Happy International Workers’ Day, everyone! Let’s talk writing productivity, both short-term and long-term.

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In looking back at the numbers for last week, it seems apparent the amount of writing I completed last week was not at the volume I was hoping for, either for the previous week, this past month, and for the first third of the year to date. I’ve gone on enough about how I’ve gotten behind my pace to match my goals (which are at least 200,000 words for the calendar year and meeting my daily writing goals (500 words per day or 30 minutes of revisions and planning)), so I don’t want to rehash it. So, I’ll instead go over the pure numbers, grunt at disgust at them, and then discuss why I feel I didn’t do as well last week.

Writing statistics for the week ending 27 April 2024:
3,138 words written.
Days writing: 5 of 7.
Days revising/planning: 3 of 7 for 120 total minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 7 of 7 days.

Writing statistics for April 2024:
Words: 15,743
Revising/Planning: 300 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met: 93%

And finally, where this puts me on the pace for my yearly goals:

Year to date writing statistics, 2024:

Expected word count total for first third of 2024: 66,667 words.
Actual count: 61,953¹.

Expected percentage of daily goals met: 75%.
Actual percentage: 80%.

As I promised, I will limit my commentary to this week’s productivity.

Part of the reason for the lower productivity this month is because I was concentrating on poetry last week for Poetry Night, which tends to have less words than a typical prose work. (You can check out the poems here.

But the other reason is something a bit exciting. As it turns out, after a couple of months of not so much writer’s block as it is just finding stupid excuses not to move on with it, I’ve finally managed to make more progress on The Yank Striker 2, the sequel to this fine volume of fiction I’d encourage you to check out.

Yeah, it’s just a little over 1,000 or so words I’ve added to the highly rough draft. But it’s progress. It’s actual work, and I feel like I’m moving forward on the project, even if I don’t get it finished by this year as I had optimistically hoped. But, it still might be possible, especially if I kick ass on it. Maybe the end of the year?

Anyway. I needed something positive to cheer me up about the subpar numbers. Better luck next week, etc., etc.

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.

1. UGH. ↩︎

[PHOTO NOTE: I’m still using these pics of my bookcase even though there is a good chance this bookcase is no longer with me. Or, it might be in another location which is not my den/writing area/home library/etc. Anyway.]

There’s no way to sugarcoat the debacle that was last week, even though it’s not like I didn’t write anything. At this point, I’m not happy with anything other than a successful and productive week.

I’ll be honest, however – I felt like I was driving half the week last week. During that time, I was staying at my son’s apartment in Des Moines while commuting an hour away to my work. I was happy with the opportunity to spend time with my son and hang out in the lovely city of Des Moines, but it left not as much time for me to get going and try and write something. And then. I felt like I was spending much of Friday and some of Saturday on the road. At a certain point, it starts to tire you out mentally.

In years past, such a situation might have meant I didn’t write anything during the week, or maybe just posted this journal of a few hundred words and called it good. Nowadays, I have a little more pride in my work and manage a couple thousand words.

Writing statistics for the week ending 13 April 2024:
3,129 words written.
Days writing: 5 of 7.
Days revising/planning: 2 of 7 for 60 total minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 6 of 7 days.

Basically, anything under 4,100 words per week is under par, and I’m already trying to play catch up so I can write at least 200,000 words this year. I’m just barely meeting my goal of… meeting my daily goals at least 75 percent of the time.

Whelp, I’m back to the solo life for the next few weeks, living in hotels during the weekday and either resting at my home in Fort Madison or hanging out at book fairs and promoting my books on the weekend. I might manage to be more productive if I’m by myself and not having to travel as much during the time. We’ll have to see, I guess.

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.

Last week was the end of a two-week stint living alone in my son’s apartment while he was recovering from his fall at work. I’ve been trying to adjust to writing in a totally different environment while commuting for longer than I usually do.

How did that translate into productivity? It was a slight dip from the previous week, but not by a serious amount. I did want to get it up more, but I would term it as acceptable. At least I’m not losing any ground.

Anyway, here’s the stats:

Writing statistics for the week ending 6 April 2024:
4,273 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.

Now I’m going to see if I can manage to write and keep my sanity with my newly returned son as my roommate. I’ll let you know how it goes lol 🤣.

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.

Hi, everyone.

It’s been a bit of a chaotic time for me. My official home (where my wife is) is in Fort Madison, Iowa (in the southeast corner of the state), my workplace is in the small town of Bussey tucked away in south central Iowa, and I’m actually laying my head down in my son’s apartment in the heart of central downtown Des Moines, since I’ve already sold my house that was near my job. And I’m staying in my kid’s apartment since he’s currently not using it.

Look, if you’re dying to know the whole story, you can read my The Writing Life newsletters, such as this most recent one. For now, let’s get on with the stats.

For those who are just happening onto this blog for the first time, or even those who might have read it before, I do not list my writing productivity as a means to drive reader engagement or to get people’s attention. I do it as a way of keeping myself publicly accountable for what I do write, and what I don’t write. These are all real numbers, trust me. If I was lying, I’d be reporting a lot better numbers than I have over the years, especially this year.

