Word Count: Chapter 2

Posted by Unrepentant Escapist

November 4, 2009 -- 11:53 p.m.

Busy day! Christmas shopping takes the blues away! I wrote two new chapters in Godsplay yesterday and I think they turned out all right. It's funny, because when I do so much revising, I don't write much new stuff. It's like working muscles that are cramped with disuse. It takes me a couple of days to find the proper rhythm again, especially if its a character viewpoint I haven't done in a while. Go, Thaya!

But I ended up adding a few new named characters. I think we've spiraled up to 47 total, now. And made one minor character have a viewpoint right before he gets chomped.

One of the things I struggle most with is coming up with new metaphors. I love metaphors, but ugh, I tend to reach for the same ones time and time again.

Word Count for today (this is a short chapter): Sathain 24, Iysifae 8, god 7, eye 7 -- I do love my eyes... -- blood 7, black 7, sister 7, one 7, left 6, "I 6, mortals 6, gods 6, Sathain's 6, eyes 5, face 5, smiled 5, said 5, back 5, lips 4, down 4, born 4, beautiful 4, thought 4, created 4, create 4 -- odd, the repetitions -- enough 4, void 4, years 4, wouldn't 4, did 4, Iyusifae's 4, mortal 3, smooth 3, again 3, still 3, skin 3, beneath 3, watching 3, way 3, dark 3, flesh 3, divine 3, away 3, centuries 3, deep 3, throne 3, past 3, under 3, sense 3, pain 3, Lomari 3, burned 3, though 3, looked 3, course 3, fingers 3, behind 3, lost 3, because 3, around 3, taste 3, hair 3, fought 3, world 3, first 3, brightly 2, many 2, thousand 2, gods' 2, tied 2, much 2, insane 2, quickly, withered 2, hurts" 2, change 2, flame 2, certain 2, mouth 2, ago 2, cold 2, less 2, truly 2, bright 2, died 2, person 2, hated 2, temptation 2, impossibly 2, neck 2, white 2, socket 2, ability 2, without 2, fifty-six 2, power 2, fit 2, old 2, fingertips 2, savoring 2, draw 2 -- ha! Uno! -- twisted 2, red 2, millennia 2 -- why does that come up on my spellcheck?-- feel 2, mind 2, break 2, wasn't 2, must 2, body 2, smoke 2, below 2, hot 2, since 2, ever 2, pathetic 2, needed 2, deluded 2, chance 2, her" 2, watched 2, "it 2, die 2, dried 2, humans 2, voice 2, deity 2, mad 2, god's 2, fire 2, Erratha 2, asked 2, husky 2, times 2, blue 2, above 2, empty 2, Ewah 2, air 2...

Not going to type the one word ones. It's funny you can tell the tones of the chapters by the words. Blood, cold, red, twisted...

Well, most of the chapters will probably have similar word rosters. Ah well.


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Word Count, Twilight

Posted by Unrepentant Escapist

October 28, 2009 -- 7:57 p.m.

Ah, the rosy daze of finishing the book begins to fade. but I woke up happy. I was thinking about the complexities of the Wheel of Time world and noticing both the Seachan and the Aiel use handtalk (at least among the Maidens). I wonder whether there was some hand language in the Age of Legends? If what's come down is a corrupted form, or if both cultures developed it simultaneously?

In the meantime, I've finally gotten around to reading Twilight. So far...I don't hate it. I don't like it either, but I don't hate it. Hate requires you to have passion, mostly I'm apathetic. I mildly liked it up until the appearance of Edward, but Edward is just so...dull. And so obviously meant to be "Dreamy" that I find myself opposed to him on general principle. And there's no stakes. I don't really care whether Bella gets Edward in the end. I am jealous of Bella's her boys, however. Where were all these guys when I was new in town? The only guy who talked to me on my first day of High School in a brand new city told me he was a mafia hit man and later got kicked out for having a threat list.

Anyway, Bella's no Sookie Stackhouse. That's all I'm saying.

