July Newsletter: Liegois Media

Hey, everyone,

I was a bit (more than a little bit) later with this than what I anticipated – so it might make this a short newsletter, but that’s all right. Might get into it if I can here.

This is The Writing Life, my monthly newsletter about a writer of many interests (me) and what’s been going on with me and my writing.

Let’s get started.

What I’m Writing Right Now

[NOTE: For more detailed summaries/synopses of the works in progress I discuss below, go to this link. The story below also contains some titles I have been working on but not at the level of the projects I’m discussing this month, so you can find out about them there.

Shadows on the Mississippi

What is it? An environmental sci-fi horror tale in a quiet Iowa town on the Mississippi River. In a state where agricultural pollution effects people and the environment are a big deal, the new pollution is getting into everyone…

Status: See above in the “Meta-Commentary” section. I think I’m just about finished with the first round of revisions (call the draft SOM 1.5 for now). I’ve sorted out the first 50 pages and I’ve gotten some good initial feedback from writing ground members. Now I need to keep the action going.

Stay tuned.

Currently Untitled Anthology Submission

What is it?

A short story about a man who gets in trouble for a bit of dissent … and then decides to see if he can make a run for the line.

Status:

This is a short story I’m submitting for an anthology (I’ll go into more details if I get it). The collection is speculative fiction with a border or line theme. It has to be 4,000-12,000 words, so I have to get moving on this since it is due by 31 August of this year.

I had to fix things around since I realized right when I started things that I was revealing too much at the beginning. I think the result will keep readers guessing. I’ll let you know how it goes.

What I’m Doing Having to do With Writing Now

First of all, thanks to Jenn Thompson and the organizers of the Indie Author Book Expo for having me over at the 11th annual expo late last month. It was a fantastic experience as always.

All set for a day’s book signing and selling.

As I am working on my new work in progress, I want to try and concentrate on getting this closer to publication (whatever shape that takes) rather than promoting my past works, but I still am open to some possibilities if they come open, especially events closer to my home ground.

The Home Front

As I write this, the US Men’s National (Soccer/Football) Team is struggling against Belgium in the Round of 161. Admittedly, this has occupied much of my mental bandwidth, considering I was crazy enough to write a book series about what I thought the first US soccer superstar might look like.

Enough foolishness has been written and spoken about the given controversy over Flo Balogun, but what I will do here is list two quotes that summarize the sport I love so well2.

It’s the money, you morons.

– Giorgio Chinaglia, Italian philosopher and footballer, regarding the reason why events happen in football/soccer.

Football, bloody hell.

– Sir Alex Ferguson, Scottish football manager, Manchester United.

Feels like I have been at loose ends for a while for summer break 2026. I’ve been keeping to myself, trying to walk regularly, do things for my physical and mental health, not to get more specific than that.

As for the Fourth of July, it went all right for my family, even with all the attendant weirdness. I try not to get too far into the political weeds here on The Writing Life, but I admire and subscribe to Laura Jedeed on Substack, and she put together a good article on the Fourth of July celebrations in Washington, DC. Click here to check it out.

My son’s wedding is in two weeks. Looking forward to it.

Writing Quote(S) of the Month:

Maybe this explains last month 🤣:

Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.

― David McCullough

And one more quote from the King.

Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.

― Stephen King

When and What I Post

Check this out for when and what I post on a regular basis.

How to support me😊.

As always, go to the links on the side if you are reading this on a desktop/laptop or the links on my profile on mobile. If you follow the links, you will be able to buy both the paperback and ebook versions of my books on Amazon. If you just put “Jason Liegois” in Google. you’ll find them on the first page of search results.

