This week's reckoning

[desperance]

It's Tuesday, it's near enough noon; we have a wager on, davidbarnett and I (oh, and anyone else who fancies joining in, who can take on a deadline of end-of-this-month to finish a book), to see who gets there first. ['There' being defined in this instance as book-on-agent's-desk, delivered.]

So, this week's wordcount:

51,698 / 90,000 (57.4%)

Or, in pages:

156 / 300 (52.0%)

Over halfway in both, apparently, which is pleasing progress from last week - tho' actually the story doesn't feel halfway done (surprise!) and I begin to suspect that we will overrun.

It is also evident that we will have to run faster, if we are to bring it in on time, whether or not we defeat DB. Still, at least I have a chunk that I can deliver to our agent. Or could, if my e-mail were not offline. I don't usually deliver books in chunks, but I could use the reassurance with this one, as it's the first novel I've written on spec for twenty years or so. Besides, he's moving house, he's about to lose his broadband for three weeks; he needs reading-matter. Whoo, yeah... (And, as I say, my e-mail is down, and my websites too, and my webmistress and her guru are on holiday - aaargh!)

How ya doin', Dave?

Comments

[davidbarnett.livejournal.com]

54,707 / 100,000 (54.7%)

A fairly woeful 3,372 words in a whole week... the period since we began this challenge has probably been my least productive time since I began the novel in the middle of July.

By my reckoning, I'll have to do 12,000 words a week to finish by the end of October, which isn't beyond the realm of reasonable possibility. I did spend the weekend planning out some of the later chapters in more detail and having to do some research on Otherkin and Straight Edgers, but that's no excuse for a poor wordcount.

As you complained in an earlier post, Chaz, I've found myself making the last couple of chapters far more talky than I wanted to, so I've tried to rectify things by having a bloody big explosion at the end of the current chapter (twelve) to liven things up somewhat.

Did we decide on a prize for this wager? Perhaps the winner has to either a) let the other read their manuscript or b) read the other's manuscript. Or that could be the loser's forfeit, depending on your point of view...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yay, I've caught up! I'm in the lead, even, by one count...! (Tho' I shan't gloat, because I'm only there by virtue of your bad week, rather than my good one, and schadenfreude is just so unattractive...)

But we're on the same kind of ratio, I think, for the rest of the month. Twelve thousand is a really good week for me; whether I can have three or four more of them on the trot and on demand is, well, anyone's guess.

Did we decide on a prize for this wager? Perhaps the winner has to either a) let the other read their manuscript or b) read the other's manuscript. Or that could be the loser's forfeit, depending on your point of view...

Oh, I think the winner gets to read the other's MS, smugly, while the loser has to do the same through chagrined teeth...

[samarcand.livejournal.com]

It looks like your websites are back up again. Thank god, because it would mean me having to try and sort it out when I get home from work this afternoon and I'm going to the theatre this evening, so that could have been difficult... (I'm going to see the One Man Star Wars which should be fun.)

Let me know (through LJ probably, or give me a ring at home/mobile) if you are continuing to have trouble with email etc.

Oh, and congratulations on the writing thingy. I'm looking forward to reading yours. What is David's book about?

[davidbarnett.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I've been waiting all day for someone to ask me that.

It's about a fifteen-year-old boy who goes looking for the father he never knew, in the company of the ghost of Sid Vicious.

[synedrian.livejournal.com]

Do you accept bets?

(Please tell me you haven't written 51K words all in one week. Please.)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Nah. Alas. Wrote the first 26K at the dog end of last year; just coming back to it now, 25K in a fortnight, more or less. Which is dead good for me, and leads me into these traps of confidence, 'cos I can do sums, you see: if 2 weeks = 25K, then 4 weeks = 50K and it's finished, more or less. [Insert 'hah!' here, and carry on...]

We'll see. But I can't afford to give it too much time, it's just a sidebar; so "Nine coaches waiting - hurry, hurry, hurry..."

[autopope.livejournal.com]

I expect to have my next book on my agent's desk by the end of the month, so it would be unfair to take you up on it. Especially as I only have 11,000 words to go to finish the first draft.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Hmm - bit like mixing the last lap of two different races. Still, you're always welcome to jog alongside and offer smug encouragements...

[davidbarnett.livejournal.com]

(Hi, Charlie. Bradford's looks stunning in the sunshine)

You could always write the last 11,000 words only when standing on one leg with one hand behind your back, pausing every three pages to sing a sea shanty. That might even the odds.

[tavishsdoll.livejournal.com]

Hi - newbie popping in to say hello and hopefully join in the fun. Would love to take the deadline on - but don't think my wordage is up to it - Only seem to find around a 1000 of the reluctant things on a good day. Have just over 50% (50,000)to go. So I could do with the competition, moral support and motivation without the actual agent's desk deadline. And am so not confident at sending something I haven't played with and tweaked and polished until it it blinds to my agent. But I have excuses - we're living in one room with no roof - all self-inflicted of course, as we actually chose to have this extension added to our house. Can't think why!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Hi to you too; and competition, moral support & motivation are what it's all about. The only prize available is deeply unattractive anyway (you'd have to read my book - eww!). So we'll call on you for Tuesday updates (and if you want to know where to get the pretty wordmeters, they're here (http://www.zokutou.co.uk/wordmeter/)). And we're only that wee little distance ahead of you right now, so we'll offer encouraging taunts to drag you along in our wakes, see if we can spur you on from 1000 to a little more per day.

So mine's an urban fantasy, with the werewolves & vampires disposed of to make room for much more interesting mythologies; David's is a journey of discovery with the ghost of Sid Vicious; Charlie blogs about his separately, because he needs the space; what's yours...?

[tavishsdoll.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the encouragement. Its a date and I'll try and keep up. Absolutely no hope of catching either of you (Hey, and the prize is so not a deterrent - you'll need to do better than that!)Only problem is I have this premonition that LJ might just be another of those displacement activities if I'm not careful.

Mine...? Urban fantasy too! Christmas cake style. I've kept the vampires, added in goblins, trolls and witches, mixed in a smattering of faerie and topped it off with a murder mystery. All with a twist!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Hee. Of course LJ is displacement; but displacement is like cholesterol, there's good and bad. Your mileage may vary, but for me, LJ is good: it keeps me here doing typey, and I'll flick between it & the work, and I can do that happily all morning. Previously, you wouldn't believe the number of reasons I found to get out of the house...

And I was unclear, I think: I too have kept the vampires &c in the mythos, I just brought them in and played with them very early in the book, in order to say "okay, here they are, in the mythos; now let's put these away and find something new to play with. Ooh look, ever seen one of these before...?"

[tavishsdoll.livejournal.com]

Playing with vampires - umm, think that's one of my fav occupations! But hey, I'm all for new toys...