Wow, this moves fast. It seems like we shouldn't already be done with ten percent of our novel on day 3! But when you think about it, we really should be. It is day 3 / 30 = 1/10. Anyway, I only realized this because I programmed a stupid thing for Open Office that constantly displays your updated word count, percent done, and day you should be on (with a decimal to tell what percentage of the day you are done writing). It drives me crazy, but I can't deny my progress with that thing always running, and its kept me on track so far.
Today's looks like this (I'm 5% of the way through November 4th!):
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| Word Count X |
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| Words: 5081 of 50000 (10.16 percent) |
| Day # 4.05 |
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51,283 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 20 41
good! now get to 10k by tonight!
----------I am stuff.
36,600 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 06 01
Whew! You are right. It's a chunk. My stupid internet is down at home, which is actually better for my writing, but I can't update my word totals til the next day, so I feel behind and a greater sense of urgency. Maybe that's a good thing!
45,393 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 16 58
It is a mixed blessing, knowing how much you need to get done each day to stay current and watching everyone else's numbers and thinking you're "behind" because some have done more. I'm a little slow as I'm writing fairly carefully, don't have any known "crap" in mine yet. I've had to do a lot of research, that surprised me; I keep thinking up plot twists that require I know something about a couple subjects so I can make statements that make sense. That and I decided to plot ahead as my plot trick turns out to be a little too tricky to work with as-is so I have to "cheat" and figure out what twist is going to come up before it actually comes up. I feel like I'm cheating on my protagonist, knowing what's going to happen before she does, LOL.
----------40,207 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 19 01
Hey, you're right! I didn't even think of it that way 'til I saw this topic. Thanks for the encouraging thought.
57,400 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 21 33
I'm staying ahead of the curve early because I have a 3-day trip to SF later this month, and I don't know how much I'll be able to get done. So far, I've averaged over 2400 words a day, and my concern that a short story character wouldn't translate well to a novel has (so far, at least) been unfounded. :)