Round Up of A Round of Words in 80 Days

h oh. I haven't quite been keeping track of my daily progress on editing Out of the Water. The only thing I can tell is that compared to 80 days ago, I've actually got less square brackets. They're actually down to a finite number - all highlighted in purple.


Some statistics:

Total pages: 180

Current word count: 140,380 (way too high for a historical romance, apparently)

First 60 pages: CLEAN. No highlights, no brackets, no question marks! Even passed out to a couple of readers!

First 120 pages: relatively clean. Just a few more linking scenes needed.

Last 60 pages: a MESS. Total rewrite necessary.

Additional: c. 150 words looked up in the OED Online so far. So many anachronistic words I can't use...

Something I was thinking about yesterday: This year is the 560th or so anniversary of Gutenberg's printing press. I still haven't succumbed to e-books; I print everything.
There was a guest post recently on Nathan Bransford's blog, exploring the relation between memory, learning and books. I don't want to decry new technology, because I think my fear - that people are getting dumber and that stupidity is becoming more accepted - has been around for hundreds of years.
O tempora, o mores! And yet - it's exciting being around in a time of flux, when all the rules are changing.

Next round of A Round of Words in 80 Days starts on 4 July! And I've got my first assignment for Barbara Rogan's Revising Fiction Workshop to do before then. Details coming soon!