Q: When is a word count not a word count?
A: When it’s the same damn files, but adding up to two different totals.
Part of the reason I haven’t posted output for the last few days, is that Jodie and I were on the coast, without Internet access. Another reason is that my word count was all weird again — and this time it may not actually be the fault of my addition-addled writer’s brain.
Just when I thought I could trust my computer to add
Just when I thought I had all this word count weirdness sussed out,
check this out. My day’s novel output is saved in a separate file for
each day. After my recent word count debacle, I opened each file, and
copied and pasted its contents into a master file. That should give me
an accurate total count, that I can match against the added-up total
for each day’s file, right?
Puh-lease.
+436?
The total file gives me a word count that is 436 words higher than the
added-up count from each file. I don’t get it — and I’ve put the master
file together twice. At least it’s consistently inconsistent.
I’ll sweat out the extra 436 words instead, thanks
For the moment, I’m ignoring it in favor of the added-up count. It’s
lower, and I’d rather err on the side of needing to write more and be
over the mark, than write less and wind up under.
Either way, I’m kicking butt — and will leave such things as checking addition to my more mathematically inclined girlfriend.
No! No math for me. You’re going to have to leave this one up to the big NaNo counting machine.
That one’s no help either though – the Nano counter is coming up about 1,000 more than I think I really have. I’m guessing they’re counting all the long dashes.