Saturday, August 17, 2013

Home stretch

I am now within ten percent of hitting my ideal word count for the manuscript. A lot of today's production was actually cutting and pasting: I had deleted some chunks of the last draft because they seemed to meander and distract from my larger points, and today I was able to see how to re-insert them in different places and contextualize them better. (I think/hope.) I also wrote some new passages here and there, so I feel good about the day's work.

Good thing, too, because I have to shake a leg if I'm going to make this deadline. I've almost finished figuring out the permission scenarios for all of the images I want to include, but I really have to discipline myself not to zone out on such relatively minor issues when I have writing yet to do. If one picture doesn't work, then another will take its place, and I will not worry. I've still got a little over 8,000 words' worth of fish to fry.  I'm still anxious about coming up noticeably short, but there are a few things I know I need to flesh out still, and then there's the chapter overview in the introduction, the preface, and the epilogue to round out.  It should be in the ballpark, at least.

But hey, 4,000 words since Wednesday!

5 comments:

  1. Holy cow, you're rocking and rolling! Hooray for you!

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  2. Well done!

    Just my opinion, but at this point, I think word count is less important than feeling like you have a finished product. When it's finished you'll know. And it's not like you're trying to hand in a 25k manuscript when a 90k book is what you want. So you're at a great point -- where you can stop worrying about word count and start thinking of the only two words that will give you any satisfaction: "the end."

    Good luck!!

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    Replies
    1. Hm, you may have a point there. It's certainly more optimistic to look at it that way!

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    2. Look at me being an optimist! Quick -- finish your book before the world ends. :)

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  3. You're crushing it!

    (BTW, I am totally unable to comment with my WordPress ID.)

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