About
300 words long
15 March, 2000
It's been a night of bill paying tonight. I've finally got paid for a job, and the cheque is wending its way through the banking system, so it was time to deal with the bills that had been piling up. Over $700 later, this round of bills has been covered. Of course that doesn't include the credit card which has inexorably climbed upward over the past few months. It's good to pay things off, but it's scary how quickly they mount up.
To celebrate we ate well and healthily tonight. KFC, Coke, and chocolate marshmallow easter eggs with a cup of tea. It's surprising how good it all felt!
The kitchen table is covered with Debbie's books and papers and the laptop she's borrowed from work. She was so proud yesterday; she's started writing her big research paper. She came in and saw me. “I've written my first page Mike!, I've got nearly 300 words written. Plus I've got over 1500 words in my bibliography!"
I demurred slightly that perhaps the bibliography doesn't count towards the minimum word count of 15,000. “Yes it does.” Deb was quite insistent on the point. “I've got it in writing, I'll show you.” She bought out the regulations covering the writing of the paper. She'd obviously pored over these, and showed me something on about page 8. It didn't spell out that the bibliography didn't count in the same way it didn't spell out that the words in the title, or the acknowledgements didn't count. Deb read it as anything that wasn't specifically ruled out, counted.
She's working on the quantity model of writing. They want 15,000 words? No problem. After each day of writing I'll do a word count. Once it reaches 15,000, bang!, it's finished.
I find it a good way to work too.
Oops, my 300-odd words for this entry is up already …