(I used the search phrase “downward trend” to select the graphic I used for this journal. You’re welcome. 🙂)

The last full week of my summer vacation and I absolutely took my foot off the accelerator. After a while, I think I need some outside influences, activities, and demands on my time motivate me to use my time more efficiently.

Here’s the stats for last week:

Writing statistics for the week ending 16 August 2025:
Words: 2,911
Days writing: 4 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 1 of 7 for 30 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 5 of 7 days.

Right now most of my work has gone into The Yank Striker 3, as I want to have the rough draft of the thing done by the end of the calendar year. I might be very ambitious with this goal, but I want to just get on with writing and keeping being productive.

Last week, I mentioned I was interested in setting some books specifically in Iowa. I’m starting to do some planning on three ideas I’ve sort of let cooking in this perpetual stew of ideas I’ve had bubbling for years and years. I’ve talked about that stew for a while, where I’ll let some ideas cook and simmer for years at a time before trying it out in a story. But they’re starting to get ready to serve. I’ve got an idea for a fictional location for these books, something that was an echo of the places I’ve lived here in Iowa. I’m looking forward to serving up some stories based there.

That’s it for now. All you writers keep writing and the rest of you keep safe.

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I’ll likely keep this one short. (Like my productivity this week).

I mean, it wasn’t a disaster, but again it’s not at the level I was hoping for (4,350 words per week). This is what I actually got:

Writing statistics for the week ending 9 August 2025:
Words: 4,045
Days writing: 6 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 feel good that a lot of this is original writing for projects I want to get done as soon as possible, especially the third book in The Yank Striker series. At this point, however, it’s almost like, what possible projects don’t I have going on.

[Rant incoming.]

I want to try and write some novels based in Iowa. For a long time, I’ve avoided it, but part of me is getting a bit tired of writing niche subculture fiction, and I figured subversive regional fiction might sell around here, or at least get some more eyeballs. Mention in the comments if you want me to be less cryptic about the content, but this stuff has been cooking in my perpetual stew of ideas for a long time. I don’t want to spew it in front of everyone just for no reason.

That’s it for now, everyone. Take care and I’ll see you down the road.

---

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.

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I was wondering how this month was going to look like after I totaled up all the words for the previous week and the month of July. This was a month where I had all the time in the world to write, as well as to promote the new book out, The Yank Striker’s Journey. There were times, to be honest, where I wasn’t feeling like I was using my time well, especially when it came to writing.

Then I took a look at the numbers.

Writing statistics for the week ending 2 August 2025:
Words: 4,368
Days writing: 5 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 1 of 7 for 120 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 5 of 7 days.

Those numbers are actually … not bad. The word count is just above the weekly average I need to meet to get to my goal of 225,000 words for the calendar year. I’d like to meet my minimum quota more than five out of seven days, but it’s not a disaster.

Now, here’s last month’s stats.

Writing statistics for July 2025:
Words: 23,511
Revising/planning: 390 minutes.
DWGM: 80 percent.

Hmm, these are looking like decent numbers.

23,511 is the highest monthly total since January of this year, and the second highest monthly total of 2025 to date. And the number of revising and planning minutes were more than double the ones I had for January (although they were a lost smaller than the really revision and planning-heavy past three months). The 80 percent figure was the lowest level of any month I’ve had this year (ironically, #2 was January), so that’s a sign my writing productivity was not as consistent as previous months. However, my other statistical goal for the year was to be able to meet my daily quotas at least 80 percent of the time, and given I averaged 89 percent for the first six months of the year, I’m feeling good about the numbers.

A good thing is I now have plenty of projects to keep me busy for the rest of the year.

• I’ve gotten started on the first draft of the next book in The Yank Striker series(known here for now as The Yank Striker 3). I’m already 4,000 words into the book.

• The Fool Part 2 (working title, naturally): Still 7,800-plus words into the first draft. I want to pick that up again soon.
• There is the Kayfabe Stories trilogy I’m interested in putting forward. I’m more than 50,000 words into the first draft of the first book. I honestly don’t want to go much further than another 30,000 words or else it might get too big, but I might make an exception on this project.
• Then, I have two books, both of which I would base in Iowa like a good Iowa author would do. Basically, they would be a blend of modern sci-fi and urban fantasy, depending on how you interpreted the projects. Right now, I wouldn’t even guess at their timetables, but I’d like them to be done within the next couple of years.

That’s it for now, everyone. Take care and I’ll see you down the road.

