Write Every Day, September Day #29

[auroracloud]

I went through my word counts today, and realized that I'd passed 100K words for this year on Tuesday. Woo! I previously thought I'd have to take my inkingitout pledge down by a bit, because the writing hasn't been going that smoothly on much of the time this year. But with the writing spurts I've had now, suddenly 150K does seem feasible again. So I'm keeping it for the time being and seeing what happens.

Of course, word counts are always a bit vague an indicator for me, because I work with two very different languages. I write my fanfic in English and my original stuff in Finnish. As I've probably mentioned before, because of the very different structure of the languages, the same thing written in Finnish has way fewer words than when written in English. (I'm not sure what the average ratio is, but my guess is that the word count in Finnish is 20-30% less. Some day I'll actually check this by comparing translations to original, or googling a source.) So in times when I write a lot of original stuff, the same amount of writing yields fewer words. On months when I write a lot of fanfic, it's easier to get high word counts. On the other hand, writing does come easier in Finnish when I'm on a roll, because there are fewer hesitations about the right register, the exact meaning of a word etc.

Linguistic digression for my own amusement, because boy do I know how to have fun on Saturday night. If you're wondering why Finnish word counts are lower and I haven't already explained it to you, it's mainly down to three things: 1) we have no articles, 2) we use way fewer prepositions and phrasal verbs, and instead conjugate/decline words, ie. change the form of the word by adding a suffix or a few or half a dozen, and thus change its meaning. This also means that often you can drop a pronoun because the verb already shows it; and when you can drop it, in written form it looks clunky if you leave it in. And 3) we use a lot of composite words, so expressions like "summer holidays," "Christmas presents," "chocolate bar," "Crown Princess," or "sonic screwdriver" are each just one word in Finnish.

Examples on point 2: "a dog"="koira", "my dog"="koirani," "for your dog"="koirallesi". Verbs are still more fun! "While I was/am writing"="kirjoittaessani".

Oops, sorry, lengthy linguistic tangent over there. I love linguistic tangents. I miss geeking out about languages more, I used to do that.

Today's Writing

I slept kind of badly last night - woke up too early and took a long time to fall asleep again - so I've been rather tired most of today. I tried to edit my various femslash ficlets, and made some progress, but then my brain just stopped doing edits. So I started another ficlet and got over 500 words on it. I have a feeling that by the time the prompt table challenge ends, I'll have a fair amount of ficlet drafts and none that have been edited and posted...


Tally



Day 1: carenejeans, cornerofmadness, justmcshane, navaan, shopfront, sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (9 so far)

Day 2: alexseanchai, brightandravenous, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, navaan,shopfront, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (11 so far)

Day 3: carenejeans, cornerofmadness, navaan, rosefox, shopfront, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (10 so far)

Day 4: alexseanchai, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, justmcshane, navaan, rosefox, shopfront, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (12 so far)

Day 5: alexseanchai, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, justmcshane, navaan, shopfront, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (11 so far)

Day 6: alexseanchai, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, navaan, shopfront, sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (9 so far)

Day 7: alexseanchai, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, justmcshane, navaan, shopfront, sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (10 so far)

Day 8: carenejeans, cornerofmadness, justmcshane, navaan, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (9 so far)

Day 9: carenejeans, cornerofmadness, navaan, shopfront, sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (8 so far)

Day 10: carenejeans, cornerofmadness, navaan, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (8 so far)

Day 11: carenejeans, cornerofmadness, sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (6 so far)

Day 12: carenejeans, cornerofmadness, sylvanwitch, talkingtothesky, tinx_r,trobadora, ysilme, and me. (8 so far)

Day 13: alexseanchai, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (8 so far)

Day 14: alexseanchai, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (8 so far)

Day 15: carenejeans, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (8 so far)

Day 16: carenejeans, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme; and me. (7 so far)

Day 17: carenejeans, cornerofmadness, sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme; and me. (6 so far)

Day 18: carenejeans, cornerofmadness, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, trobadora, ysilme; and me. (7 so far)

Day 19: bic_hok, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, shopfront, sylvanwitch, tinx_r, trobadora, ysilme; and me. (9 so far)

