Extraordinary numbers

[desperance]

I like numbers. I always have. (My dad was an accountant, my granddad was a bank clerk, and you can tell me it's not genetic all you like, and I just won't care; numbers are good to me, and that's that.) But here is a number that I just think is extraordinary.

All throughout the writing of this book, I have been saying two things, to myself and to anyone who feigned any interest at all: that I was aiming at 450 pages, and that that would be 150,000 words.

I have just completed page 450. Guess how many words, by a precise Textmaker count? 149,990. How good is that?

The only trouble, of course, is that I haven't finished the book. But they never do come in on length, any more than they do on time. Everything Takes Longer, in all possible meanings of the words.

You'll excuse me, if I duck out now to go finish my chapter.

Comments

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Well I'm impressed!

I come from a family of number crunchers too. 3 of my 4 grandparents were Maths teachers some of the time, Grandad was an electrical engineer with the GPO and Grandpa's first career was as an aeronautical engineer. Dad was a University Lecturer in Mathematical Engineering. Oh and my Great-Grandad was a campanologist (name of Pitman, your bell-ringing friends will have heard of him).

A couple of years ago some student did their PHD on whether there was a genetic link to mathematical ability and decided to find out how many of Great-Grandad's descendents took Maths exams early. Certainly the 3 of us did.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Well I'm impressed!

I was kind of stunned, to be honest. Three pages = 1000 words is an absolute lash-up figure, and the one thing you can be sure about is that it isn't true. That the numbers came out so close to exact is meaningless, pure coincidence - but fun, none the less. I once wrote a book where the pivotal thing happens 'halfway through'; when the book came in from the printers, it happened on exactly the halfway page. Gotta love that stuff.

Oh and my Great-Grandad was a campanologist (name of Pitman, your bell-ringing friends will have heard of him).

A J Pitman? I'm not a bellringer myself (tho' yup, I do know some), but I have heard of him. Or read of him, more likely. And I probably remember the initials because of A J Raffles, but hey... (Now you tell me that no, yours is another Pitman, and I retire blushing.)

A couple of years ago some student did their PHD on whether there was a genetic link to mathematical ability and decided to find out how many of Great-Grandad's descendents took Maths exams early. Certainly the 3 of us did.

...And I was doing calculus at the age of eight, although I didn't know it - but that's only because we had one of those teachers, the magic kind. Couldn't do it now. I'm sure there is a genetic component in the number stuff, but it's clearly not a career determinant, or I'd be a merchant banker. The three of us demonstrably shared an ability with numbers; but Dad went into accountancy because Grandad pushed him into it, and I went nowhere near it because my dad didn't push me. Nurture, see, not nature. Just because you've got it, doesn't mean you have to use it. Or something. It's late, I'm tired, I wrote three thousand words today. More. Bed, bed...

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Yes, that Pitman. On Grandma's 90's birthday, my aunt arranged for some local bell-ringers to do one of his peals at Bristol cathedral. We all solemnly turned up and listened for quarter of an hour or so (out of the three hour total) and went "Hm, yes". Grandma used to proof-read his compositions.

We had one of those magic teachers too - our Primary School Headmaster had us measuring the heights of building using trig at the age of about 10.

My teenage rebellion was to choose not to do Maths at 'A' level - and now I'm working in IT supporting a Finance Dept staffed with qualified accountants - and sometimes telling them where/ why the numbers are wrong.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yes, that Pitman. On Grandma's 90's birthday, my aunt arranged for some local bell-ringers to do one of his peals at Bristol cathedral. We all solemnly turned up and listened for quarter of an hour or so (out of the three hour total) and went "Hm, yes".

Ach, what else could you do? Change-ringing is not about an audience, it's about the changes: maths expressed in sound. You might as well listen to a dial-up modem.

Mind, I once had a conversation with a friend about the effects of change-ringing on the English landscape. It was a wonderful conversation. We were out in the wilds on a canal boat and we were very, very stoned, and these bells were clamouring across the country and it was all so very, very right...

Grandma used to proof-read his compositions.

Now that is the higher mathematics and the higher love, expressed in a single action. Heroic, in a word.

[samarcand.livejournal.com]

Numbers are good, aren't they? I think that it's possible to be as creative with a good set of numbers as it is with a good set of words. The fifteen minutes or so I spent working out how long I thought it was going to take me to work out when I'd finish my book was lots of fun.

And I agree absolutely about the whole everything taking longer - I'm looking at the structure of my book and thinking it may well be somewhat longer than the projected 100,000 words. Of course, it may well be shorter as well, but I'm kind of doubting it, considering the point I'm at and what I've got to do between now and the end.

And which book was it that had the halfway thing happened halfway?

[synedrian.livejournal.com]

Heh. Numbers are magic for me, meaning I can't do either. But seriously, that's a really, really impressive guess. The thought of so many new words to read is also very pleasant.

Would it be a little like prying into the methodology of magic tricks to ask you what font you're using?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I use Bitstream Charter at the moment (available for free download here (http://www.download.com/Bitstream-Charter/3000-2185_4-896557.html)). 11-point and generous margins gives me about 350 words a page in double spacing; factor in short pages at chapter ends &c, plus dialogue-heavy pages being word-light, and over a long book it comes to around three pages to a thousand words. Or, apparently, in my case, bloody nearly exactly. 'Course, it depends whether you use long words or not...