I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Monday, August 17, 2009

In the bag

Chapter 18 is done. And it was long enough so I did break it into Chapters 18 and 19. And extra 3020 words to the novel. I think I'm going to put that word bar over on the widget side (WIPS and Whips). That way it'll constantly be there (that's the "whip" part). So we add 3025 words tonight.

3 comments:

Stewart Sternberg (half of L.P. Styles) said...

You know, I've always tried to stay away from any focus on words. However, in the last couple years, I admit, they've loomed in my mind as I've written. I'm currently at 59,000 words on a novel and doing a happy dance, although I'm aiming for 100,000. Unlike some folk, once I do a first draft, I find I end up adding to it in the revision, rewrite.

Rick said...

Great going, Steve! Sounds like you're headed toward a brilliant finish.

Steve Buchheit said...

Stewart, add me into that column of people who have to add. That's why I'm headed into the third act of the novel and am only a little over half the word count I was aiming for. I'm not worried. With the rewrites I'm sure I'll more than pass my 73000 lower limit.

I've started watching word count as I learned how to write short stories. My first stories ended up north of 8000 words. Now I can comfortably write stories less than 5000 words. I've also developed a good knack for intuiting what a story's word count will be when I start. And that had been a real help.

Rick, thanks. I hope so. We're getting to the point where I want it to be a page turner (I think there's about two or three more chapters of world/story building, the other ten will be action). I'm going for the "and once I got to the last half of the book, I couldn't put it down" kind of ending.

But I realized this morning I will need to rewrite some of Chapter 19. I had forgotten that we would have been in a different jurisdiction and had the cops behaving like the downtown force, which they wouldn't. It won't change much, but it will add the counter point to a plot point that happened five chapters in the past (about two days - as we approach the end the passage of time to chapter count slows).