---

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.

I’m trying to give myself a break about not writing as much as I could last week, but it’s hard. There were so many years of my life where I didn’t write a single word, so I feel down on myself when I don’t write as much as I want to. Plus, there’s so much I have left to write, I feel.

Based on the stats for last week, at least it wasn’t a disaster.

Writing statistics for the week ending 26 July 2025:
Words: 3,219
Days writing: 4 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 2 of 7 for 150 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 6 of 7 days.

Part of the delay in getting as much words out as I did was because I was still in the process of outlining my next book in The Yank Striker series. I finally got a good rough outline of that book (known here for now as The Yank Striker 3) and began the first draft of it over the weekend. It’s great to explore where DJ is at in his quest for soccer greatness and what twists and turns remain in the way. I also want to make sure this book gets released mid next year, so I know I’d have to get a rough draft completed before the year is out. That would be an ambitious goal, but not something impossible if I make it my priority goal above any other projects I have going on.

And there are more than a few other projects, with varying deadlines (or lack of them).

• The Fool Part 2 (working title, naturally): I am 7,800-plus words into the first draft. For narrative reasons (which I don’t want to reveal because it’s too close to a massive spoiler) but I want to wait until July 2026 before I wrap up the rough draft. You’ll have to speculate why that is the case, but if I’m going to drop a slight hint towards why, note the fact the main character of The Holy Fool, Sonny Turner, is thirty-two years old during the events of the book (set in 2008). I’ll let you do the math and deducting.
• There is the Kayfabe Stories trilogy I’m interested in putting forward. I’m more than 50,00 words into the first draft of the first book and I have a little more to go through before wrapping it up. Part of the reason I don’t have a specific release date for this project is two-fold. First, I’m not sure if I want to release each book in the trilogy as it is done or whether I want to get them all done and then start releasing them. Second, I’m not sure if I want to just release it myself (self-publishing) or do it through an outside publisher.
• Then, I have two books, both of which I would base in Iowa like a good Iowa author would do. Basically, they would be a blend of modern sci-fi and urban fantasy, depending on how you interpreted the projects. Right now, I wouldn’t even guess at their timetables, but I’d like them to be done within the next couple of years.

Regardless of all that, all you writers make sure you are at work and producing some words. Time is money and life, fam, as the English would say. And everyone keep safe, even though it’s not always easy.

---

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.

I’m not going to try and jinx myself, but it appears July might be a pretty productive month for me after two middling months of May and June. It’s giving me a little bit of confidence.

Before we get into the ins and outs of what I’m looking forward to, here’s the stats for last week:

Writing statistics for the week ending 19 July 2025:
Words: 6,700
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): 6 of 7 days.

All in all, this was the best week I’ve had in three weeks, and if the next couple of weeks go as well as they have, I might have one of the best months of the year.

My intentions are to try and get projects continuing on a straight-ahead path on the next year. At this point, I don’t have the excuse that I have nothing to write about.

Unfortunately, some of the events I will be planning to promote my books will likely have to be pushed back into the incoming school year, so a lot of my weekends might be occupied by bopping around the region to various indie bookstores, libraries, and book fairs. Well, such is life, and at least I’ll have a way to keep busy on the weekends.

Now The Yank Striker’s Journey is now available for purchase, I’ve decided to try and get moving on at least a couple of new books for next year because I want to start building up a good back catalogue. This includes the sequel to The Holy Fool, set in the present day, which I’ve gotten close to 8,000 words written so far. For a particular reason, I decided to hold off finishing the book until July 2026, although explaining the reason for this completion would be a bit spoilery to just reveal it here at this time.

Now that Journey is out, I’m out of excuses regarding getting started on the third book in the series. I need to do some serious outlining on this work. In a perfect world, I would have a rough draft set by the end of this year, start the beta reading and plans for release in May and the promotional stuff happening in June of next year. I just ended up holding things off until the last minute and that bit me in the rear well and good.

I know how I want to finish up what I’m calling The Yank Striker 3 for now. It’s only going to cover a single season in DJ’s career, his first full season in European football. I’m going to have to resolve the cliffhanger I left us at the end of Journey¹. I’ve decided also to try a multiple point of view narrative for this next book in the series, although DJ will remain very much the main character of the book. I’ve fallen in love with the multiple POV format from my fan fiction, so I’m interested in turning it loose on my original fiction. I think it will work well.

