mmph

[jazzfish]

The Le Guin paper is at around 2500 words, which is about 500 shy of the theoretical minimum. There's a bit more I need to add, but much else and I'll just be babbling. So I'll get my 2-2.5 hours of sleep tonight, go take my exam, go listen to Ann babble about the end of Script Analysis, go get my crown done, and then come home and finish Le Guin. Then most likely sleep for hours, and get up on Tuesday and bang my head against that Shakespeare paper I've had left over from spring.

Man. I am so ready for it to be, like, Thursday. I'm beat.

Comments

[laughin.livejournal.com]

Theoretical minimum? There is no minimum requirement for wordage?

I never understood the minimum word thing. Some people can say what they want in less than the average BS.

[narquelion.livejournal.com]

And really -- jazzfish is one of the two most ...er... concentrated writers I know. A picture's only worth about 500 words. :)

[jazzfish]

Thanks, I think. (Four hundred, tops. :)

Really, it's just laziness masquerading as efficiency. If I can say what I need to in fewer words (and hence less time) I'll do that. Occasionally I lose nuances over this, but it's not bothered me too much yet. (Rather, when it has I've had the chance to go back and explicate myself.)

[narquelion.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's a compliment, even if it is a strange one.

And laziness is part of a programmer's skillset, I have no idea why it shouldn't be part of a writer's.

[jazzfish]

Eh. I'm familiar with the laziness, impatience, hubris mantra, but it doesn't fit so well around writing. Laziness can make you content with a lot of almost-right words. Impatience can be channelled effectively, though, and hubris is a requirement for all writers.

[narquelion.livejournal.com]

The thing is, I think the main difference between my good writing and your good writing is the amount of time I put into it. I don't know if this comes through, I've not done enough writers' workshops and etc. to get too many second opinions, but when I read my work, even once I get the right words I can feel the struggle of producing them. They don't read the same as inspiration-struck-here. I'm still wondering whether that's in the work itself or just one of those differences between reader and author perception of it.

This is not too important in nonfiction. I'm experimenting with dodging it in fiction by having a narrator dysfunctional enough that the strained-ness fits. Which it seems makes me happier, whether anyone else notices it or not.

[jazzfish]

Not really. "Twelve to sixteen pages" and "sixteen to twenty pages" were both mentioned as possible lengths. (250 words roughly equals one page.) When we pointed this out to the professor he said "Yeah, something like that. I'm pretty lax about length requirements."

I hate hate hate length requirements. It's nice to have suggestions, as long as that's all they are.