Day 20: bic_hok, carenejeans, cornerofmadness,sylvanwitch, tinx_r, trobadora, ysilme; and me. (8 so far)

Day 21: bic_hok, carenejeans, cornerofmadness,sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (7 so far)


Day 22: alexseanchai, bic_hok, carenejeans, cornerofmadness,sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (8 so far)

Day 23: alexseanchai, bic_hok, carenejeans, cornerofmadness,sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (8 so far)

Day 24: bic_hok, carenejeans, cornerofmadness,sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (7 so far)

Day 25: bic_hok, carenejeans, cornerofmadness,sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (7 so far)

Day 26: bic_hok, carenejeans, cornerofmadness,sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (7 so far)

Day 27: bic_hok, carenejeans, cornerofmadness,sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme, and me. (7 so far)

Day 28: carenejeans, cornerofmadness,sylvanwitch, trobadora, and me. (5 so far)

Let me know if I missed you, or if you wrote but didn't check in yet! And you can join in any time.

Comments

[trobadora]

Congrats on 100k words! \o/

I worked on my FemslashEx fic some more. Still not happy with the structure.

[auroracloud]

Thank you!

Hope the structure will start working out soon. You've still got time. :-)

[alexseanchai]

*\o/*

[sylvanwitch]

Don't apologize for the language tangent--I find it fascinating! I had wondered if Finnish weren't something like German, at least where adding endings/declensions instead of using a separate word is concerned. I mean, I know they aren't otherwise similar. I studied German only long enough in graduate school to pass a reading test, and I've forgotten the vast majority of what I did manage to pound into my brain, but I do remember the long polysyllabic words that said something it would have taken three or four English words to get out. Anyway, I'm always happy to listen to you geek out about language! :-)

I wrote 1408 on the Loki/Thor story this morning before we headed out for a lovely drive in the country and another fall festival. It was a very, very nice day.

[auroracloud]

Yeah, it's a bit like German, with the suffixes and cases, and with the combined words. Though German has fewer cases - I think four? Finnish has 16. :-) But still, if you know the German language structure, then you have an idea how those things work. Though yeah, they aren't otherwise similar or at all related. (Though we do have a surprising number of the same idioms, sayings etc., probably because Finns have always had a lot of cultural and trade contact with Germans.) I've learned German as well, but I had so much trouble with the cases, so I do pity people who are learning Finnish, especially if they come from a language that doesn't have those kind of structures at all. :-) (Although German is particularly sneaky in that some of the cases look like each other. Well, come to think of it, Finnish has some that do the same...) Though of course it goes both ways - I always had a hard time with prepositions and phrasal verbs in any Indo-European languages I studied - especially since they often work entirely differently in all of them! I can't just use what I learned in English to apply to French...

I'm glad you had a nice day, that does sound lovely! And sounds like you got in a good bit of writing, too. :-)

[alexseanchai]

I wrote a ritual outline. It's only bullet points rn but I'm counting it. XD

Who's got October?

Drawing this to your attention, auroracloud () :)

[auroracloud]

Bullet points still count! Yay writing! And navaan will be hosting the challenge in October. :-)

Thanks for the link, I'll have to read that properly when my brain is functioning enough!

[alexseanchai]

:)

[cornerofmadness]

That's interesting about the differences in language (and congrats on the word count)

I was at the steampunk stuff most of the day. Managed 180 words final editing Hyperion's Son and 260 words on a new short

[auroracloud]

Congratulations for both the editing and working on the new story!

[cornerofmadness]

thanks!

[alexseanchai]

Woo steampunk!

[cornerofmadness]

That was my reaction! Always have fun with my airship

[carenejeans]

Congratulations on making 100K words!

I'm sure you'll finish a few of those ficlets.

I added about 240 words to the Nice Bookshop novel, and worked on the nonfiction project, as usual.

[auroracloud]

Thank you!

I hope so... Even if I don't finish them for the challenge timeline, hopefully I'll at least get around to posting them, because I do enjoy some of them. :-)

Yay for more writing, glad you got some work done on both projects again!