Dithering more strongly

Well ... I took Kedger out.
Now I've put him back in again.

Because I really missed him.


So.

Words completed in the rough draft

40,675 / 120,000 (33.9%)

Days used before rough draft should be finished

56 / 123 (45.5%)

Still not keeping up ...





The difference between writing now and writing in Jane Austen's era is that quill pens never decide to stop printing closed brackets and quill pens never get wonky about 'P's and only hit them two times out of three and quill pens don't collect cookie crumbs under the keys and cat hairs all across the screen and quill pens don't suddenly decide to start writing all in capitals.
On the other hand you don't have to catch a goose before you boot up your computer.

The Chicago Manual of Style -- Still ranting

Still ranting even though I'm done with the copyedits.

Shall I tell you what annoys me about Chicago Manual of Style?

– Words ending in 's' are made possessive by adding another 's'. The Jones's anachronism. Jesus's sake. Gus's furtive plaint. The ladies's favorite carol.

– Shades of color cannot be described in hyphened words. No blue-green sea monsters, red-orange incendiaries, purple-black bruises. You can call the frock an Alice-blue dress or a mustard-colored dress, but it's gotta be a blue green dress or a red and yellow striped dress.

– Adverbs modifying adjectives are not hyphened. No tightly-knit plots, only tightly knit plots. No determinedly-unpleasant villains, only determinedly unpleasant villains.

– You can cap organizations, but not titles. The Ladies Gardening Club is capped. The dowager empress of China is not.


These are not good choices. They do not contribute to clarity. They are ugly and clunky decisions. Yuck.

Day 34 of 123

I'm in Day 34 of the 123 days I had to finish the manuscript of Jess after ... well after whenever it was I decided I really had to enter the final stretch.

The good news is I'm finally past the breakfast table in Chapter Seven.
It's in final draft.
That was a really hard scene.

I'm not sure I have it right even now.

I just know that I've got past it and I'm still alive and I will hope the reader doesn't die of bordeom over the crumpets and tea.


The bad news is I'm way behind in my word count if I expect to get this done by October 1.

The good news is that I have a fairly easy stretch to get through next, which should generate lots of happy words.

22,019 / 120,000 (18.3%)

JESSAMYN word count on rough draft

34 / 123 (27.6%)

Days till deadline


(edited to add --- When this was happening, I kept track of the process day by day. A year later, I went back and pulled all that dullness out. You don't have to go through every inch of the plod and niggle. Lucky you.)