The Daily Journal, Tuesday, January 22

Hey Folks,

First, thanks to my new donor and the first person to take advantage of my Patronage program. Thanks, Scott T!

This morning during my wake-up period, I remembered a friend wrote me recently to request a “Search this site” feature on my website.

She wanted to see whether I’d talked about Digital Rights Management, but didn’t find it in the tag cloud at the bottom of the site or anywhere else.

That request served initially as a catalyst for my brief topic on DRM a couple of days ago.

This morning, I added a search feature to both this Journal website and to the main website at HarveyStanbrough.com.

So now you can visit either site, key in “DRM” or “cycling” or “topic” or whatever else you might want to find and see every reference to that in every post that contains it. (grin)

I hope you will find it useful.

Topic: On the Purpose of Setting a Daily Word-Count Goal

Recently I received an email from a friend and colleague who had been having trouble putting her fanny in the chair and writing.

She realized, she said, that having a daily word-count goal was counter-productive for her. If she didn’t feel like she would reach her goal, rather than sitting down and trying she would sometimes just skip it.

Now she’s vowed to write fiction every day, no matter how much or how little. If she writes only 300 words, that’s fine. If she writes 3000, that’s good too. But she no longer feels the pressure that sometimes kept her from writing at all.

I said good for her, and I meant it. I was glad she found what worked get her back to her writing. She’s an absolutely excellent storyteller; trust me, the world would be sorely lacking if she stopped altogether.

But then, thinking she might have misunderstood the purpose and practice of my own daily word-count goal, I explained the following:

Even when I had a firm 3,000 words-per-day goal, it was only a goal, not something mandatory. Same now with my 4,000 words-per-day goal.

Setting a precise goal gives me something to reach for. And in reaching for it, I often go over. Sometimes way over.

Others (James Scott Bell springs to mind) use a weekly word-count goal (JSB’s is for a 6-day week) or a montly word-count goal.

But no matter what you choose to use, it’s still only a goal, not a mandantory number.

With my own daily goad, whether I go over or hit it exactly or don’t even come close, it’s no big deal. Because the goal resets to 0 the following morning anyway. (grin)

So I don’t really worry about it and I feel no pressure from it, except the pressure to get my butt into the chair.

Here’s what’s really important:

Whether you use a daily (or weekly or monthly) word-count goal or just demand of yourself that you write SOME fiction every single day (or every weekday or every weekend day), do what suits you. Whatever fits your life.

Personally, even if I used a weekly or monthly word-count goal, I would end up dividing it by the number of days I wanted to write during that week or month so it would become a daily goal anyway. (grin)

And of course, you don’t have to set a word-count goal at all, even though I strongly recommend it.

The key is to do whatever will drive you to the chair and make you successful. That’s all that matters.
***

I rolled out at about 3 and spent the first few hours writing the stuff above, fiddling with my websites, and poking around on the Internet.

At 6:15, I took a long break. I came back to the novel about an hour later, but I couldn’t seem to stop piddling around. Four hours after I came back, I’d written only about 900 new words.

Sigh. I think maybe I’m still suffering ill effects from a couple of nights ago. How’s that sound for a whiny excuse? (grin)

Okay. I’m giving it up a little before 3. As ol’ Wes Crowley once said, “Sometimes things just don’t line up right. That’s why they make tomorrows.” (grin)

Talk with you again then.

Of Interest

See “Surveillance by Keystrokes – Giving Permission to Snoop” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/01/surveillance-by-keystrokes-giving-permission-to-snoop.html.

See “Free Fiction Monday: Skin Deep” at https://kriswrites.com/2019/01/21/free-fiction-monday-skin-deep-2/.

See “Good, Bad, or Just Opinion?” at https://lindamayeadams.com/2019/01/22/good-bad-or-just-opinion/.

See “Some Other Great Kickstarter Campaigns” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/some-other-great-kickstarter-campaigns/. I was looking pretty hard at the IP Tracker, but I already have a handle on all of that myself.

Fiction Words: 2478
Nonfiction Words: 780 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 3258

Writing of Blackwell Ops: Charles Claymore Task (novel)

Day 1…… 2405 words. Total words to date…… 2405
Day 2…… 2695 words. Total words to date…… 5100
Day 3…… 3016 words. Total words to date…… 8116
Day 4…… 3521 words. Total words to date…… 11637
Day 5…… 2478 words. Total words to date…… 14115

Total fiction words for the month……… 52102
Total fiction words for the year………… 52102
Total nonfiction words for the month… 18870
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 18870
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 70972

Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date………………………… 1
Calenday Year 2019 Novellas to Date…………………… X
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date……… X
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 38
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 7
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………… 193
Short story collections…………………………………………………… 31