Here's today's wordcount on Chapter One. My obsession with eyes continues.

Rachell 51, Bearatia 20, said 13, Mel 11, dark 9, eyes 9, "I 8, Elv 8, mud 8, Ravke 8, around 8, thought 7, smell 7, hair 7, Rachell's 7, face 7, trees 6, felt 6, fingers 6, Mel's 6, over 6, made 6, see 6, don't 6, Elvs 6, skin 5, behind 5, want 5, down 5, hand 5, through 5, snapped 5, feel 5, still 4, shrugged 4, matter 4, race 4, told 4, last 4, shoulders 4, father" 4, though 4, black 4, seemed 4, ears 4, blue 4. "but 4, "what 4, twilight 4 (really?), away 4, king 4, under 4, take 4, "you 4, hands 4, Lomari 4, just 4, smiled 4, human 4, teeth 4, back 4, "the 4, two 4, head 4, did 4, people 3, good 3, blood 3, think 3, rich 3, curled 3, blink 3, "my 3, inside 3, old 3, looked 3, falcon 3, something 3, soft 3, tongue 3, mad 3, because 3, lip 3, caught 3, asked 3, you're 3, skirt 3, roots 3, air 3, tangled 3, grandfather 3, moment 3, being 3, every 3, cheek 3, cold 3, sound 3, across 3, Amor 3, long 3, Weeper 3, night 3, time 3, grandfather's 3, "this 3, second 3 (huh, I didn't know I liked that word), words 3, father 3, didn't 3, I'm 3, one 3, bush 3, look 3, thin 3, fluttered 2, rain 2, knew 2, cool 2, Esculiar 2, top 2, dress 2, traced 2, breath 2, fresh 2, come 2, least 2, "if 2, thorn 2, sun 2. tall 2, Aehl-Darenn 2, stuck 2, dripped 2, flash 2, died 2, tickled 2 (odd juxtaposition), hit 2, swamp" 2, burning 2, glistened 2, cat 2, raised 2, grace 2, smelled 2, "stop 2, need 2, tooth 2, else 2, hiding 2, heir 2, forced 2, brush 2, Elvs' 2, girl 2, flinched 2, fresh" 2, mind 2, doing 2, know 2, emperor 2, boy 2, hours 2, weepers 2, dangling 2, sounded 2, worthy 2, except 2, healing" 2, we've 2, wanted 2, that's 2, moss 2, dreams 2, hungry 2, shoulder 2, feet 2, strange 2, knees 2, distaste 2, frantically 2, never 2, lips 2, ground 2, man 2, beneath 2, pushed 2, withered 2, soil 2, doesn't 2, dreamed 2, wouldn't 2, family 2, hard 2, managed 2, wasn't 2, how 2, say 2, maybe 2.

Looks like a fairly balanced set of words.

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Creepy Dolls, Word Counting Prologue

Posted by Unrepentant Escapist

October 24, 2009 -- 2:54 a.m

I'm word-counting a chapter a day to see what my most common words are and recording them here, for fun. The word-counter isn't 100 percent accurate and it lets you exclude words like "a" and "and". You can find the counter here.

I'm being inspired to do this because I listened to an old Writing Excuses podcast which recommends writers get rid of the word "very" while trimming their stories. It's a bad modifier, much like "awesome" in my opinion, saying something while actually conveying nothing specific to the reader. How many very's did I have, I wondered. It turns out more than I thought. While most of them were in thought bubbles or dialogue and meant to add voice, some of them were not. They mostly got snipped. I wondered, what others words have infiltrated my writing? I know I use puppet/doll metaphors a lot because dolls freak me the heck out. Don't ask me why. They're just so...creepy.

