As I have written before, I’ve been dedicating the first hour of my day to writing a work of fiction, Teenage Beast, since June 7 of this year. I had grown tired of social media and rage-bait articles, so I decided to do something constructive with my mornings instead.
To my surprise, I’m enjoying the process. I thought it would feel like homework, but instead I look forward to spending time with my cast of characters every morning.
My wife recently asked me how many words I had written.
I had to admit that I had no idea.
I’ve been writing the story in Apple’s TextEdit, which is about as basic as a word processor gets. It doesn’t offer much in the way of statistics, certainly nothing like a word count, so I imported the text into LibreOffice. If you’re looking for a free alternative to Microsoft Office, LibreOffice is an excellent choice.
That gave me the answer.
I was surprised.
As of this morning’s writing session, Teenage Beast stands at 26,137 words.
It’s not really a big deal to me. I never sat down with a target word count or a deadline, and it’s not like I’m getting paid by the word. My plan has simply been to write until I’m satisfied with the shape of the story and the pace of the scenes, then see where I end up. Once I reach the finish line, I’ll find out whether I have enough pages to fill a book.
In other words, I’ll figure out how long it is after I’ve finished telling the story.
I have also been trying to put time in on the sketchbooks. That’s where some of the loopier ideas come bubbling up to the surface. This whole project started with doodles.
It all came from the sketchbook.
Better watch out, you’re going to turn into a writer…LOL
The thought had occurred…