I’ve only got two weeks to turn around what is turning out to be not so good of a month as January was. Writing a book is an accomplishment, but it’s always easier to have a rough draft in your hands rather than trying to write it.
And cell phones are the devil, kids. Take my word for it.
The numbers:
Writing statistics for the week ending 14 February 2026:
Words: 3,293
Days writing: 7 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 3 of 7 for 90 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 5 of 7 days.
If you want to compare last week to the previous week, I’m ahead by every measurable criteria, which is objectively a good thing.
I often talk about the esoteric reasons why I didn’t write as much as I wanted to, but the past two weeks can be narrowed down to one thing: I get too damn distracted by my cell phone and the things I can see and play on it, if I am to be perfectly honest. Only when I have it plugged in is when I could write a whole bunch and not scroll idly on YouTube, Tubi, Substack, Medium, Facebook, and Universe knows what else. Procrastination and distraction are my devil.
The project I’m calling (for now; I’m so superstitious of working titles) The Land, The River, and The Waste, an environmental horror tale set in a little Mississippi River town in Iowa, is my main fiction focus, but I didn’t make a massive amount of progress on it last week. I only increased the rough manuscript from 31,000 to more than 32,000, which is not a lot for a week’s work. If I want to have a rough draft by Halloween 2026, I need to get the bloody show on the road.
Have a good week everyone, and all you writers keep writing.
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