So what are my 200 most common words in the Godsplay prologue are: Cien (84), Byranon (24), one (22) -- really???--Cien's (21), Eyes (19), said (19), Elenor (17), felt (17), father's (16), father (16) -- huh, surprised they're the same--king (14), sound (14), face (14), Leirmin (14), Dead (13), didn't (13), blood (12), against (11), thought (11), hand (11), hands (10)--another weird coincidence--head (10), looked (9), lips (9), away (9), throne (9), over (9), stared (9), instead (9), back (9), death (8), red (8), ears (8), never (8), dark (8), just (8), son (8), light (7), skin (7), left (7), off (7), died (7), though (7), feet (7), forehead (7), touched (7), through (7), neck (7), long (7), library (7), couldn't (7), I'm (7), again (6), stone (6), wet (6), hair (6), brothers (6), "you (6)--quotations seem to screw up the small words excluding subroutine--fell (6), Lomari (6), trembling (6), floor (6), burned (6), time (6), feel (6), turned (6), shadows (6), around (6), greasy (6)--after I saw this, I changed one of the instances to 'slimy'. Oddly, the word greasy rarely appears in the rest of my book, just in the prologue--room (6), look (6), saw (6), still (5), knew (5), people (5), hear (5), heard (5)--another weird coincidence, or something with the program?--Almone (5), nothing (5), white (5), chancellor (5), old (5), Sa'hana (5), know (5), fingers (5), whispered (5), open (5), broken (5), knees (5), air (5), life (5), god (5), quickly (5), mouth (5), together (5), Leirmin's (5), made (5), bones (5), human (5), tried (5), help (5), thin (5), wall (4), much (4), prince (4), part (4), seeing (4), tonsure (4), son's (4), keep (4), doors (4), last (4), hit (4), somehow (4), forced (4), inside (4) --hey, somehow forced inside is almost a real phrase!--king's (4), struck (4), emperor (4), falcon (4)--usually together, so no duh--body (4), hot (4), ever (4), backward (4), want (4), touch (4), hung (4), knife (4), it's (4), pressed (4), fire (4), because (4), world (4), mother (4), baby (4), bare (4)--wonder how this thing does tie-breakers, anyway? It's not alphabetical--way (4), corridor (4), laughed (4), down (4), how (4), Sathain (4), under (4), across (4), me" (4), pain (4), end (4), without (4), Nikael's (4), scream (4), love (4)--interesting contrast--wave (4), enough (4), throat (4), words (4), voice (4), stomach (4), years (4), rapier (4), lay (4), serve (3), going (3), seen (3), shouted (3), begged (3), flesh (3), beauty (3), dry (3), gone (3), ceremony (3), probably (3), come (3), rose (3), dance (3), remembered (3), next (3), arms (3), same (3), monsters (3), burning (3), shoulders (3), green (3), "do (3), sickly (3), power (3), land" (3), "Cien" (3), taking (3), boy (3), behind (3), something (3), pulled (3), watched (3), hope (3), right (3), loved (3), soft (3), he'd (3).

Phew. Anyway, what I learned from this exercise today is that I describe a lot of body parts. And that, when I'm Cien's POV/voice at least, I use the word one a lot. And greasy...

PS: I think I figured out where some of my root hatred of Arwen came from. As a young girl, Eowyn (not sure on spelling) was my favorite character. A cross-dressing princess who kills the Lord of the Nazgul? How is that not so freaking cool! Eowyn is at the root of my childhood embrace of feminism. So I was always annoyed that she didn't end up with Aragorn. Sure, the pretty elf girl gets all the guys. What about those of us who go slogging our guts out in the blood and gore of Pelennor Fields? Huh? HUH?

Tomorrow, I give my 13-year-old cousin the Dragonlance chronicles for his birthday. Do you realize it's been 25 years since Dragons of Autumn Twilight was published (at least my paperback version, anyway)? It's quite possible that the series is too dated for him to enjoy. Fantasy has evolved so much since then, and Y.A. books too, becoming much more complicated.

Speaking of which, Tuesday is the Wheel of Time spectacular!!!! YEAH!!!

Also, I will have a post on Monday about using character to build worlds and plots.

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