There’s at least three other ideas I need to get going on, including continuing the Kayfabe Stories series and ideas for at least two other novels. At least some of these I might be looking to self-publish, and all of them have at least some Iowa connection and two of the novels will have a heavy Iowa influence. If Stephen King could make it as a regional writers of New England science fiction, I can do the same with Iowan sci-fi/dystopia/fantasy/speculative fiction.

Did you know you can buy ISBN numbers, which are how books are identified? That’s one way of determining or facing your mortality, trying to think of how many books you have left in you to write before you kick off.

Anyway, all you writers, if your not writing, get off your duffs and start pounding keys. Don’t wait forever like I did. And everyone keep safe.

---

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.

1. Oops, spoilers, etc. ↩︎

Yeah, I’ve kind of spaced out for the past couple of weeks.

I was a bit stressed out about my book The Yank Striker’s Journey getting set for publication, but now that it’s finally happened, one more worry is off the table. And I had been struggling with finishing up a quick short story that took longer than I expected, but I’ve wrapped that up so I am feeling good.

So, did I get any writing done for the past couple of weeks? Actually, I had some decent numbers:

Writing statistics for the week ending 5 July 2025:
Words: 4,952
Days writing: 7 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 the week ending 12 July 2025:
Words: 4,272
Days writing: 5 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.

Looking back, I had one well above average week and a second one that was less than a hundred words away from the pace I’ve been trying to set. All in all, I can live with it. It always seems like the I’m halfway done with summer by the time I get a handle on having so much time on my hands¹.

During the next few days, when I’m not doing chores around the house or doing on treks to new places and locations for bookstores and events², I’m thinking of what I have to write next.

This includes the sequel to The Holy Fool, set in the present day, which I need to get restarted on. I have planning to work out for the next Yank Striker book which it in my head but not down on paper, which I need to do to properly process it and review it for when I start writing. I know I want it to be short, and since it should only cover a single season that is manageable.

I also want to restart my work on the Kayfabe Stories series. I think I was about to write the scene where the family patriarch steps into the ring for the first time. Heady stuff, and I want to try and think about some self-publishing options. Good readers, any thoughts regarding Ingram Sparks?

Anyway, much to contemplate. All you writers, if your not writing, get off your duffs and start pounding keys. Don’;’t wait forever like I did. And everyone keep safe.

---

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.

1. I might figure out retirement schedule three months into it. ↩︎
2. Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, and Des Moines for sure, but I’m beginning to consider more areas in father away places (Illinois and Missouri). ↩︎

I was relieved when I crunched the numbers a couple of days ago.

I set myself ambitious writing goals for this year. Among other goals, I wanted to write at least 225,000 words of fiction, nonfiction, and/or poetry this year, more than I have ever written in any year to date, and make my daily writing quota (see below for the explanation for “Daily Writing Goals Met”) at least 80 percent of the time.

How well did I manage to do with these goals? I’m by no means well free and clear regarding those goals, especially since only half the year is gone, but I am on pace to meet them.

Before that, lets talk last week’s numbers and the month of June 2025:

Writing statistics for the week ending 28 June 2025:
Words: 6,990
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): 6 of 7 days.

Writing statistics for June 2025:
Words: 17,272.
Revising/Planning: 1,620 minutes.
DWGM: 86%

So, one of the better writing weeks I’ve had (the highest total in the year to date), but only the fourth best out of six months I’ve had during the year. I’m truly surprised at how productive I’ve been this week, especially since I’ve been stressing about when my book The Yank Striker’s Journey is coming out (I’d thought it was going to be ready at the end of June but it’s looking more likely to be after the Fourth of July at this point.)

I needed to have written at least 112,500 words to keep on pace for that 225,000 number. So, drum roll for the numbers¹:

Writing statistics for the first half of 2025:
Words (total): 113,755.
Words (avg.): 18,959.
Revise/Plan (Total): 6,825 minutes.
Revise/Plan (avg.): 1,365 minutes.
DWGM: 89%

Fun fact, since I’ve been keeping solid track of word count back in 2018, this is the third best numbers I’ve had for the first part of a year and my fifth-best six month period overall. However, I can now say my total word count from July 2024 to June 2025 now stands at 232,553 words, my highest ever 12-month period of writing. Amazing.

