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.

[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?