Our final word count is ...

100,388

That's our final count of the words in To Kill a Mockingbird. Our pencil copied every last one.

This includes the title "To Kill a Mockingbird" and the Section Titles "Part One" and "Part Two."

It takes in 405 pages of text in this edition, for an average of just about 248 words per page.

Our copying consumed 573 sheets of paper, giving an average of about 175 words copied per page.

We involved 26 volunteers for the first 32 continuous hours, copying about 32,000 words.

5 volunteers completed the task over the course of the following 4 weeks, in approximately 60 more hours. Probably more when you include the task of counting the words.

Please note that OUR count was 100,388 words. We feel this is accurate within 500 words. It's possible that another count would be different simply due to human error, as well as to different choices about how to count words, particulary hyphenated words or uses of dialect or common speech. For example, how many words would you count in each of the following uses?

one-shot
sweat-streaked
't's right
he'da
m'shoes

We counted two words in each case. In cases like this, our process was to "translate" and count the words represented. For example:

't's right = That's right
he'da = he'd have
m'shoes = my shoes

Anyway, we've reached our major goal and intend to retire the pencil. It certainly has more words left in it, but it's fought the good fight and we want to have enough left to display in the library!

Actually, our original goal was simply to test the claim in Discover magazine that the average pencil can write 45,000 words. We're amazed to have written well more than double that number.

This entire project has been a challenge, a blast and a grind. It was wonderful to join with many volunteers and to amuse and surprise those hearing our story. We hope to do more pencil events, involve many more people and draw more attention to the Hollidaysburg Area Public Library and it's soon-to-launch building campaign.

See? You never know what might be going on down at the library!

P.S. This may sound like a final post, but it's not. What for updates!

Latest estimate: 90,000+ words

We reached a count of 75,000 words on page 307. Text actually starts on page 3, so that makes 305 pages of text, for an words-per-page average of just about 246. We've copied through page 370, so our latest estimated word count is 370 x 246 words, or 91,020.

Note: That would be more than double the number of words (45,000) that Discover magazine said we could expect from the pencil.

The pencil is harder to measure now, taped up as it is in the Biconderoga (not to mention splinted for stability) but its length is about 1.25"

Word count update: 70,000-plus! (we think)

We've passed page 300 in the book and have once again outpaced the counting of the words. Using the last words-per-page average that we calculated (249 words per page) gives an estimate of around 75,000 words. Just to be conservative for now, it's safe to say that we've blown by 70,000 words.

Word count update

51,700.

Word count update

49,700.

Word count update

47,000.

Definitely an above average pencil

We passed 45,000 words--the number mentioned in the Discover magazine article as average for a pencil--at about 8:20 on May 18. Ethan Eldred was writing at the time.

Here's a picture of the word: hot. It's circled but still hard to see.



And here's a picture of the pencil after passing 45,000 words. What a champ!

The counting has caught up with the writing!

Words written so far: 41,518
The page we've reached in the book: 170
Actual number of pages from which we've copied, starting with the title page: 167
Average words per page: 249
Length of pencil remaining: 3.125"
Pages of filler paper used: 221
The most recent sentence written: It was a happy cemetery.

Finally ... the big reason that the number of words per page keeps dropping (pointed out by a friend ... Thanks, Carl!): There's more dialogue than in the earlier pages, and dialogue takes up more room on a page, because of all the paragraph breaks.

Word-counting update

Our estimate of words written keeps changing as we keep writing and counting. Through 65 pages of text in our edition, we have counted 17,600 words for an average of about 257 words per page. We have copied the text through page 155, so if the average word count holds steady, we've already written 39,823 words. We still have a lot of pencil left and expect to complete the copying this weekend.