the lights go down and it's just you up there, getting them to feel like that
mood: 
bored
boredmusic: Muddy Waters - Got My Mojo Workin`
Logging yesterday's wordcount today! (I didn't get this done until about 1 am, what with one thing and another, and then I went to bed.)
Chill:
New words: 2514
Microsoft wordcount: 45077
Manuscript wordcount: 53000 (Chapter breaks, how I love you for inflating the hell out of my apparent wordcount.)
Deadline: May 1
Mammalian assistance: The P.C. decided I wasn't being enough fun, and went to go get stoned about halfway through the afternoon. I had great fun watching her make out with her catnip-filled zucchini, or whatever that thing is supposed to be. She's lost all her glitterballs under things again, which is usually my cue to sweep, but right now, I am deathmarching. (And you should see the state of my sink. Uck. Gross.)
Reason for stopping: Quota, chapter, tired.
Darling du jour: ruptured bulkheads frozen in twisted alloy petals like balloons captured at the moment of bursting
Tyop du jour: I'm sure I'll find one when I revise
Jury-rigging: Oh, my god. Did I actually just write lit up with a startled smile? I'd cut my hands off in penance, but I need them to climb. Nevermind, highlight it and fix it later, press on, press on.
There's always one more quirk in the character: Tristen requests that, in future, he be allowed to skip all scenes relating to dead children. I have informed him that he needs to check his contract, and also that he knew the job when he signed up.
They never believe you'll follow through.
Today's words Word don't know: viewports, karst (but it offers to correct it to "karsts"), cofarming, rebraided, jowled, cowled (I laugh at the coincidence), neurochemicals,
Words I'm Surprised Word Do Know: metronomic, tilapia
Sustenance: Dirty rice from the freezer. Freezer food: the resource that makes possible a proper literary deathmarch. Well, that and cookies.
Mean Things: ghosts from the haunted past
Other writing-related work: none
Exercise: crunches. There was climbing, too, wherein I actually finished every route I tried, including two 5.7s (with a certain amount of flailing and dogging on the rope, but I think both climbs were reproducible, which is exciting, because so far my technique for anything harder than a 5.6 has been to flounder at it until I either get too tired, or, luck out and find some way up that I can never seem to find twice.) after which my forearms and triceps hurt so much I just did a 5.5 and two 5.6s on the slab. Also, I did some sun salutations to stretch out. Need to do more yoga. Maybe Saturday.
Good meatpuppet. Brave meatpuppet. You did good.
(Please note, use of "meatpuppet" here is highly ironic. I am all too aware of the fact that the body knows all sorts of stuff it doesn't tell the brain, and that the entire brain has all kinds of information it never tells the neocortex, and that the neocortex itself does tons of work it doesn't bother telling that little patch of the left brain that calls itself I and puts on airs. It's a little bit like the Reagan administration: we just give the big guy plausible deniability by never letting him find out anything that might disturb his afternoon nap and jelly bean snack.)
Miles to Lothlorien: 245.2
Guitar practice: In addition to "Yellow Submarine," I am learning "Breakdown." Which of course is in A minor, because it seems that if I like a song, it will inevitably be in A minor. I know more songs in A minor than anybody needs. But it is also the key that best suits my (limited, untrained, breathy-chick) voice.
Mail: nomail
You just made my day. 'Scuse me while I pick myself up - I'm currently trying to type while rolling about, laughing.
Edited at 2008-03-27 12:40 pm (UTC)
Pick a standard-looking page from the middle of the manuscript. Using a ruler, align it along the right edge of the text so that the ends of half the lines stick out and half are covered. Since most standard format pages contain 24 or 25 lines, you should have 12 or 13 sticking out beyond the ruler. Count characters backwards from the point where the ruler ends. Divide the total by 6. Multiply by lines on the page. (Example: 60 characters divided by 6 equals 10 words per line. Multiplied by 25 lines equals 250 words per page.) Then multiply by pages in the manuscript -- adjusting for blank areas, like the half page missing on the first page. This will give you an accurate word count equivalent to what an editor will use.
I can't stand to type in Courier (I think it's the most hideous-looking font I've ever laid eyes on). Now I feel bad for insulting Courier. But I'm going to have to try this on my own document this weekend - after I make a quick switch to Courier AND double-space (I'm single-spacing at the moment to make it easier for me to quickly glance back over things if need be).
Thanks! I've learned something new today - and that alone makes it a worthwhile day.
OMFG MY LIFE IS JUSTIFIED
You should always place two spaces after any punctuation used to end a sentence. "Always?" you may ask. Always! Some people will tell you that two spaces aren't required these days, especially if you submit a manuscript to be typeset directly from a computer disk, because the extra spaces are going to be deleted anyway. Don't listen to these people. Unless you are Harlan Ellison, your editor is always going to actually read your manuscript before sending it on to the typesetter, and he or she is used to seeing two spaces after every sentence and will be annoyed to see anything else. Remember, above all else, do not annoy the editor. (If you are Harlan Ellison, you may ignore all these guidelines. You could submit your stories in crayon on a roll of toilet paper and they would still get published.) (http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/de
Hee! ....man oh man, I will NEVER not be able to put two spaces after a period. HTML totally strips it out, tho.
But then, I've always been weird.
(But it's what I was taught, by god. Along with a closing period after an ellipsis that ends a sentence, and either no spaces around an ellipsis, or one on each side. I'm being told otherwise for a proofing job and it drives me batty.)
"'But if it won't be fine . . . . '"
along with stuff like "wouldn ' t" (or was it "would n't"?). Really fascinating. And French still puts a space before and after a question mark, right? (Or I should say, Right ? )
OMFG, there you go, on up the Lhotse face! Next comes the Death Zone! ....er, that was meant to be motivational, really.
I have informed him that he needs to check his contract, and also that he knew the job when he signed up.
They never believe you'll follow through.
omfg, once again, SO GLAD I am not a character written by you.
....waitaminnit, maybe I _am_ written by you. Or
Please note, use of "meatpuppet" here is highly ironic
omfg I AM SO OFFENDED YOU SAID 'MEATPUPPET' I SHALL WRITE A LENGTHY SCREED
or hey, you know, it's elljay. Someone else will probably pop up to do so!
The Reagen Administration