Sunday, October 28, 2007

word count long hand

Last year I did my NaNo in longhand and averaged 3,000 per day. However that was an average, and there were several days when I didn't meet 700. On 2 days last year I did over 7,000 words each of the two days and on one day when I had nothing to do all day long, I wrote over 10,000 words... it was my best day ever (not just for NaNo!) In the end, I hit 50,000 on day 17, and I wrote 183,000 words in 30 days. It took over 400 sheets of paper and an entire pac of Bic crystal stix.

uhm.... when people asked me last year how I did it... my answer: Over twenty long years of practice. I do this kind of thing every day anyways, so writing NaNo is nothing unusual for me, I'd be writting the 3,000 words a day even if I wasn't entering NaNo, so I might as well enter NaNo and have fun while I write!

Advice? well, I write while sitting on the ground in my garden, cross-legged (lotus postition I think they call it), with my loose leaf on my lap on a clip-boards and a totebag full of extra paper and lots of ink refills. I do about 90% of my writing outdoors in my garden, with one or more (or all) of my 9 cats and 2 dogs sitting on me.

yah for longhanders! WOO-HOO!


I use college ruled lined paper, and count how many words on one line, than write that number down at the end of the line, and repeat this for the next line, and the next line, etc for all 32 lines on the page. Than with a claculator I add up all of those numbers and write the total word count for that page at the top. I do this for each page I wrote that day. Than I take all the page cout totals and add them up, giving me my final word count for the day.

I write and average of 13 words per line or 340 words per page, but I never average my word count because on some pages I wrote only 225 words or only 7 words per line, etc.

I didn't start writing like this for NaNoWriMo either, I've been writing longhand and keeping track of my word counts like this since 1978, when I wrote my first book. I've been writing for a very long time... long before computers and laptops. For me handwriting is not only easier, but it's also a lot faster. Of course over the past 20+ years, I've also developed my own form of italic short hand so I am able to write very, very fast, though most can not actually read what I wrote afterwards.

Three days ago, I did a non-NaNo story test run to see if I was ready for NaNoWriMo, I wrote steady for 5 hours, afterwards I counted my words. My total: 11,052 words in 5 hours.



-------------
Copper Cockeral
Need To Publish Your NaNoNovel?
So You Want To Play Vampires?


What's your take on this? I'd love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!


Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape



Official NaNoWriMo 2007 Participant
It's that time of year again. Have you signed up for NaNoWriMo 2007 yet? Sign up today and let the world's #1 writing contest begin!




Need To Publish Your NaNo Novel? Find Out How!
Got Writer's BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Are You a NaNo Blogger Too?



This blog is part of:




Get Your Psychic Reading Today!

Need Psychic Help?
Yep, I'm an online psychic.
http://www.keen.com/EelKat
Sample Readings can be viewed HERE



My readings are done in person or via E-mail ONLY!:
(Price is PER reading, NOT per minute!)

3 Card Reading $9.69
Above-Below-Within 7 Card Reading $14.58
The Circle of Life 12 Card Reading $24.58
The Circle of Life 24 Card Reading $45.80

Welcome To EK's Writing Blog

My blog with advice for writers, answers to questions, and a random variety of whatever pops into my head and comes out as a blog post.

Welcome

If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best: Create your own banner at mybannermaker.com! Create your own banner at mybannermaker.com!. Create your own banner at mybannermaker.com!. Create your own banner at mybannermaker.com!
.

Check Out My Other Web Sites!

If you liked reading this blog and want to read more stuff written by me, I have lots of websites, where you can read other things I write, here are a few of the ones I like the best:

Former About This Blog:

Welcome

Welcome to my writing blog! If you have visited before, than you will notice some changes, namely, that the theme has changed. My long time readers well recognize this theme: Yes, SHIVER is back, and I'm am now working on my pet project once again.

For those asking "What is SHIVER?". SHIVER is my ghost story project that has taken me several years to get written down, but is finally seeing an end in sight. SHIVER is soon to be published by The Twighlight Manor Press and has a planned release date of: October 2009. Watch for it!

NaNoWrimo 2008 is just around the corner and so this blog is rising from the grave to return once again for iit's third year as my official NaNoWriMo blog.

EelKat's Latest Activity on I Believe

About This Blog:

I Won in 2006I've signed up for this year's NaNoWriMo 2007 (my third year at NaNo!) and this is my blog for it, where I talk about my thoughts about writing, my ideas for NaNo, and the progress of my contest entry for this year's National Novel Writing Month contest.


NaNoWriMo: 50,000 words in 30 days. Have you got it in you?



Quick Linker

Join Human Age!

Virtual human development game
free human development game
www.human-age.com

Pink Panther at  MGMStore.com! Shop the Star Trek Store Today!