Monday, February 2, 2004

[Harry Potter fanart]

Saturday was completely unexpected. I’d intended to catch up on my writing, since my cold had kept my brain fogged all week. But my landlady lent me Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and after cracking the cover at 2 p.m., I didn’t put it down until I’d finished it.

Which is not to suggest that The Order of the Phoenix is a mind-boggling book of staggering genius. It’s definitely good, though; a rolicking adventure that deviates enough from the established Harry Potter formula to be interesting. There are several surprising revelations, with hints of more to come (I’m betting there’s more to be revealed about Aunt Petunia). And Harry is very, well, very fifteen. A bit of a jerk, really, in the way of teenagers who are under a lot of stress.

I spent Sunday at my parents’ house watching the Superbowl. I have only an intellectual interest in the game of football; I’ll watch it to observe the strategy and tactics of the game, which are admittedly complex and fascinating at a level I don’t see in other sports. But I only watch the Superbowl with my Dad, as that’s an opportunity for us to do something together. Since our interests don’t really match up, we have to find chances like this to bond.

And now I’m back at work, and a bit discouraged about my apparent inability to write on Saturdays. I’d planned to write 200 words a day on the weekdays and 1,000 words on Saturdays. I have no trouble with 200 words a day; I’m averaging more like 300. But Saturdays just aren’t working, so I think I may switch to (at least) 200 words every day, including Saturday and Sunday. I don’t seem to benefit from taking a day off from writing, so that would at least make up a bit.

200 words a day is about 70,000 words a year. Not bad. On the other hand, that doesn’t include editing, it’s not quite as much as a full-time fiction writer’s output. On the gripping hand, I’m not a full-time fiction writer. 70,000 words is pretty darn good.

As reference: I wrote 6,800 words in January (and that’s with six sick days off). If that rate holds, I’d write over 80,000 words a year.

The image accompanying today’s entry is Harry Potter fanart from Ayne’s Harry Potter Gallery, which is worth visiting just for the title image, which is a striking shot of the three heroes ready to kick some tail.

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