I have quite a few places that now carry at least some of my books, some of the many great and fantastic independent bookstores in Iowa and the Midwest.
These are the bookstores you’ll find at least some of my work3:

  • Bent Oak Books, 619 7th St. Fort Madison.
  • Burlington By The Book, 301 Jefferson St, Burlington.
  • The Corner and More, 703 Main St., Mediapolis.
  • Green Point Mercantile, 217 E. 2nd St., Muscatine. [SPECIAL EDITORS NOTE: Green Point Mercantile is temporarily relocated to Salon Incognito, located at 216 E. Second St., due to building issues. Please check them out there or on Instagram – it’s a great store and Candy (the owner) is a fantastic person.]
  • The Brewed Book, 1524 Harrison St., Davenport.
  • The Black Rose, 116 W. Main St., West Branch
  • Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave. # S1, Des Moines.
  • Pella Books, 824 Franklin St., Pella.
  • The Atlas Collective, 1801 5th Ave, Moline, Illinois.

I’m always looking for some new places to place my books, so feel free to hit me up in the comments if you have a suggestion.

For those who are budget conscious among all of you, my books are part of the collections of the Fort Madison, Burlington, and eventually at the Musser (Muscatine) public libraries.

My poetry book The Flow and the Journey is available at Bent Oak, Green Point, Burlington By the Book, and The Corner and More, but it is also available online but not on Amazon. If you want to get a physical copy, go ahead and click below:

  • The Flow and the Journey
The Flow and the Journey - Image 1

The Flow and the Journey

$6.00

The first collection of poetry from author Jason Liegois.

Category:
Tags: , ,

This is my obligatory announcement that if any podcasters or bloggers are interested in new fiction, if you are interested in stories based in the worlds of journalism and soccer, or if you are interested in featuring writers from Iowa or the Midwest, I would absolutely be open for a feature or interview. Get in touch here or at jasonliegois@liegois.media.

If you don’t have the budget for a paid subscription, feel free to just send me a one-time payment of whatever you have the budget for.

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.
  1. Aaand we’re out. USA 1-4 BEL. The US boys played their hearts out. However, I might always believe a certain American put a curse on the team. #USMNT always. ↩︎
  2. Would anyone be interested in a short story regarding how my series main character, DJ Ryan, might have handled soccer and politics? Or maybe I’m the only one who’s interested in it, which might be par for the course lol. ↩︎
  3. All Iowa locations unless otherwise noted. ↩︎

Writing Journal 2 July 2026: Tough to write this or anything at the moment

photograph of crumpled paper near a pencil

Whelp, it’s been a bit, hasn’t it?

In all honesty, I’ve procrastinated about writing this post, or something like it, for the past several weeks. I always sort of understood why some of my students would rather repeat a grade rather than do an assignment they’d prefer not to do, but this past month or so has been an illustration of how it would actually work (lol).

I once had bold, gold aspirations to massive word counts for 2026. I had hoped to make it to 230,000 words this year and make my daily minimum writing quota (see below if you are not familiar with it) at least 85 percent of the time. Based on what I had written over the past couple of years, those goals appeared to be attainable.

Over the past eight weeks, however, my productivity has collapsed.

While I realize pure word count is not indicative, necessarily, of progress in your writing. And this year, I’ve come to the conclusion that completing one work in progress (WIP) has become the massive priority it has. I want to make sure this book gets finished, because in the personal inventory I’ve been doing on myself, I think it’s the key to where my head is at right now.

At this point, I’ve gotten so behind on writing new work it’s not funny. In all honesty, I think instead of putting all of those numbers up here, I will instead list my monthly totals for May and June 2026, as well a full stat recap for the first part of the year. I think these numbers should show the tale:

Writing statistics, May 2026:
Words: 11,363
Revising or planning:1,260 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met: 69 percent.

Writing statistics, June 2026:
Words: 2,431
Revising or planning:1,445 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met: 87 percent.

Writing Statistics, first half of 2026:
Words (total): 86,542
Words (avg.): 14,424
Revise/Plan (total): 3,335 min.
Revise/Plan (avg.): 556 min.
DWGM (avg.): 76%

Yes, absolutely horrific statistics for me considering the past several years of my work. How to explain this?

