Day 8

Phew! I've written 10,122 words in 8 days - and that includes one day where I didn't write a thing.

I'm impressed. You might not be, but that's fine. Unless you're a writer, you won't really give much thought to the number of words you're reading. There's no need for you to know. I, on the other hand, am always trying to estimate the word count of my favourite books, or the books from publishers I want to submit to. I've always been low. 60,000 is the longest a novel of mine has been - and that took a lot of re-writing.

Judging by the plan I'm trying to follow, this novel which is now 10,122 words long may only end up being about 30,000 words. I'm writing it in three parts. The next part will hopefully be slightly longer, but the third part is probably going to be less. As I'm aiming for 80,000 words, I'll either have to do some major additions to the plot or just add some fluffy descriptions - some authors can take 10 pages just to butter toast, or answer the phone (not me, though, I've never been that verbose, and I'm not sure I want to try now).

Apart from word count, I'm quite pleased with the work so far. I solved my wobbly plot problem by adding a new section where a character is watching some depressing news stories, and that tied in nicely and gave him the motive to do what he does next. So I'm back on track and raring to get stuck into the 2nd part.