The Word Count Meter of Doom

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
13,555 / 100,000
(13.6%)

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Word count vs. Characterization

So, today was completely wasted in terms of word countage. I spent the usual hour at work writing and only managed to bang out 630 words. Boo at that. However, I did spend a good chunk of that time in character development in the sense that I created seven new characters in about 15 minutes. Granted, most of them will be just names with occasional appearances until their plot-driven deaths, but still. So the day wasn't completely a waste, but I just don't feel productive if I don't have five pages of text to show for it. That's probably stupid, but who said I make sense?

On the flip side of the coin, I'm completely stuck with Antagonist Lite (henceforth to be called AL). I know exactly the kind of character I want him to be, but he's being stubborn. I can't get the voice right at all, and I worry about him turning out like every other character like him that's ever been written. He's massively important, or at least he will be when I get into the meat of the story, so it's important that he's just right. It's just about driving me mad. I thought describing him physically would be the hard part and that the rest would just come easily. Boy, was I wrong.

Either way, it was a slightly productive day. Tomorrow will be better!

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