Thursday, October 4, 2007

The voices are talking to me

I admit, I am a slave to my neurosis. (neuroses? I'm too lazy to look up which one is plural, right now)

I think I was happier before I discovered the "word count" tool in Microsoft Word. Curse you, Bill Gates! Even in the midst of my revisions, I am agonizing over every single word. And then I realize that the actual word count differs drastically from the 250-words-per-page method of word counting. I mean...HUGE difference. And then I worry about which one people want to see. (I know the answer to that. It depends on the person)

And I know if I write to word count, I'm only hurting myself. If I write to fill words, I'll end up putting in unnecessary padding. If I write to cut words, I may cut things that I should leave.

Just write the story, stupid! Argh.

On a saner note: I added about 800 words to chapter 2, today.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The word count tool is indeed one of the crueler tools in Word. It is absolutely addictive. I have been known to rewrite ONE sentence and go back to the word count to see how it affected the piece. LOL. Simply addicting.

Anonymous said...

I hear you. I've wasted hours of my life over the past few years obsessively checking my word count. Still, I'd much rather have it than not -- I think it can be hugely helpful, when used properly. :)