NaNoWriMo: Who's With Me? (Word Count: 4106)

Inspired by my friend Cindy, I have signed up for NaNoWriMo 2009, a worldwide event (despite the National in the title) where participants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. I'll admit up front that I'm kind of cheating because I already have a few thousand words written, but I think it'll act as encouragement to get cracking on my new book. I'm hoping to have the guts of the first draft done before Christmas. In the past I've always maintained a word count on this blog as I've blundered my way through a project, and I'll do the same this time.

Anyway, I'm registered at www.nanowrimo.org as Stuart_Neville, so if anyone wants to add me as a buddy, please do.

About Word Counts - Word count 64,646 (wp) 80,000 (pr)

It's very, very late here. I finally broke my short spell of writer's block and sussed out a few issues with my closing scenes. They only occurred to me after I got some encouraging comments on the previous post, so thanks, folks.

Anyway, it's 2:00am and I've just knocked out about 2500 words in roughly four hours. I asked this question a couple of times way back when I first started this blog, but I didn't have the devoted readership I have now (all two or three of you), so I wanted to ask it again...

How do you calculate word count?

My word counts on the blog show the actual word processor count and the 'printer's rule' count. Generally, the WP count is 20% less than the PR count. As I understand it, when an editor or agent describes a novel as being 80,000 words they usually use printer's rule. But I keep reading different ideas of what printer's rule actually is.

Some use the blanket 12 point Courier, double spaced, which can give you a maximum of 250 words for page. So, a 400 page manuscript would be 100,000 words. If I use that measure, my current word count is more like 86,000. However, I've been using another method which involves taking a fairly dense group of lined from any page and using those to form an average word count per page. With that method, I come up with 235 words per page. Multiply that by 343 (my current page) and you get the above mentioned 80,000.

So, what measure do you folks use? Or am I being too pedantic?

Challenge: a 5000 word weekend - Word Count 49,388 (wp) 61,000 (pr)

I started this blog last November when my previous novel was at about 38,000 words (word processor count). By the end of that month I was at 66,000 words. That's fast writing, and my current novel isn't progressing at anything like that pace. During the last novel, when I was at 44,000 words, I set myself a challenge in honour of NaNoWriMo: to write 5000 words in a weekend. It was hard, but I did it. In fact, I managed to write 6000 words.

So, because this weekend will be a long one with the May bank holiday, I'm going to attempt this challenge again. If the current splendid weather continues, I may not be able to avoid some gardening (ugh), but other than that, this weekend will be all about writing. I'm looking forward to it, because a major action sequence is coming up, and after that, it's Act Three - in other words, the shit will hit the fan.

I'm making my announcement a little early 'cos tomorrow night I've got a gig in Belfast, so won't be able to post then. Talking of gigs and music, one of these days I will post something of my other creative pursuit - a piece of music. I'll have to think about which one...