The Journal: Production

In today’s Journal

* Yesterday I raved
* Topic: Production
* Today
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Yesterday I raved about Kris Rusch’s post on licensing in Patreon. I recommended signing up for her Patreon account. As a result (go figure), today she made that post public.

I still recommend subscribing to her Patreon account. Again, it’s only $5 per month for all her Patreon content. But you get to read Business Musings: Die Hard (Licensing) today. See “Of Interest.” Great post. You might want to read it a couple of times.

Topic: Production

An email from another writer prompted me to look back on the year. To do so, I opened my 2019 Annual Production spreadsheet. It was eye-opening.

This has not been a good year for me in fiction writing. Yes, it all adds up, but this will be a mediocre year for me at best with a projected total of only around 450,000 words of publishable fiction.

My average year is around 750,000 words of publishable fiction, so I’m way behind the curve. That only makes me want to hurry on to January and a fresh start.

My all-time largest fiction month was a year or two ago with around 120,000 words of fiction, an average of around 4,000 words per day. There’s no good reason that I can’t do that every day. (Note: I don’t have an outside job, etc. No excuse for me. Your life/results may vary.)

This year, I had two good months with 83,000 and 76,000 words of fiction. Those were followed by a few fairly good months — one with 59,000 words, two with 44,000, and one with 45,000 — and that’s pretty much it. The other months were poor, with 7000, 16000, 6000, 5000 and 12000 words, respectively.

So two good months, four more fairly good months, and then five paltry months.

I have the rest of December to build back up to a decent “speed” (time in the chair, writing) to build momentum for January and the new year. Still, four days into December I’ve written only 3000 words of fiction (rounded up).

My goal for the rest of this month is to write at least 1000 words of fiction every day. Most days should be a lot more than that. The little daily goal is designed only to get me into the chair and writing fiction.

If you’re taking your productivity prompts from me, note that this will not be frantic. It won’t be about hurrying or worrying. It will be about resetting priorities and putting myself back on track. Or to borrow the British tagline, Keep Calm and Write. (grin)

Stay tuned and we’ll see how it goes. And if you’d like to share your own fiction numbers, please feel free to leave a comment.

Today was a slow start. Stayed up too late last night watching a Brit mystery series, hence woke up later than I like this morning.

I rushed through the Journal and other requirements I’ve placed on myself (priorities, remember?), dug out the old tray for the ice maker in the refrigerator, cleaned it and installed it. After not working for the past two years, the icemaker miraculously and gratuitously started working again last night. (grin)

Then I ate breakfast (a ham and cheese omelet), received and thoroughly enjoyed a brief phone call from a friend, and saw my wife off to work at 8:30. After that I quickly stomped out a blogging forest fire, and finally, FINALLY, turned to the writing computer and my WIP at 9:15.

As always, now the rest of the day is up to me. I hope to add at least a few thousand words to the WIP, post this edition of the Journal, and eventually watch the sun set. That will make for a successful day. (grin)

Well, not a big writing day today as it turns out. I’m feeling a bit under the weather. But a good start and a good day overall.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Business Musings: Die Hard (Licensing)” at https://kriswrites.com/2019/12/04/business-musings-die-hard-licensing/.

See “Tip of the Week Has Ended” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/tip-of-the-week-has-ended/.

See “Key Ways to Begin A Story…” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/12/keys-ways-to-begin-a-story-first-page-critique-the-young-lieutenants-dog.html.

See “The Importance of Setting…” at https://prowriterswriting.com/the-importance-of-setting-in-grounding-the-reader/.

See “Tips for Writing Speculative Detective Fiction” at https://crimereads.com/speculative-fiction-crime-tips/. Speculative detective fiction—who knew? Maybe just in time for my WEO shared world. (grin)

The Numbers

Fiction words today…………………… 710
Nonfiction words today…………… 1050 (Journal)

Writing of Ice Scream Novel (placeholder title)
Brought forward…… 4416 words

Day 1…… 1047 words. Total words to date…… 5463
Day 2…… 2254 words. Total words to date…… 7717

Total fiction words for the month……… 5153
Total fiction words for the year………… 402718
Total nonfiction words for the month… 4420
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 307680
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 710398

Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date…………………… 8
Calendar Year 2019 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 43
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 197
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

2 thoughts on “The Journal: Production”

  1. Well this (and yesterday’s) were good for me. Over fallen off the word goal wagon, focusing on getting the new novel out to the world (a worthy goal in itself). But I find I’m missing the push of a writing goal even if it’s a small one while I get the finished novel published (dealing with edits, first reader, cover design…). So I’ll set writing goals again starting Monday. Thanks Harvey!

Comments are closed.