Writing Journal, 6 September 2023: Doing better

[PHOTO NOTE: Climbing up the mountain (figuratively).]

I finally did better this week. This past week, I made an effort to focus on finishing up projects I know I need to get done in a timely manner.

One of the more interested books I read in recent years was The Cold Six Thousand, one of the books from James Ellroy’s American Trilogy series. I set a daily quota for at least 500 words a day (or at least 30 minutes of revising and/or planning). On days when the writing comes slow or I have to put things together one word at a time, I call those writing days The Hard Five Hundred. I had more than a few of those days this month.

The stats will explain it:

Writing statistics for the week ending 2 September 2023:
5,571 words written.
Days writing: 7 of 7.
Days revising/planning: 0 of 7 for 0 total minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 6 of 7 days

This was the most productive week I’ve had through August, by a good margin. Now, here’s my numbers for August:

Writing statistics for August 2023:
Words: 17,713
Revise/Plan: 270 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met: 73%

I wouldn’t necessarily call it the worst month I’ve had all year. It’s only the third lowest monthly word count of the year. Meeting my daily writing goals only 73 percent of the time is the lowest monthly percentage I’ve had this year, but considering what I’ve had in the previous months, it should not be a disaster.

As of the end of last week, I have written 154,847 words for the entire year, in a year I’d plan to write at least 200,000 words before I was done. As of right now, I’m nearly 20,000 words ahead of that pace. I’m averaging meeting my daily writing goals about 89 percent of the time, well above the 75 percent I had aimed for this year. This could be a record-setting year, I think.

That’s it. Take care and I hope I have a better week this week.

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