Quarantine Project Day 15
Well I don't think it derailed me to take that break I was talking about yesterday - if giving a talk to 200 people can be described as a break. Because today rolled out my best count yet. In fact I can't remember when I last wrote over 3k in one day.
A friend asked if it doesn't make the act a little mechanical by counting up the words. All I can say is that I've always done it. Always. I also suggested that you create the books with one part of your brain and count up the words with a completely different part. The two places don't speak to each other; don't use the same language; don't even know that the other sector exists.
In fact it's even a useful act of decompression. Something you can do while you are riding the lift or the cage back up to the surface.
Conrad Williams has taken up this novel-in-progress madness, and he reports that Graham Greene hated writing so much that he would count as he went along and stop as soon as he'd reached a magic tally of 500 words.
We need different words for the act of writing, just as we do for reading. I don't read a poem in the same way that I read a newspaper. I don't write my novel in the same way I write a post-card. (Postcard? Do they still exist? Okay, email.) But I daren't start thinking what those neologisms might be, even though it would be fun, because I wouldn't get back to working on my novel. Would I? Those of you becoming expert at spotting RAFW (see earlier blogs) will admire the tempting powers of this demon.
Wordcount rings in at a tuneful 3161
(For previous blogs in the Quarantine Project click on "achives")
