Oct 4, 2024
Last night and this morning I got into the state of mind where everything I have written this week seems stupid and I was trying to think of ways I could quit the story and still continue the challenge.
If I’m honest, I’m surprised it has come so quickly, but this is the point where in the past couple of years I have stopped. Maybe it came sooner because I’m writing something short and the point isn’t related to the amount of time I’ve spent working on the story, but to the percentage of the story I have written?
I was pretty close to stopping, but then I realised that this was the whole point of this challenge: to reach that point over and over again in quick succession and keep going anyway, like I used to. In doing so, I hope to take away the power of that feeling.
It helps that it is a short story because there are only a few days where I have to deal with feeling like I’m wasting my time on a rubbish story. In a couple of days I will be working on something new.
In that sense, I count today as a big success and when I finish the story tomorrow or Sunday I will be very pleased.
I’m 641 words ahead of schedule now. So averaging 134 words extra per day. Tomorrow is Saturday, so time won’t be as tight and I might get some additional words, but we shall see. As long as I get my 1,000 words I’m happy.
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Words written today: 1,103
Words written total: 5,641
Plus / Minus target: +641
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Currently writing: Sisterhood
Currently publishing: n/a
Latest release: n/a
Oct 3, 2024
A crazy day at work today but I got my writing done in the morning so pleased with that. I also have a working title for the first short story.
The interesting thing with titles is that they really help to focus the story. There are a few strands now coming together thanks to the working title, which may very well turn out to be the final title.
Other than that, not a lot to report. I’m now half a day ahead of where I need to be.
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Words written today: 1,106
Words written total: 4,538
Plus / Minus target: +538
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Currently writing: Sisterhood
Currently publishing: n/a
Latest release: n/a
Sep 26, 2024
My goal for the next twelve months is to write an average of 1,000 words per day. Which doesn’t sound like a lot, but life gets busy from time to time and it might not always be possible to write.
I have done my best to minimise the number of days where I won’t be able to write at all by being flexible about the tools I use, but that might not be enough. A few occasions when I might not write during the next few months:
Christmas Day: I don’t know what we will do, but this is the one day of the year when I’m unlikely to be the first person to wake up. I might snatch a few minutes here and there during the day, but I don’t want to be absent from my family.
New Year’s Day: This is also Tamzin’s birthday, so I’m unlikely to find time to sit down and write anything.
Moving House: We are decorating the house in order to sell it and move early next year. I’ve done enough house moves now to know that it’s going to disrupt my writing.
Holidays: If everything goes according to plan (and it never does) then next year, after we’ve moved, we are planning to go to Disney Land in Paris. As far as writing goes, holidays are as disruptive as moving house, so I doubt I will get to do much, if anything, while I’m away.
There are probably going to be other disruptions as well, but I think it should be okay.
Like I said, I’m aiming for an average of 1,000 words a day to hit 365,000 words over the entire year. That means it doesn’t really matter if I write 2,000 words one day, and then nothing the following day, because I will still average 1,000 words on each of those days.
Although I am going to be aiming for 1,000 words every day, I’m never going to hit exactly that number. Instead, I’m expecting to go somewhere over it most days. And even if it’s only a couple of hundred words a day, that still means that every five days I will have built up my average enough that I can bank a whole day when I won’t be able to write.
As far as reporting that, my plan is to keep a tally in a spreadsheet and each daily blog post will have the current status at the bottom, like this:
Words written today:
Words written total:
Plus / Minus target:
That should show where I am overall and hopefully mean that on those days when my writing is disrupted, I don’t fall far behind and can actually enjoy my time without worrying about it.