  1. My main focus right now is a work in progress (WIP) I started on Halloween last year, a sci-fi environmental horror project set in a little Mississippi River town in Iowa, known as Shadows on the Mississippi.
    In the process of writing the book, I came to the realization that I have devoted far too much time to worldbuilding and minutiae and not enough on a propulsive story that might attract people.
    For the past several weeks, I have been performing major surgery on SOTM. I cut the first 57 pages down to a lean and mean 50-page, three-chapter opener I’m feeling much better about before. And I am now in the process of finishing up two things I think the rough draft (or SOTM 1.5, perhaps) require – a plausible threat that I won’t have to get into a massive amount of sci-fi research to pull off, and then taking a close look at the pacing of the book. If I want this to be a good horror, it needs to have good tension and pace.
  2. World Cup 2026. Obviously, this has distracted me. I have to watch from home because I’m not going to take out a loan to get one World Cup ticket and have to travel all the way over to the West Coast to watch the US Men’s National Team play (I don’t have too much interest in seeing the other teams live). I’ve been privileged to already watch the USMNT play in person before, so that’s already off my bucket list. I’m definitely distracted, especially with the US about to play Belgium this coming Monday.
  3. Some personal realizations about my writing in general are leading me to question not only how I put together my work, but how I deal with people generally. I should keep vague on this until I have some clarity on this, but rest assured I am not in danger or in any particular harm. In some ways, I have to learn how to write again, or concentrate on what I need to concentrate on.

Well, that’s about all I want to get into for now. This is the closest I’ve come to writing an Iowan Stephen King story. If I give it the attention it deserves, I won’t. I can’t wait to share it with you.

Have a good week everyone, and all you writers keep writing. Hopefully I show up next week as I normally schedule.

If you don’t have the budget for a paid subscription, feel free to just send me a one-time payment of whatever you have the budget for.

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.

An Apology and Checking In

It’s been a minute, hasn’t it?

And those of you who were paying attention – no, I did not run an article last weekend, and no, this was not expected.

I couldn’t do this without citing one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite all-time writers. I should have known I’d relate to this too well.

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.

– Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time

Why It Happened

I’d be at least slightly fibbing if part of the drop off hasn’t had at least a little to do with the World Cup, especially those of you who know my soccer obsessiveness up close.

It’s been good action and the US has been doing slightly better than I expected, as well as some other countries who are not traditional World Cup powers. I’m not intending to go to any of these games in person, not even the US ones, not even though the games will be in this country. It’ll just be too much hassle.

In short, tickets are too expensive and I’m not keen on dragging myself all to the West Coast to catch my team playing. Despite everything that would be cool about being there in person, I’m doing just fine watching it all from the couch.

But Really…

I’ve been pondering a few things.

One is, as I mentioned before, I was feeling very self-conscious about the direction of my fiction. In all honesty, I’m thinking that I’m writing my work way too much for my own amusement without giving any thought as to whether anyone might be interested in picking up my work.

As I’ve gotten into two works in progress (one of those being Shadows on the Mississippi), I’ve come to realize that I spend way too much time discussing my fictional worlds and the minutia of those worlds that my stories get lost. This realization has brought my work, for the last two weeks, more or less to a screeching halt.

Part of this is some issues that I believe do tie into this, but because I haven’t fully looks into the matter, I don’t want to get into it here at this time. Sufficient to say that there are ways I think about things that seem slightly different than others. However, I will say I suspect the two things are at least marginally connected. So, I’m investigating it, but be assured there is no life-threatening or other severe issue I’m dealing with. I’m just figuring out, over the course of decades, how my mind works best. If something important comes of it, I’ll let you know.

For now, here on WordPress I’m going to be working on my writing journal (detailing my lack of writing for the past couple of weeks (and then try to add on some others I haven’t posted here recently). See you around.

One Last Item:

And also…

Screenshot

I’ll be at the 11th annual Indie Author Book Expo from 12 to 5 p.m. at the Valley Junction Activity Center. This is one of the bigger book events in Des Moines during the year and I’ll be happy to return there once again.

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.

