February Word Count
Friday, March 2nd, 2012 12:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizvogelthe new novel = 35
assorted mission stories = 553
first novel revisions = 124 net (599 gross; I had to cut a non-trivial chunk)
Total new words in February = 712 net (1187 gross)
Um, yeah. February was not a good month, writing-wise. Or at least word-count wise. While I still say it's a good base metric, it doesn't fully reflect the work involved in serious revisions. Not that even the gross count above is good, but the 475 I cut was at least as important as the ~300 I put in place of it. And the sheer re-reading involved is a non-trivial effort, and absolutely necessary.
It also doesn't reflect research on the new novel's replacement plot. Which I didn't do as much of as I should have, but I did get the key points established. There's some secondary research and some vital plot noodling left to do, but it's looking very promising.
All true, but also February was just not a good month. Not-writing makes me depressed, which makes me not write, which.... Yeah. There was a con and some day-job crunches and other excuses, but there was also a lot of just not doing it. Which is both the most detrimental and the part most under my control. So yeah, boot, meet backside.
That said, I'm actually excited about revising the first novel. It's going to be a lot of very hard work, but I can already feel the shape of what the result will be if I pull it off, and it's good. Worth it, definitely. I've already tackled the scene in Chapter 5 that's probably given me more trouble than anything else in the novel; it now sustains the emotional tone I need without veering out of character, a combination which none of the previous versions managed. Despite last month's remarks on the matter, I've kind of fallen into concentrating on the revisions to the exclusion of most, if not all, else; while bad for my word count and all that implies, it is getting the novel a lot closer to what I want it to be.
Now I just need to learn to work on something else during the natural lag-times in the revision cycle. Preferably something with a high word count. ;-)
assorted mission stories = 553
first novel revisions = 124 net (599 gross; I had to cut a non-trivial chunk)
Total new words in February = 712 net (1187 gross)
Um, yeah. February was not a good month, writing-wise. Or at least word-count wise. While I still say it's a good base metric, it doesn't fully reflect the work involved in serious revisions. Not that even the gross count above is good, but the 475 I cut was at least as important as the ~300 I put in place of it. And the sheer re-reading involved is a non-trivial effort, and absolutely necessary.
It also doesn't reflect research on the new novel's replacement plot. Which I didn't do as much of as I should have, but I did get the key points established. There's some secondary research and some vital plot noodling left to do, but it's looking very promising.
All true, but also February was just not a good month. Not-writing makes me depressed, which makes me not write, which.... Yeah. There was a con and some day-job crunches and other excuses, but there was also a lot of just not doing it. Which is both the most detrimental and the part most under my control. So yeah, boot, meet backside.
That said, I'm actually excited about revising the first novel. It's going to be a lot of very hard work, but I can already feel the shape of what the result will be if I pull it off, and it's good. Worth it, definitely. I've already tackled the scene in Chapter 5 that's probably given me more trouble than anything else in the novel; it now sustains the emotional tone I need without veering out of character, a combination which none of the previous versions managed. Despite last month's remarks on the matter, I've kind of fallen into concentrating on the revisions to the exclusion of most, if not all, else; while bad for my word count and all that implies, it is getting the novel a lot closer to what I want it to be.
Now I just need to learn to work on something else during the natural lag-times in the revision cycle. Preferably something with a high word count. ;-)