So, I am about 1,200 words over pace to meet my goals, and I’m above my average for getting my daily writing quotas done. All good news. As for what I am writing²: Thankfully, I have several items I can work on now to get productive. There’s:

• The sequel to The Holy Fool, set in the present day. I’m at 7,000 words into the rough draft. I want to keep this no bigger than 70,000 words, I think.
• A short story that might wind up in a collection… I’ll let you know about it when something gets published. It’s close to being done, hopefully in the next week.
• Some more work on the Kayfabe Stories series, even though I don’t have a solid deadline or or even a hint of a schedule of when I’ll be working on this issue.
• The minute Journey gets published, I’ll start planning and writing The Yank Striker 3 . I’m hoping to have it ready to go next year.

Good news, but I’m not getting complacent. Hope everyone is doing all right.

---

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.

1. Note that the “Average” numbers are the monthly averages. ↩︎
2. I won’t go into the long list next time, promise. ↩︎

Whelp.

If I was going to classify how thing went last week as far as productivity went, I would call it acceptable as far as an individual week goes but barely acceptable given the past six weeks.

Anyway, the good/passable news.

Writing statistics for the week ending 21 June 2025:
Words: 4,374
Days writing: 7 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 3 of 7 for 5400 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 7 of 7 days.

All of these numbers, obviously, are better than the past couple of weeks. I did some review of my proof for The Yank Striker’s Journey and that pumped up my revision numbers.

However, this was only the third week out of the past seven where I wrote more than 4,000 words in a week. That’s honestly not good enough, especially when I’m trying to write at least 225,000 words this year and I need to write at a pace of a little over 4,000 words per week to reach the goal.

Thankfully, I have several items I can work on now to get productive. There’s:

• The sequel to The Holy Fool, set in the present day. I’m surprised I’m already 7,000 words into the rough draft. I want to keep this hard and fast, no bigger than 70,000 words, I think.
• A short story that might wind up in a collection… I’ll let you know about it when something gets published.
• Some more work on the Kayfabe Stories series, even though I don’t have a solid deadline or or even a hint of a schedule of when I’ll be working on this issue.
• Perhaps some fanfic if I’m really stuck for ideas.
• Probably by next month, I’ll start planning out The Yank Striker 3 and beginning to lay down the first draft. I’m hoping to have it ready to go next year. Very ambitious, but if I’m not ambitious about my writing, what’s the point?

I’m a bit nervous about the end of this month to see if I’m keeping on track with my goal. One superb week might turn it all around for me.

That’s it for now. Best wishes for 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.

Ugh, everyone.

Last week was a disaster as far as writing productivity goes. There are weeks where the whole point of this journal is to publicly flagellate myself to get back on track.

This journal is one of those events. The reason or reasons for this rubbish I’ll get into later here.

For now, let’s just talk numbers.

Writing statistics for the week ending 14 June 2025:
Words: 2,238
Days writing: 4 of 7.
Days revising or planning: 0 of 7 for 0 minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 4 of 7 days.

So, by all metrics, worse than last week, which was not really that great either.

I could tell you I’ve been waiting for the proof of The Yank Striker’s Journey to arrive from my publisher and that’s been throwing me off. This would be an accurate statement.

I could say I was trying to figure out where to go regarding my sequel to my first book, the journalism thriller The Holy Fool, set in the present day. But, I already have a really good idea what to write next, because I’ve already outlined what I want to do with the story, which I’m keeping short.

I could talk about how I’m not going to get started on the next Yank Striker book, and that would be accurate. But would it really explain why I haven’t written as much as I should have? If I just wanted to juice the numbers, I could get back to some of this fan fiction that’s been sitting dormant for a while.

But in all honesty, I’ve been sitting on the couch, the chair, staring at the big screens or the pocket screens of my phone, trying to distract myself from anything except for the need to write. In all honesty, I’ve been living the life of a functional derelict, bumming around my house and my town while blanking on what I need to do. If there is a way to avoid work and other similar problems, I probably tried it during the past two weeks. 😅

In the end, I just need a good kick in the rear at this point from my disappointments and embarrassments from not getting the job done the way I can do, the way I know I’m capable of. I’ve wasted enough time in my life, even recognizing I’ll waste some more time before I shuffle off the mortal coil.

I was idly thinking of different things recently and it came to mind if I purchased something around the neighborhood of 20 ISBN numbers, I would have enough numbers to cover all of the books I would write for the remainder of my life. Whenever you get to a certain point of your life and calculate you will only do something for a finite number of times is a clear acknowledgement of your mortality, and it’s the honest truth.

That’s it, everyone. Everyone take care of yourselves, and all you writers keep writing and all you creatives keep creating.

---

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.