20,085.

That's how many words I have in my twelve chapters. Two more chapters to go, I think, then the book will be first-drafted.

I'm re-reading Charlotte's Web. What a beautiful book. Mr White, please send your spirit into the fingers of my right hand when I write my book again.

Addendum: Make that 20,801.

Comments

[E.B.White]

"Writing is, for the most part laborious and slow. The mind travels faster than the pen; consequently, writing becomes a question of how to make occasional wingshots, bringing down the bird of thought as it flashes by. A writer is a gunner, sometimes waiting in his blind for something to come in, sometimes roaming the countryside hoping to scare something up. Like other gunners, he must cultivate patience: he may have to work many covers to bring down one partridge."

[— E.B. White]

"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."