Wednesday, February 13, 2008

C'est la vie in 90,000 words

The sun has been shining these last few days - an early spring preview - and life has done its best to distract me from writing. I'm bogged down with errands and to-do lists and appointments that seem to never end, yet things have not been this good in a long time. Last week my doctor upped my thyroid medication, so with any luck I will be on-track by the time I leave for my research trip. (Fingers crossed. I will need the energy!) She also gave me a new migraine med that lasts for approximately three days straight. It managed to work the first time I tried it--a major improvement--and I have been migraine-free for three days.

My writing is actually going really well, but I had a slow, errand-filled day yesterday, which influences my mood. I finished chapter ten last week, and I'm now working my way through chapter eleven. My book outline calls for fifteen chapters, which means two-thirds of the novel is complete! Because of that, I am revising my word count goal to 90,000 words since I was at 60,000 words when I finished chapter ten. I feel like changing the number on my counter is cheating, but it's likely that I will continue to average a similar number of words per chapter, which will put me around 90,000 words at completion rather than 100,000. I think 90,000 is still a very respectable number, though I'm curious where others finished. That's why my counter jumped from 65% to 72% today without a word count increase, if you were wondering.

7 comments:

Yvonne said...

90,000 words is seriously respectable, I managed 91,000 and I thought that was good! Similar to you I revised it down from 95,000 because it seemed more natural to the book - I found I was stretching out the last section too much to fit my original word count. Reading it over now, that part is the flabbiest!

Great news about the anti-migraine medication! I'm delighted for you.

Kristen @ frostingandfroth.com said...

Hoorah for Angie! Keep it up! Can't wait to read the finished product. :-)

Glad to hear your doc was able to get you on some new/increased meds. Fingers crossed it will do the trick. We want you healthy for the European research tour! (BTW, alas, I don't think I'll fit in your luggage. Maybe I'll express mail myself over...)

Alix said...

90,000 sounds good to me well done. Glad you've got some good new medication. I've finally done your Memel think I am quite quirky!

Angie said...

Yvonne, I'm glad to hear you were around the same number. I felt like I would be stretching if I tried to tack on an extra 10k words too.
Thanks. :)

Kristen, well, we'll see how good those 90k words are when I get through with them...scary thought!
I wonder if express mail is cheaper than united? I'd certainly have to pack light. ;)

Alix, thank you.
Heading over to see your quirky meme!

Jenny Beattie said...

I don't know about distracting you from writing, it all sounds great to me.
Well done.
JJx

Anonymous said...

Great. Smooth progression towards the end.

Migraine... that's a big bug, difficult to get rid of. Besides oral medication you try applying balm on your temples and relax,leaning with your back and head inclined about 120 degrees, head resting on a soft pillow. Switch off all lights or filter all light sources and close your eyes. If you can concentrate on the pain area and nothing else, it helps. It works for me.

Angie said...

JJ, sorry, I didn't explain very well. What I meant was that all the errands on Tuesday kept me from hitting my word count, so I had to play catchup yesterday, but it was only for that one day. Otherwise I am very pleased with my progress.
Thanks. :)

Alfaking, the end is looming near and making me nervous!
Thanks for the migraine tips. I am horrible at relaxing, and I know it's one of my pitfalls with migraines. I really need to learn how to de-stress properly. I'm sure it would help!