A quick question for writers

[msagara]

I mentioned earlier that I have been using the equivalent of MS Word's wordcount while writing, and that this has not perhaps been very smart. I know that we're all looking at the lengths of our various books, and I was wondering: How do you keep track of wordcount while writing? Because I had an extra 45K words and an extra 25K words when looking at the page runoffs on the two books I did write in Scrivener, and this was ... unfortunate. And I would like not to repeat it if I can*.

If you need to turn in a 100k manuscript--or a manuscript of a specific maximum length--do you check the runoff count as part of your daily writing, do you format it in manuscript format so you write -to- a runoff count?

ETA: * I am aware that there might be a bit of gentle mockery at this point

Comments

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

It seems to me the problem is writing something, frex, 100k in Scriv, and then exporting it to Open Office or Word, and discovering another 25k in there when you convert to SFM?

That is normal. That is the difference between SMF and word processor wordcount. There's always a huge difference. So if your editor wants 100k SMF, then you can go into Scriv, click View, Project Stats, and there it will give you page counts. Go to the options tab in there and make sure the lines per page is at 25. Give it a second to recount, and that will give you how many SMF pages on the printed pages line. 400 will be where you aim.

Make sense? Even if you were writing in Word and using the processor count, then converting to SMF, you'd have the same wordcount jump. That's just their natures.

Of course, I'm only assuming that's the problem you're describing...

[msagara.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is exactly the problem :).

I am not a Scrivener power user (as must be obvious), but what I like about it is the ability to keep multiple versions of chapters in one place, with the current being the top level, and any cuts or deletions being nested. I don't actually do it often, but it's a lot easier to organize this way.

So yes, what I wanted to do was to have some idea of page count. Can I use the export format to get the page count, or would I have to write it in that font and widen the window for proper line sizing, do you know?

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

You can use the expert tool, yes.

An easier way to keep track of the page count in Scriv while you're writing is just to adjust the options in there (make sure it says Courier 12pt, and you can tell it to change if you need -- it already assumes 1" margins) and 25 lines per page. That should give you SMF count of 250 words per page. Then you can just click on the project statistics every time you want to check your page count, rather than exporting it. You don't have to change the font you're currently using in Scriv to do this, either, just tell it how to count it when you want to know.

I like Scrivener, too. I use the Snapshots to keep old drafts, though. That tucks them away where you don't have to look at them, but you can revert any time you want.

[msagara.livejournal.com]

Go to the options tab in there and make sure the lines per page is at 25. Give it a second to recount, and that will give you how many SMF pages on the printed pages line. 400 will be where you aim.

Actually, the default setting of 54 lines per page with 12 pt. courier counts SMF pages (the count will be low because it doesn't seem to pick up the page-break at end of chapter). Or rather, it counts the 24 pt SMF page. (I tried it with 25, and with 54, and exported to SMF; the 54 came within 2 pages of the exported manuscript).

Thank you very much for this!

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

Glad it worked! Scrivener is such a useful tool, but it does take some fiddling with to learn how to use it. I don't use near all the features it offers, but I like knowing they're there.

'Sides, it's cheaper than Word, and doesn't crash. :)