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

[jayfray18.livejournal.com]

Outlining, for me, is a teasing lie - lol! Snap! I made outlines for the big bangs I wrote a coupe of years ago, and I think I may have used the first line and the last line, and then wound my way merrily off track for the rest *grins*

[loaded-march.livejournal.com]

Oh thank god. I thought I was the only one. I know of people who use outlines to the letter or who at least follow it to some percentage. At the most, I'm like you -- the first line and the last line and the "general gist" and the wild rocket flight all over the galaxy before getting to the destination.