Hey Folks,
All right.
For the past few days I’ve been practicing, putting together new habits.
Today I’m ready to announce my new daily word-count writing goal.
I picked a number that is easily attainable for me when I don’t have anything else professional going on, like copyediting, teaching, etc. When those things are going on, the number is a stretch. But it’s still attainable.
Beginning on July 1 and running through June 30, 2019, my daily word count goal will be to write 2000 words of publishable fiction per day.
Yesterday I exceeded that goal slightly. That’s fine. And that left me four hours to work on my current copyedit.
Those of you who have been around since the beginning remember me hitting 3000 words per day routinely, and exceeding 4000 and 5000 every now and then.
So lest my new word-count goal seems too easy, let’s look at some numbers.
Thus far this year (through yesterday), I’ve written 230620 words of publishable fiction. Through yesterday, there have been 177 days.
So my average (arithmetic mean) has been 1303 words per day. Over a year, that would bring me to 475,595 words of publishable fiction.
If I raise that average to 2000 words per day, over the year that begins on 1 July and ends on 30 June 2019, I will have written 730,000 words of fiction.
And if I raise that average to 2000 words per day for the remainder (188 days) of this year, I’ll write 376,000 more words this year and finish the year with 606,620.
That’s 131,025 MORE words this year than the number for which I’m currently on track.
Novels vary in size, of course. A few of mine are over 100,000 words, but most of mine are in the 35,000 to 60,000 word range.
So from today, not counting the novel I’m currently working on, if I average 2000 words per day (three hours of work, including breaks) I should be able to write at least 6 more novels.
And that’s what daily goals are all about. They’re stepping stones to hit larger goals. I’d love to finish this calendar year with 12 or 13 novels.
Figure out your own goals. What do you want to achieve?
***
I’ll still have to make a few more adjustments to my schedule. For example, I’ll need to sack out earlier on Friday and Saturday nights so I can reach my daily goal early on Saturday and Sunday and still spend quality time with my wife. I won’t copyedit or do any other work on weekends. Only my own writing.
This is so do-able it’s almost scary. So it’s also a challenge. Beginning on 1 July, I want to see whether I can put together a streak. How many days in a row can I write at least 2000 words of fiction per day?
If I miss on the goal, it’s no biggie. The goal resets to zero the following morning anyway.
But if I can get a streak going, it will grow increasingly difficult to break it. And that’s what I’m hoping for. (One caveat: the streak will almost certainly break later in July as I have to have my pacemaker replaced. It will be difficult for a few days to do anything other that sitting around griping.)
***
Continuing the preparation for my new challenge, I’m reversing the process today (and probably every weekday). My intention is to make my writing time a reward.
So I’ll do any work first (copyediting, covers, etc.) and reward myself with time for my own writing afterward.
For example, it’s currently 4 a.m. I rolled out a little after 3 and I’m working on the edit. It’s all conscious-mind stuff, so interruptions don’t matter.
I stopped editing around 10 and headed for the Hovel with my writing ‘puter. I did a lot of cycling, and I stopped when I had written a little over 2000 new words. This is going to be my persistence novel, I guess. It keeps trying to stall on me, so I get up and walk around a little while, then come back and go at it again. (grin)
See you soon.
Of Interest
See “A Great Take On Writing Into The Dark” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/a-great-take-on-writing-into-the-dark/.
Fiction Words: 2105
Nonfiction Words: 670 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 2775
Writing of Stern Talbot, PI: The Case of the Burned-Out Building
Day 1…… 1926 words. Total words to date…… 1926
Day 2…… 2884 words. Total words to date…… 4810
Day 3…… 1874 words. Total words to date…… 6684
Day 4…… 1716 words. Total words to date…… 8500
Day 5…… 2107 words. Total words to date…… 10607
Day 6…… 2105 words. Total words to date…… 12712
Total fiction words for the month……… 25761
Total fiction words for the year………… 232725
Total nonfiction words for the month… 14956
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 78466
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 310921
Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 5
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 1
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 31
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 5
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………………… 193