Prose Night at The Writing Life, 9 August 2025: Why do I continue to write

A couple of days ago, I decided to put together a video with which I intended to both ask and offer some help to fellow writers as well. Promotion and marketing have been mysteries for me, although I’m making much more of an effort to do this than I ever had before.

So, I shot the video. I’m getting a bit more confident with editing skills and putting videos together. For example, as part of these experiences, I learned Instagram doesn’t use its algorithm to recommend videos, so stay away from those. Meanwhile, I learned Substack helps you generate shorter clips of videos to use as promo clips. So I can use the promo clips on Insta while referring the Insta viewers back to Substack for thew full video.

Well, the video is below. And it wound up being almost more of a soliloquy and reflection than a request to my audience.

I can’t approach writing as just another job. It’s something far more important to me, my identity. I want to tell the stories that are important to me, and if they aren’t as obviously commercial-ready as other authors, then so be it.

The irony is it was me getting interested in fan-fiction – an absolutely non-commercial enterprise – that got be reinvigorated in the process of fiction writing again. I think it’s about time for me to do another one of my An Author’s Biography pieces about the influence that experience has had on my work.

Until then, take care, everyone.

Writing Journal 27 May 2026: Didn’t even think of word count this week and maybe that was for the best

Told you last week I was nervous about not making my writing goal this year of 230,000 words in 2026.

This week … I’m not so nervous.

That’s because there’s times when pure word count is not indicative, necessarily, of progress in your writing. And there’s one thing now I want to do that goes beyond just writing random words – it’s finishing a certain book I’ve had nagging at me for a while. And I want to make sure this book gets finished, because I think it’s the key to where my head is at right now and, in more than a little way, where my home is at, as well.

So, the (pathetic, I know) numbers for last week:

Writing statistics for the week ending 23 May 2026:
Words: 715
Days writing: 2 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 7 of 7 for 480 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 7 of 7 days.

So, a little more than a tenth of an expected 5,000 words a week is not good, data-wise. But, I have bigger fish than simply just writing.

My main focus right now is a work in progress (WIP) I started on Halloween last year, a sci-fi environmental horror project set in a little Mississippi River town in Iowa, known as Shadows on the Mississippi.

I’ve been shaving that manuscript down, keeping it lean and mean, keeping the story humming along. I’m … not fully satisfied with my first 50 pages, but it feels tight enough to get attention from first-time readers … and that’s what I want. I want it to move and groove, and I think … it might be on it’s way. Not perfect, but closer to the honed and polished product.

The reason is, I’ve been thinking long and hard about worldbuilding and not getting into the action enough. And I had a bad feeling the action was dragging too much. I wanted the first 50 pages of my book to be moving and grooving. Have I gotten it there? Well, I think I got a lot closer to it, and I managed to fit the first three chapters into 50 pages rather than 57 pages, which I think is a massive improvement.

I want SOTM to grab the attention of readers, a real rush of a story that screws up some minds. I think my wavelength is on the right path. This is the closest I’ve come to writing an Iowan Stephen King story. I’f I give it the attention it deserves, I won’t. I’m having so much fun with this story, family. I can’t wait to share it with you.

Have a good week everyone, and all you writers keep writing.

If you don’t have the budget for a paid subscription, feel free to just send me a one-time payment of whatever you have the budget for.

Buy me a cup of coffee! 🙂 (please)

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.

Writing Journal 20 May 2026: More words cut than written but I think it’s a success

For the first time this year, I’m facing the possibility that I might not make my writing goal this year.

And right now … I’m at peace with it. Not because I’m accepting failure, but I think it’s because my priorities have changed halfway through the year.

So, the numbers for last week:

Writing statistics for the week ending 16 May 2026:
Words: 2,887
Days writing: 7 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 5 of 7 for 450 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 7 of 7 days.

Again, for someone who was hoping to get up to 5,000 words a week, that’s … weak. But I think I know why it’s been slow. It’s because I’ve been busy with revisions.

