This time around, for NaNo 2015, I’m like the slow starter in a horse race. My excuse is a Very Bad Cold, the kind my dad used to say needed lots of bed rest, ice cream, soda, and comic books. Well, I’m doing all of that, and seem to be getting better, though the comic books have been replaced by Netflix.
Currently, as of 11/14/2015, I’m at 19,629 words, and that’s nothing to sneeze at. Except that, with my goal of writing 2,000 words a day, by tomorrow I should be at 30,000 words. So you can see how far I’m behind! Luckily, there is the weekend, and I’m leaving the cleaning to the brownies and pixies, for whom I shall set out bowls of milk, in the hopes that they will come to my aid. Perhaps then the dust bunnies in my house will no longer be creeping their way toward a dust bowl.
Now, for all my fellow word-loving friends, I’ve discovered a new site called Google Ngram Viewer. What you do is, put in a word, and it will tell you when that word first started showing up in books. You can even narrow your search by year, and by language, and if anyone can explain what “smoothing” does, I’ll be glad to hear it.
Naturally the first thing I looked up was Oliver Twist, and wouldn’t you know it, the first time it shows up books is about 1833, and the name reaches its height in about 1841.
Then I looked up Jack Dawkins, whom you would think would have pretty much the same graph? Nope. Take a look. He goes directly into the books and then falls out of favor just about as fast.
The Artful Dodger, on the other hand, is an entirely different story. He goes into the book lexicon, and never falls out of it. If you expand the ending year to 2000, then you can see how popular the Artful Dodger is.
Anyway, have fun with the Ngram Viewer, and play safe!