What I can say is while I’ve done all right this week and not disastrous this month, I have a ways before I get back up to pace where I want to be at this point of the year. I’ll explain it after the numbers.

Writing statistics for the week ending 30 March 2024:
4,439 words written.
Days writing: 6 of 7.
Days revising/planning: 1 of 7 for 60 total minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 7 of 7 days.

Writing statistics for March 2024:
Words: 15,096
Revise/Plan: 180 Minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met: 71%

So, It was a good but not spectacular week. My writing productivity was halfway between January (horrible) and February (pretty good). The quota I am shooting for is at least 200,000 words a year and meeting my daily goals 75 percent of the time. Usually, I’m keeping on pace if I am writing a little over 4,000 words per week, so this week wasn’t so bad.

But, with all the turmoil going on, I’m not on pace. I should have written 50,000 words during these first three months of the year. I’m now about 3,790 words behind this pace – not a massive deficit, but still something I want to make up before it’s too late. I am meeting my daily writing goals at least 75 percent of the time, but I would prefer to doing a little better in this regard.

Anyway, time to get back to work. More later.

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.

For me at the moment, long-term plans are a bit of a contradiction in terms.

My son is out of the hospital now and in a physical and cognitive rehab facility in the Des Moines area. I wanted to check up on him through the week, so I decided to stay at his apartment through the week to keep him company.

How long that’s going to last is up in the air. By the time this posts, we may have heard he will be headed home in a few days or a week. Then I might be in another place altogether.

This has not necessarily been good for my writing consistency. It sort of bites, actually:

Writing statistics for the week ending 23 March 2024:
2,782 words written.
Days writing: 4 of 7.
Days revising/planning: 1 of 7 for 30 total minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 4 of 7 days.

At this point in my writing development, anything less than 3,000 words a week is an unacceptable week, and anything above 4,000 is minimally acceptable. I think I have a chance to make this month be a bigger turnaround for me as far as productivity goes, but it’s not guaranteed. The (electronic) page awaits.

It’s a weekday, so I’m getting used to a brand-new place to lay down my head, chill out, and get some writing done. And I just got there.

This might get a little confusing, because I’ll be talking about some of the events that are happening this week while my stats, as per usual, are from the previous week.

I might have an idea of how to keep things straight:

Quick bit of writing advice, kids, subheadings, or subheads for short, are a great way to help visually organize your writings, both to help you know where information should go and where readers can find it.

Let me show you how it works:

Last Week

I was bopping between Des Moines, south central Iowa, and Fort Madison working, writing, and visiting my kid (Jacob). Despite being on the road, I managed to get out of a mini-slump and put together a good run of writing. Even though much of the writing I did that week was online focused rather than my fiction projects, I got well over 4,000 words, which is well above my pace. Anyway, here’s the stats:

Writing statistics for the week ending 16 March 2024:
4,913 words written.
Days writing: 5 of 7.
Days revising/planning: 1 of 7 for 30 total minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 5 of 7 days.

Hopefully, I can keep this up during the current week or even better, despite the fact I promised anyone reading this blog and my other one I would put out some original poetry this week, which tends not to be word-count heavy. It doesn’t matter to me, though – I want to do more poetry and eventually put together a collection of them.

This Week

Now that my kid’s out of the hospital and into a physical rehab facility, I will be spending some time at his apartment in Des Moines. That means about a two-hour round trip commute for me, but I should be able to survive it, especially since it shouldn’t be for too long. It’s going to be just about two months until the school year is over and I wave a fond farewell to my current school district, which was a great place to work in the three years I have been there.

I have a folding table and a relatively comfortable chair at his place, so I think I’ll be set to get some productive writing done. Being a road warrior/writer on the road is inspiring me a bit. Let’s see what I come up with next. Later, everyone.

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.

Can you be homesick over a place where you just started calling home? That’s how I feel about Fort Madison, as I both try and close out the school year in south central Iowa and also try and watch out for my boy trying to recover from injury in Des Moines. A lot of the time I don’t know when I’m coming and going. I talked a bit about the situation this weekend, but this past week sort of hit me as far as writing productivity went.

When I say it was a hit on my productivity, it’s not like I wrote nothing – far from it. But with my increasing expectations from myself, anything less than 4,000 words a week is a bit of a downer for me. It wasn’t horrific, but it’s not great either.

Writing statistics for the week ending 9 March 2024:
2,962 words written.
Days writing: 4 of 7.
Days revising/planning: 2 of 7 for 60 total minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 4 of 7 days.

Maybe it was the adjustment to writing in hospital rooms doing me in. I’m not sure. I produced some work at least. I’m hoping this week goes better, even though I might have to travel the equivalent of circumnavigating around the state of Iowa during this fortnight. There might be some further changes in my accommodations, but I’ll get into it later. We’ll see how it goes.

That’s it for now. I’ll post the latest newsletter this weekend, and I’ll get into the plans I’ve got coming up. Book Tour 2024 is starting to take shape. Later.