Drive-By Metrics

[loaded_march]

I said Friday, and as it turns out, it's Friday holy shit when did that happen, I lost two days, I thought it was still Hump Day so here's the quick and dirty on the metrics for LM #11.

I've explained before that I work in sections, and that my sections are saved in different documents.  These are equivalent to chapters.  So I don't have a total word count because I'm not writing in Scrivener, which has a handy feature called Project Statistics, which I obsessively refresh whenever I'm in Scrivener. 

But, no.  Not this time.  I'm writing in plain old Word.  I could import the files, I suppose, but I'm too lazy.  No Project Statistics for you.

However, I can give you a ballpark estimate.  The chapter length varies from part to part, but in #11, the going average is around 5,000 words.  Bearing in mind that once I get the ball rolling, the chapters get longer and longer, first by 500 words, then 1,000 words, and (what looks likely to be soon) 2,000 words, I'm going to be seriously underestimating the total word count by the end of this, but, hey, I don't think anyone will be complaining.

ANYWAY, yes, back to the word count.  I have seven documents, so that puts me anywhere north of 35,000 and south of 40,000.

Unfortunately, I have no ETA.  Remember when I said I sketched out the outline?  That I had three pages, single-lined, double-sided of outline?  Outlines are awesome.  I totally respect anyone who puts work detailing outlines to follow so that they know what they're writing next.  I am not one of those people.  Outlining, for me, is a teasing lie.  A filthy, misleading lie.  I could look at that outline and think, "Yeah, I'll be done soon" and I'd be wrong. 

Obviously this means I'm not following my own outline.  I've gone off-roading, my GPS is down, my compass is in the rapids back there, my ATV ran out of gas, I'm in the middle of freaking nowhere, night is falling, there's an unseasonable cold snap on the way, but at least I have my trusty flashlight --

-- had my flashlight.  The batteries seem to be dead.  Yep.  They're dead.

I'm not going to say I'm lost, because I'm not.  My map might be a little soggy and a lot useless, but I know my way out of here, and it's somewhere... thataway *points wildly*.

(please send help)

Comments

[k-nightfox.livejournal.com]

Oh we know, quite familiar with them. My father was a survivalist (and tragically frustrated military devotee) and she worked for the army for several years overseas. She just can't stand the way they taste...can't say I blame her but I like to keep a bug-out bag handy and those are nice and compact :D

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

I am not sure I blame your aunt for not liking the way they taste :)

But bug-out bags are very smart things to have!

[k-nightfox.livejournal.com]

Me neither because I've eaten them...ick. However, they aren't much worse than the backpacking food I used to eat when hiking so, meh.

My siblings and I are the only people I know of in our generation to have actually eaten genuine WWII k-rations. My father was weird. He claimed, and was proven correct cuz none of us died, that the damn things were still edible in the 1980's! I barely remember it but what I do remember is that they were like degraded canned corned beef. Gross. In comparison, the MRE's are heavenly!