 1 and then split it, leaving it on a cliffhanger, so that the "Meanwhile, back on the ranch." Ch 2 comes next, and then we get back to the frontier in the new Ch 3 which is the old Ch1's end.