The Journal: My Recent Novels, and Numbers

In today’s Journal

* My Recent Novels, and Numbers
* The Numbers

My Recent Novels, and Numbers

Because the novels in my recent series have been coming in at around 50,000 words, I was totally stoked there for awhile that I might finish the current one in January. Meaning yesterday. (I’m actually writing this yesterday, on the 31st of January.)

Why was I stoked? Because my best day on this one thus far was Day 6 at 6572 words. If I’d done 6500 words per day for 7 days, the novel (as of the 30th) would have stood at 52,000 words. Meaning it  probably would have wrapped yesterday. That would’ve really been cool.

But alas, I was lazy. Of the 11 calendar days when The Journey Home: Part 6 was a thing, I wrote on only 8 days. And of those 8 writing days, I hit or exceeded my 4000 WPD goal on only five times.

But I’m not terribly upset. If I’d hit only 1600 words per day (my worst writing day during this novel), the total on the 31st would be only 12,800 words. Aren’t numbers wonderful?

To round-out what has become a month-end wrap up, I also wrote 25,300 words of nonfiction in January, all in this Journal, for a word-count total of 122,807 words as a writer and blogger/teacher/insurrectionist (grin). But again, the fiction is what really matters.

This is why I recommend having a daily word count goal. If you miss it, it resets to 0 the following morning. If you exceed it, it still resets to 0 the following morning. Every day is a new day with a goal to be accomplished. And every day, you’re reminded that you’re a writer.

I mentioned earlier too that with goals, the average is what really matters. After a pretty good day on January 31, the novel now stands at 34,374 words, an 8-day average of just under 4300 words per day. And at 97,477 words of fiction for January, my all-inclusive calendar-day average is over 3100 words per day. That includes even days when I didn’t write at all. Still, I want to get that up to 4000 words per day. But now it’s a new month, so we’ll see. (grin)

I’m also in Dean’s Shared Worlds class, which is FINALLY getting off the ground. We should be writing for that within another week or so. I figure I might write a few short stories for that one, but much depends on how I feel about it after I read his short novel, Cave Creek Silver. If a story occurs to me, I’ll interrupt my own FOH world for one day and write a short story for him. If a story doesn’t occur to me, I won’t. Again, what’s important is that I write, not what I write.

And then there are other numbers, not-so-good numbers.They’re all on the publishing side, so they automatically don’t really matter.

In yesterday’s post I mentioned that I haven’t published my most recent short story. That led me to check: I haven’t published the last FIFTEEN short stories I’ve written. Goodness! That’s 19 additional revenue streams of income (15 individual stories, three 5-story collections, and one 10-story collection) just sitting in my computer gathering gnome dust.

And three of the novels in my current series aren’t published yet. And that doesn’t count the one I’m writing now and will finish in the next few days. (I did notice I hadn’t posted Book 2 of the series to StoneThreadPublishing.com yet even though it’s published everywhere else. Maybe I’ll do that today. See why I’m looking for a publisher-type to take over STPublishing?)

And see why I say I tend to slip off Heinlein’s Rule 4? But I’m still having a blast writing. And that’s what matters.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “We Have to Save Books from the Book People” at https://jezebel.com/we-have-to-save-books-from-the-book-people-1846094573. And other aspects of CancelCulture, yes.

See “Hit 4th Stretch Reward” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/hit-4th-stretch-reward/. Back this thing for even $5 and you get some great stretch rewards.

See “How I Did In January… My Challenge” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/how-i-did-in-january-my-challenge/.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 620 words

Writing of The Journey Home: Part 6 (novel)

Day 1…… 1628 words. Total words to date…… 1628
Day 2…… 2011 words. Total words to date…… 3639
Day 3…… 4722 words. Total words to date…… 8361
Day 4…… 3766 words. Total words to date…… 12127
Day 5…… 5161 words. Total words to date…… 17288
Day 6…… 6572 words. Total words to date…… 23860
Day 7…… 4680 words. Total words to date…… 28540
Day 8…… 5834 words. Total words to date…… 34374

Total fiction words for January……… 97477
Total fiction words for February……… XXXX
Total fiction words for the year………… 97477
Total nonfiction words for February… 620
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 25950
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 122807

Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 55
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 215
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31