Last week one of my children’s teachers gave me a homework assignment: to write about my child in a million words or less. We laughed about it over the dinner table. My husband knew I really could write a book about either of our children. (I was proud of myself when I completed the assignment without adding extra papers, though I did fill both sides.) My children asked me if I really could write a million words. I told them I thought I already had and did some estimates.

LORD LANGDON’S KISS: 75,000
THE WEDDING WAGER: 20,000
THE INCORRIGIBLE LADY CATHERINE: 75,000
THE REDWYCK CHARM: 75,000
SAVING LORD VERWOOD: 75,000
LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE: 90,000

410,000 total published words. But I usually do at least 3 drafts that are pretty much total rewrites (the 4th is polishing). So I’ve probably written about 1,230,000 words in order to create these 6 published works.

And that doesn’t count works-in-progress.

I also have 3 chapters of a proposal I’ve put on the back burner: about 9,000 words. Two drafts of the balloonist story: 200,000 more. And about 65,000 words of first draft on the story I started during NaNoWriMo week.

The grand total (drumroll here): 1,504,000 words.

If I ever start doubting that I am a real writer I’m going to look back at this total!

So how about you, Riskies and friends? Do you think you’ve written a million words yet, or does it just feel like it? I wonder how many we’ve written in total? Probably a brazillion. 🙂

And for our friends who aren’t writers, do these numbers come as a surprise?

Elena

www.elenagreene.com

Ah, lovely Trafalgar Square. When I first lived in England, you had to cross an extremely busy street to get from the main part of the square to the National Gallery. Today, that street is a pedestrian-only zone.

Definitely an improvement.

Now that I have pointed out that I am able to see that some changes are good, let me just say that, in general, change disturbs me. Not on an intellectual level, but on an emotional level.

When I go to London with Todd, there’s quite a bit of “Oh, that’s where that great Vietnamese Restaurant used to be” — “oh, and here’s where the Dillons used to be that got the windows broken in that football riot” — “oh no, that cool little shop in the tube station where I could always find a Diet Tango is gone” — “you’re kidding, they moved the Tourist Information AGAIN?”

And then we go to Norwich, where’s there’s now a MALL on Castle Hill, and the library’s in a gigantic glass building which also has a museum and a Pizza Express.

Okay, yes, these aren’t all bad changes. The old Norwich library (which burned down) was one of those ugly 1960’s type buildings — no great loss.

But part of me wants the world to stay the same. Seeing bits disappear when I’m not looking is like glancing down at my feet to find part of the floor has disappeared.

Which has me thinking.

The Regency was a time of great change, in so many areas. Stunning, staggering change.

How must Regency folk have felt about this? Because, however they felt, they surely noticed it. Did they hate it? Love it? Vary in opinion?

What do you think? Did London folk get upset when buildings were knocked down and streets torn up to make Regent Street and Regent Park? Did older folks complain that fast roads were ruining both the countryside and young men’s morals?

And do you get bothered when things change?

All comments welcome!

Cara
Cara King, author of MY LADY GAMESTER and mourner of the tastiest Vietnamese restaurant in London

Janet’s post is going up late today, so I’m jumping in to ask a quick question.

As we’ve just done the Ang Lee Sense & Sensibility in the Jane Austen Book Club, should we do the BBC S&S next?

Or what do you think of the idea of doing the four major Pride & Prejudice adaptations, in the order they were made?

Or do you think we shouldn’t repeat a novel yet, but should do a Northanger Abbey or Mansfield Park next, perhaps?

Does easy availability matter to you? How about length?

Thanks!

Cara

If this post is disjointed, it only reflects my current state of mind! I have just put my oldest child onto the bus to middle school and the other one onto the elementary school bus all alone. Needless to say we are an emotional lot this morning.

Now I’m taking stock of what I achieved this summer in my writing and figuring out where to go from here. Actually, I’m rather pleased. I got more done this summer than in the past.

The big milestone was finishing the second draft of my balloonist story. I think it helped that this year I didn’t set unrealistic expectations for what I’d achieve during the precious hours I had to write the two weeks the kids were in day camp or in the early morning while they were still asleep.

The other thing that helped this summer was my new (to me) Alphasmart. I took it on vacation and continued on the rough draft of the story I started during last November’s National Novel Writing Month. I just downloaded the lot to my regular computer and discovered I’d roughed out almost 10,000 words. Here’s to my Alphie! 🙂

However, the past week or so I’ve had to neglect my muse for post-vacation cleanup, back to school preparation (stuff like taking my new middle schooler in to practice opening her locker and walk the route of her different classes) and the last hurrahs of summer. On Monday we went to the New York State Fair. One of our favorite things there is the Poultry House–who could have imagined there were so many varieties of ducks, bunnies, chickens, etc…? It’s smelly and noisy but a feast for the eyes. I even saw some Old English Game hens and cocks: descendants of what may be one of the earliest English breeds of chicken, developed for fighting but now generally raised by fanciers. Handsome birds, aren’t they? Anyway, I am telling myself the outing counts as research…

So Riskies and friends, whatever your occupation, how do you stay productive during the summer? Or do you just give it up at some point? And then how do you get back into the swing of things?

Also, for the writers among you, there’s a contest running right now at
Writer Unboxed, the prize being a full set of Writer’s Market guides worth over $150.00. All you have to do to enter is create your own word. An example of one entry they’ve received so far: “Altugooglious (adjective): Ranking high, primarily the top ranking, on a Google search results page.”

Elena, hoping the Riskies will continue to grow in altugoogliosity
www.elenagreene.com