Those are related to my main work in progress (WIP) I started on Halloween last year, the sci-fi environmental horror project set in a little Mississippi River town in Iowa, known as Shadows on the Mississippi.

When I started last week, I was over 50,000 words on the rough draft of the project. As I now write this, I’m back to 47,618 words, and I couldn’t be happier.

The reason is, I’ve been thinking long and hard about worldbuilding and not getting into the action enough. And I had a bad feeling the action was dragging too much. I wanted the first 50 pages of my book to be moving and grooving. Have I gotten it there? Well, I think I got a lot closer to it, and I managed to fit the first three chapters into 50 pages rather than 57 pages, which I think is a massive improvement.

I want SOTM to be something that’s going to grab the attention of readers, a real rush of a story. This is the closest I’ve come to writing an Iowan Stephen King story. I don’t want to screw it up. If I give it the attention it deserves, I won’t.

Have a good week everyone, and all you writers keep writing.

If you don’t have the budget for a paid subscription, feel free to just send me a one-time payment of whatever you have the budget for.

Buy me a cup of coffee! 🙂 (please)

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.

A Quick Announcement: An attempt to refocus

mountain river through the lens

You ever get the feeling that what you’re trying isn’t quite working? This weekend, I started getting that feeling about my writing.

I’ve written three novels, in 2019, 2023, and 2025. I’m proud of each of them. I’ve gotten plenty of support for my work from fellow writers, independent book store owners, and others.

I think those books are a full reflection of the level of ability and effort I had. I know I gave everything I had to write those books. I think there’s interesting stories, characters, and worlds in those stories.

The problem is I’m not sure I ever considered who might be interested in reading them.

If I’m going to pinpoint what I didn’t get right the first time with my first three novels (and there might be more than a few things I didn’t get right), a major theme riding through at least the first two novels was a tendency to get too cute with how I created them.

I mean, take a gander at my first novel – The Holy Fool: A Journalist’s Revolt. Holy heck, doesn’t that just trip off the tongue? More like stumble and trip off it. And then The Yank Striker: A Footballer’s Beginning? A little better, but still clunky1. The Yank Striker’s Journey is a good one, though.

And another thing. The books I’ve written so far… they’ve got some pretty unique subject matter and themes, don’t they? I mean, not too many people are into journalism thrillers, even though in recent times I’ve had some renewed interest in The Holy Fool when I bring it to book shows. And a soccer drama series is extremely niche.

I have to admit I wrote my books because of my interest in the themes they discussed – the slow decline of American journalism and the culture of soccer. I didn’t write them necessarily thinking of who might be interested in them.

Last weekend at the DSM Book Festival, I was at a panel of Midwestern-based writers and I enjoyed their thoughts on fiction in our region. At one point, they discussed what their favorite Midwest writers and books were, such as Marilyn Robinson, Bill Bryson, and others. And I was sitting there thinking, Oh, shoot, I never got into any of those people. I was more into science fiction, fantasy, and Stephen King2, among others. But now, I think I’m finally about to write something that might be properly Midwest and properly horror. The more I talk about it to people, the more people are interested in it.

So, although I’m not going to by any means disavow my previous work, I do want to focus on the new work in progress, complete it, get it done right, and find the right publisher to take it on, even if that publisher in the end is me. I want this next book to get the attention of everyone who reads it, and I can’t wait to eventually share it with you.

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.
  1. “What’s a Yank?” – one of my students who found my work online. ↩︎
  2. And Stephen is a Maine or New England regional writer, not a horror writer. Get that straight. 🤣 ↩︎

Writing Journal 13 May 2026: Had worse weeks but I’d like to be more consistent

Well, it wasn’t the worst week I ever had, but considering the pace I’m trying to set, it was nowhere near what I wanted it to be.

I’m getting into the strange section of my new work in progress (WIP), where I might need to start trimming words from it to speed up the action. Which might mean I have to get going on other projects as well to keep up my full productivity.

