Oct 1, 2024
Tuesdays are the busiest day of the week for me in terms of commitments, and this week is busy in general, but I have organised my time so that even on the busiest days I can still write and blog.
I have a better idea where the story is going now but still not ready to settle on a title. The actual writing was noticeably easier than yesterday as well.
This week I don’t have a story to get published so time is a bit easier. Once I get this story written that will change and I will be writing one story in the morning, then editing and publishing a second story in the afternoon. It will be interesting to see what, if any, changes I need to make to my schedule in order to accommodate that.
As things currently stand I’m on track for this story to be around the 6,000 word mark, which means it should be finished on Saturday. I’m going to start on the next one immediatly. If I still need the daily word count then it will happen the same day.
My word count is below and I’m currently 226 words ahead of schedule. At that rate I will gain an extra day every nine days. Which would put me nine days ahead of schedule by Christmas. And although I don’t intend to stop writing completely during the holiday, it will be nice to have a bit of padding.
—
Words written today: 1,135
Words written total: 2,226
Plus / Minus target: +226
Currently writing: TBC
Currently publishing: n/a
Latest release: n/a
Sep 30, 2024
In the last few years, the main way I have written first drafts has been pen and paper, so that might be one reason this morning felt a little awkward.
I got up just before six, which gave me enough time to feed the cats and make a cup of coffee before I got started. Then I sat at my computer and faced the blank page with only the vaguest idea of what I was going to write. But I made a start on what turns out to be a fantasy set in a kind of medieval society. There’s no title for the story as yet. I think I’ll see where it goes first.
I used to write a lot quicker than I managed today. That’s one thing I hope I get back with this year of practice. At the moment, typing doesn’t feel as natural as it should.
A good start though, I got my thousand words, plus 91 in the bank for when I need them.
—
Words written today: 1,091
Words written total: 1,091
Plus / Minus target: +91
—
Currently writing: TBC
Currently publishing: n/a
Latest release: n/a
Sep 29, 2024
Another short post. The weekend has been manic and I haven’t had a lot of downtime. I have no idea what I’m going to be writing tomorrow morning, but I’m looking forward to finding out. There are a few ideas that I’m considering.
One thing I am planning to do to make this challenge slightly easier is to write some series stories. They will still be standalone stories but there will be recurring characters. That is a possibility.
Anyway, time to get on with other things now. I will check-in tomorrow with my first daily word count.
Sep 28, 2024
A super busy day so just checking in to keep the streak going. Tomorrow is the last day before the challenge begins and everything is in place.
Sep 27, 2024
All this thinking about my upcoming short story challenge has gotten me thinking about the first challenge I did. This was over ten years ago and my goal was to write 1,000,000 words in the course of a year.
I think my final total was somewhere in the region of 800,000 and a lot of those I didn’t publish, but it was a lot and really kick-started my writing. Before that I was dreaming big, but not writing much at all.
I didn’t make it to the full million words because somewhere along the way, I changed my mind about what I wanted to achieve. If I had only been writing first drafts, I’m sure I would have reached my word count, but I started publishing some of what I was writing and wanted to make more of that.
As things currently stand, I am planning to write 365,000 words over the course of the year. I am focusing on short stories because the main goal of the challenge is to get me finishing things again. Making money or getting reviews doesn’t figure into this (if it did, then I wouldn’t be considering short stories).
Things change though. I might get halfway through this challenge and have an idea for a longer story that I really want to work on. It wouldn’t make sense for me to doggedly stick to the rules of this challenge and force myself to write another 26 short stories before starting on the longer piece.
That may not happen, but I am prepared if it does. And I think I could do it without really breaking the rules I have set for this challenge. As long as I continue to write an average of 1,000 words a day, and finish everything I start, does it really matter if one story is longer than the others?
The aim, above all else, is to finish stories again. The short stories are only a method of achieving that goal.
