Revision Notes VIII (Friday Edition)

Yes, that's right, there will be no exciting post about science, mythology, or history today. Because I still have ten chapters to go (though I am feeling very confident about the new ending that I put together today to procrastinate on Chapter 31).

Today I will be revising revising revising, and tomorrow I will be revising some more. And hopefully, I will work hard enough to finish before the weekend is over!

And when I'm done, I'm going to treat myself to some Percy Jackson, and let my brain decompress. 40 single spaced pages to go!

Best of Luck to everyone in process!

Edit:
One Three Four Chapters Down, Six to Go!

Revision Notes VII

Five Six Eight Nine Twelve chapters down! (2/11/10) Hopefully I can get through another three or four today, but these need a lot of work, so we'll see how it goes.

Back to work!

Numbers as Promised!

 

Image created by using www.wordle.net

The other day, I ran a word count check on "eyes," which seems to consistently be the most overused word in all of my manuscripts to date. The result? 457 eyes.

To put this in perspective, let me offer you some other numbers.

My book is 99,616 words and 335 double spaced pages (Times New Roman, 12pt Font).


This means there are, on average, 1.4 pairs of eyes per page in my manuscript. The word "eyes" makes up about .04% of my novel. That's less than half a percent, and when I look at it like that, I feel a little bit better.


Still! I felt it would be prudent to take out some of those extra eyeballs, so as I continued my revisions, I started replacing them as I came upon them in the text. I'm happy to report that I brought the number down to 433-- and I'm not quite half way through the book. Obviously there will need to be a second cutting, later, but I'll take what I can get.


The word just above eyes in frequency is "The" with a capital T (483), and "but" has tied eyes for usage. I was surprised there wasn't more "but" until I realized that there's an additional tally of 290 uses of the word "But." Maybe I should be more concerned about B(b)ut.


In contrast, I use the names of my primary characters Eve (388), Adam (296), Thor (259), Reu (209), and Garrit (195) far less.

In case you're wondering, the word "back" comes in at 374, with "could," "them," and "me," buffering it against Eve. There will be some search and replace in the future for "back."

The top scoring word? "the" lowercase, with over 4000 uses. 4% of my manuscript.

Yowza. Those articles really take up a lot of word count real estate.

Some other words of note:
looked--170
love--124
smiled--100
stared--72
nodded--59
shrugged--19

By the way, if you don't see me around the blogosphere in the next couple of days, it's because I've banned myself from the internet to finish revising 24 chapters in less than a week. If major progress does not get made, I may have to skip my Friday blogpost--so savor the statistics! And also, feel free to check out your own! What's your "eyes" equivalent?

For the Insatiable, Most Common Words from "the" to "The" in The Book of Generations:

Woo! 50!

A big shout out to my fiftieth follower! I'm glad to have all 50 of you at my back and gratified that you were all interested enough to keep reading posts after stumbling across me!

Tomorrow, in honor of the statistical importance (or lack thereof) I shall discuss... More Numbers.

I leave you in anticipation, I'm sure.

Miscellaneous Items and Linkage

I know we're all on the edge of our seat with excitement about the new ketchup packets coming to us from Heinz-- dunk OR squirt!-- so I'll keep it short today!

I don't really have a theme for this post, partly because I'm killing myself on revisions which is making me lazy about the blog. My attention span is short, so some bullets!

1) I wrote a review of Marvel's Thor, volumes 1 and 2 for GeekaChicas. You've probably heard me rave about it here, already, but I really think that J. Michael Straczynski's Thor, volume 1, was one of the best comic book trades I've read in.. Well, Ever. For more info on why, check out the review! (Some of you who have been around for a while may recognize parts--I ranted about Volume 2 over here a bit.)

2) I also recently laid out a post on Dual-Fatherhood and Jesus for GeekaChicas, an expansion of a post I wrote back in October or November for this blog. You can blame Theseus for that one. If you're offended by the idea that mythologies and religions all feed into one another, and Christianity is not an exception to that rule, you might want to skip it! Otherwise, give it a click and explore the variations on the theme!

3) Revisions are going VERY well on my end. I did some cuts and some rewrites, and I'm really proud of where this book is going. Recently I made the less-difficult-than-anticipated decision of cutting my prologue from the book, and It's SO much stronger for it. It wasn't agonizing at all--it just felt right. I'm aiming for completion by February 15th, now, and I hope you all hold me to it!

4) For the first time since grade school, I'm going to make an effort to keep track of the books I read this year. So far I've made it through three. Maybe I'll do a monthly book report for what I've read. Does Beta-reading novels count?

5) I've made some progress on the Icelandic flavoring front with the help of one of the books I got for Christmas, The Sagas of the Icelanders. It's not much, but I like it. Unfortunately I still don't have a good no-nonsense, non-textbook translation of the Eddas, but it's only a matter of time...

6) This website looks like it's pretty cool. Just in case you ever need help keeping your Olympians straight, it's got an awesome family tree. This guy(?) is apparently putting together comic books about each of the Olympians in turn, which I think is awesome! Anything that gets kids into mythology is a good thing, and comic books are definitely IN right now.

7) Trying to figure out how to make time to write? Here's a great post by Trinza at Tall Tales on how best to ensure you're making it happen!

Keep your fingers crossed that we don't get snowed in on Saturday-- I've got places to be!

Revision Notes VI

I don't have words to describe the feelings of relief flooding through me now that I have finally gotten Chapter Five to its proper and most glorious place.

I may even celebrate by reading the next Percy Jackson book tomorrow!

Do you treat yourself to anything when you conquer a stubborn chapter?

Fight Scene Day!

So I only just heard about this fest today, but I'm determined to participate! Yesterday was Fight Scene Day! Hosted by Mireyah Wolfe at Crimson Ink. Head over to her blog to see who else is participating, and enjoy a day of violence to get you through all your shopping this month, when you have to slog through aisles and aisles of red hearts and flowers :)

I don't actually have a lot of physical fights in my books. I have one GREAT scene between Thor and Loki, which might be hands down my favorite fight in life, but it isn't one I can really share right now without giving away spoilers, so the only real fights I have to contribute are only quasi-fights. Still! I will not be stopped! So here you have it! Some good old Adam vs. Thor! And the first scene I've revealed on this blog not written from Eve's PoV.

Note Please, that this is only a draft. And I'm terrible at writing physical fight scenes, to be honest with you.

[Excerpt removed]

And just a heads up, while we're festing, Courtney Reese will be hosting the Love At First Sight Blogfest come February 14th! I have no idea what I'm posting for it yet, but you can be sure I'll be taking part. :)

P.S. I'm in the process of trying to find some suitable Scandinavian turn of phrase to replace "You arrogant cur," but so far, no luck. I'm taking all suggestions into consideration!