The numbers for last week:

Writing statistics for the week ending 9 May 2026:
Words: 3,846
Days writing: 7 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 0 of 7 for 0 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 5 of 7 days.

I thought I did a lot better until I totaled up the numbers, but to be fair there was a mini-slump during the first two days of last week that explains it. If I did just as well with the first two days as I did the last five, I might have been pushing 5,000 words for the week.

As I mentioned in my May newsletter here, I’ve now given the WIP I started on Halloween last year, the sci-fi environmental horror project set in a little Mississippi River town in Iowa, the official title of Shadows on the Mississippi.

Now that I’m over 50,000 words on the project, it has too much momentum to stop.

Since I was worried I spent so much time thinking about the setting and worldbuilding in the first run, I’m adding a new opening that I think moves the plot and characterization along at a bit brisker pace. I need to make the first 50 pages something that hooks in readers.

Have a good week everyone, and all you writers keep writing.

If you don’t have the budget for a paid subscription, feel free to just send me a one-time payment of whatever you have the budget for.

Buy me a cup of coffee! 🙂 (please)

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.

Writing Journal 6 May 2026: Wrapped up a great month, but…

Well, I had a decent week and a great month – actually, the most productive month I’ve had this year. So, why am I still feeling uneasy?

I’m getting the feeling it goes beyond numbers and stats. But that might be a whole different discussion or post.

The numbers for last week and last month:

Writing statistics for the week ending 6 May 2026:
Words: 4,472
Days writing: 6 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 1 of 7 for 120 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 6 of 7 days.

Writing statistics for April 2026:
Words: 22,539
Revising/planning: 180 minutes.
DWGM: 89%

The week’s production was so-so, this month was fantastic.

I’m in a slight bit of a funk regarding my writing, for reasons that are perhaps best stated in another post. Let’s just say I have been truly giving my writing a critical eye, both past and present work, and I haven’t always liked what I see. In short, I’ve given a bit more focus on things that perhaps were not important, but it’s something I think I can fix.

I’ve yet to release my May newsletter here, but I’ve now given the work in progress I started on Halloween last year, the sci-fi environmental horror project set in a little Mississippi River town in Iowa with the working title of The Land, The River, and The Waste, a brand new title. It will be known as Shadows on the Mississippi.

I’m now past the 46,000-word mark now. I think one of the issues I’ve had with this project is I spent so much time thinking about the setting and worldbuilding that I neglected characterization and plot. Well, it’s back to the drawing board for this. I need to make the first 50 pages something that hooks in readers.

Have a good week everyone, and all you writers keep writing.

If you don’t have the budget for a paid subscription, feel free to just send me a one-time payment of whatever you have the budget for.

Buy me a cup of coffee! 🙂 (please)

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.

Writing Journal 29 April 2026: Not another subpar week (NASW)

Bad news, I had another sub-par productive week last week. Good news is, I wrapped this journal up to get it done on time like I should have been doing for the past couple weeks.

The numbers:

Writing statistics for the week ending 25 April 2026:
Words: 3,523
Days writing: 7 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 0 of 7 for 0 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 5 of 7 days.

Underwhelming since I’m hoping for a minimum of 4,500 words per week and really should try to hit a 5,000 word pace at the moment since I’m trying to catch up to my eventual goal of 225,000-230,000 words for all of 2026.

I’m feeling slightly better about my efforts to complete a rough draft of a sci-fi environmental horror project with the working title of The Land, The River, and The Waste, set in a little Mississippi River town in Iowa. I’m now past the 45,000-word mark now. It would be great if I could finish it by Halloween of this year, which would be exactly a year after I started writing it. Then, the plan’s to publish it sometime in the first part of 2027 (even if that’s more May than January 😂. I’m looking forward to sharing it with everyone.

Have a good week everyone, and all you writers keep writing.

If you don’t have the budget for a paid subscription, feel free to just send me a one-time payment of whatever you have the budget for.

Buy me a cup of coffee! 🙂 (please)

While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

Subscribe to my Substack here.