Monday, February 14, 2011

Word count

The grant I've been working on pretty steadily for the last week is done and a big project at work has wound down (only the final report to write tomorrow), so I've words and energy to spare for the blog tonight.

Since 2011 began it seems I've been writing and writing and writing — 6500 words have already been submitted and either appeared in print or will over the next few months, another few thousand have been spun for that grant that's due tomorrow. The blogging? That's just for fun and to sop up the extra bits and pieces that don't make it into one published article or another.

A colleague asked me today how many words I write (and keep) in a year — I guessed somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000. Last year, about 35,000 of those words appeared in print. Depending on how you look at it (and depending where I am in the pleasure-pain cycle), this is either a lot (enough to make a 100 page book) or not very much (less than 100 words a day).

6 comments:

  1. In the stillness of your meditation, it is probably both/and.

    Mark me down as a voice in the (virtual) wilderness saying "Book, book, book."

    :)

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  2. And my Word Verification for that comment was "preorder"!! LOL!

    I would, too!

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  3. Cindy - I did laugh out loud at that one. Various other souls say "book" to me from time to time, too. Maybe this summer I will grab my courage and send out some book proposals!

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  4. We were talking about extended minds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Mind) in my senior seminar yesterday. The basic idea is that objects in the external environment may function as part of one's mind, say a notebook with a "to do list" scribbled in it.

    If it's accurate, your mind is definitely extended in literary form! I'm imagining some grand jetes and deep stretching plies going on.

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  5. Hey, save a few words and send me an e-mail about the invite!

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  6. Words for Wayne on their way...

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