Perfection comes with editing. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from writing in drabble format, it’s that perfection comes with editing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve checked the word count of a Lord Charming chapter and landed at 126 words. So I weed out, tighten up, and whittle away until I reach that perfect 100.
On days I start out with 153 words, I groan inwardly and reach for the pruning shears. But on days like today, my heart is exceedingly light.
Oh, the inexpressible joy of landing precisely at 100 words on the first try! ::twinkle::
Lol, I counted the words from the post! I thought that it would’ve been in 100 words itself. 😀
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You made me curious, so I checked. Including the ::twinkle:: it was 99, so I added one word. Now it’s a perfect blog post!
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I’m constantly in awe of the fact you can get your drabbles down to 100 words! I’ve tried! But I can barely keep my text messages under a 100 words never mind a story chapter…
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Short doesn’t always mean sweet. Or simple. But it certainly gets easier with practice. ::twinkle::
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my Granny used to say that bc I’m both Italian and Irish “short” only applies to my height not to my verbosity XD
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I must ask which word processor you use, because I’ve noticed inconsistent word count in my own works, one says exactly 200 and another says 202 or something like that, as it includes dashes with names like Inu-Yasha wich is my preference when I write, so to see it counted as two words is frustrating.
What’s your take on this conundrum?
I just use what operates more comfortably, but does that mean it’s also inaccurate?
-Anil
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I ran up against this conundrum when I was modding drabble contest communities. Different word processors do have different rules for their word counts. As you’ve noticed, hyphens can throw things off. Some programs create a word estimate based on the average number of characters instead of actual words. (So Sesshoumaru would count as two words simply because it’s long.) These variances can be frustrating, especially in a contest format.
If you’re comfortable writing in a program that doesn’t give an accurate word count, I’d suggest a quick copy/paste in another program (or online word counter) to verify your drabble’s perfection. ::twinkle::
My word counts are tallied using Microsoft Word.
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Thank you. ^_^
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