In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
* The Value of Averages, 3
* The Novel Wrapped
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” From Edgar Allan Poe’s “Eleonora”
The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
I really wish more of you guys would jump into this. C’mon, show us what you’ve got. (grin) The whole point is to have fun and grow as a writer.
There is no cost. The only requirement is to write at least one short story per week. (I’m no longer keeping track of your longer fiction. Too erratic.)
During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported these new stories:
- Vanessa V. Kilmer “Fire in the Sky” 3576 Romantic Fantasy
- Adam Kozak “The Indignity of It All” 2765 General FictionDave
- Taylor “The Long Trip Home” 2,227 Sci-Fi/Time Travel
Congratulations to all of them.
The Value of Averages 3
This final post on The Value of Averages will be shorter, but maybe more intense for some of you. And maybe more helpful.
Today I’ll do a deep dive into some real-life numbers. This is my own experience with my own version of the September Challenge.
You might even want to do a deep dive on your own results for September. Then figure out whether your low-number days were for actual reasons or only because of excuses, as I did below.
In the first two posts on this series, I wrote that math doesn’t lie and I gave you some examples. Some were theoretical and some were real.
My personal challenge beginning September 1 was to write at least 3000 words per day (on average) every day of September. It was basically a way for me to return my longstanding daily goal of 3000 wpd.
Here’s how I fared:
I started the month great. During the first ten days of the month, I averaged over 3000 words per day:
3941, 3338, 3086, 3243, 3328, 3493, 3361, 3357, 3220, and 3007. MAN that felt good!
But on Day 11, the bottom fell out. I wrote only 2127 words and my average dropped to 2857.
On Day 12, I wrote 4267 words, but my average came up only a little to 2974.
Lesson: As I wrote earlier, it’s much easier to keep your average up than it is to bring it back up.
Then with a couple of days of good fiction numbers, the average wpd rose for two days to 3048 and 3088 on Days 13 and 14 before plunging again for six consecutive days to 2951, 2767, 2793, 2879, 2890, and 2962. That last average was on September 20.
From September 21 through 23, the average rose again to 3003, 3014, and 3037.
Lesson: Hard as it is to bring your average up, it isn’t impossible if you just keep turning out words in either short stories or novels.
But life and other things intervened, and the average plunged for two more days to 2967 and 2987. Then it rose for two days to 3007 and 3017. Ah! I had hope! (grin)
But the last three days of the month I slipped with only 498, 1130 and 1730 words written, and my average was all downhill: 2927, 2865, and 2827. And that’s how the month ended. (Still above Pulp 1 speed, though, which I why I set my daily goal at 3000 wpd.)
Of course, that fall was to be expected, considering I’d missed my 90,000 word monthly goal by 5184 words.
But just think: One or two more short stories would have put me over the top. Or two or three chapters on the novel would have done it.
Of course, “short story” or “chapter” isn’t quantitative. What I needed were good writing days.
Which for me means three to four hours per day (on average) of writing fiction.
Lesson: If I put in only three to four hours per day on my “day job” of writing fiction, I’ll never have to worry about my average.
Like my grandpa used to say about the gas tank on his pickup: Keep the top half full and the bottom half will take care of itself.
My big takeaway for the overall month was this:
1. Writing only 173 more words per day would have put me over the top too. Only 173 more words per day.
2. I can write 173 more words in only six more minutes per day.
As Joey Bones Salerno might say, “A’right, so what? I gotta be a wimp now ’cause I didn’ spend six more minutes in the stoopid chair writin’ every day or what?” (grin)
I like to think not.
Lesson: I like to think I just didn’t keep my eye on the ball. I didn’t watch my own averages quite closely enough.
Which is one reason I wrote this series of posts: to recommend that you learn from my mistakes. I know I’ve learned from them.
And I’m not saying I haven’t learned these lessons before, but so what? We forget, we remember or relearn, and we move on, right?
Of course, I’m not suggesting you should check your watch as you’re writing and say, “Oof. Okay. I gotta stay in the chair and keep writing for six more minutes.”
For one thing, that would make it feel too much like work, like something you “have” to do instead of something you want to do. For another, in the time you spent checking your watch, you could have written 10 or 15 more words.
But I am suggesting you keep one eye on your averages. Be aware of where you are with your writing, and let that propel you to new heights.
That, my friends, is the value of averages. They really do matter.
The Novel Wrapped
It was a twisty, turny, purely fate-fueled thing. Plus, on its way out it handed me another short story.
I started that story yesterday. When I write more on it today, that will make three short stories and one short novel from this one idea. And in this case, the “idea” was only the rhythm of the title: The Darling Members Club.
I am a lucky, lucky guy.
Talk with you again then.
Of Interest
Writing Process This link is a repeat. I’ve witnessed many times with many writers. I hope everybody will read this.
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 1020
Writing of “Old Times”
Day 1…… 1520 words. To date…… 1520
Writing of The Darling Members Club (novel)
Brought forward…… 6632
Day 1…… 3601 words. To date…… 10233
Day 2…… 4137 words. To date…… 14370
Day 3…… 4433 words. To date…… 18803
Day 4…… 2988 words. To date…… 21791
Day 5…… 3584 words. To date…… 25375
Day 6…… 3472 words. To date…… 28847 (done)
Fiction for October……………………. 25525
Fiction for 2024………………………… 767033
Nonfiction for October………………… 7310
Nonfiction for 2024……………………. 310900
2024 consumable words……………… 901972
Average Fiction WPD (October)……… 4254
2024 Novels to Date………………………… 14
2024 Novellas to Date……………………… 1
2024 Short Stories to Date…………………. 16
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..……. 96
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………. 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………..… 253
Short story collections…………………….….. 29