Word count -- CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT.

[seanan_mcguire]

Words: 2,762.
Total words: 50,050.
Reason for stopping: it's time for bed.
The cats: all three, on the bed.
Music: random shuffle.

I have this horrible suspicion that I'm like, 500 words from the end of the chapter, and if I just soldiered through, I'd be able to wrap chapter twelve up tonight. But that way lies madness. If I forced myself through 500 words without reaching the end, I'd try for another 500, and then it's two in the morning and I still have to be up at five for work. So I close the file for now, content in the knowledge that I broke 50,000 words tonight.

Oh, right: I BROKE 50,000 WORDS!!!!!

This is one of the big milestones, the point where there's enough written that abandoning the book is no longer an option; for right or for wrong, this is your foundation, now cope. I figure this book is going to be in the 109,000 to 116,000 word range, which is about average for a Toby book these days. So this is no longer the magical halfway point that it once was, but it's still a pretty big deal, and I should be able to get through another 10,000 words by the end of the weekend.

Progress!

Comments

[scarybaldguy.livejournal.com]

But that way lies madness. If I forced myself through 500 words without reaching the end, I'd try for another 500, and then it's two in the morning and I still have to be up at five for work.

So basically, this is the writerly version of level grinding.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much. I choose to be marginally smarter than that.

[scarybaldguy.livejournal.com]

And a hell of a lot more entertaining (he said, on his third reread of Rosemary and Rue).

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

This is one of the big milestones, the point where there's enough written that abandoning the book is no longer an option
Have you abandoned a book at 40,000+ words?

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

No, but I've always felt like I could. Narrative inertia hasn't kicked in yet.

[hoppytoad79.livejournal.com]

Awesomesauce! You couldn't abandon it, regardless of how many words you'd written, because if you did, your fans would have no choice but to show up at your door and make their extreme displeasure known. Might also have to contact cait sidhe and tell them to send Tybalt over to have a talk with you about derilection of duties. ;D

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Hee.

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

Yay for Toby book progress!

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Slow but steady makes the deadline!

[umadoshi.livejournal.com]

Excellent milestone FTW!

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Yay!

[herewiss13.livejournal.com]

Excellent milestone, wise restraint.

and if it's not too nosy, what industry is your day job in? Are your co-workers aware they're being graced with the presence of a Hugo nominee? :-P

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I work in the non-profit sector. My coworkers are aware, but they, like the honey badger, don't give a shit.