Tag: Writing motivation

Writing Journal 1.26.2022: It’s becoming a downward trend…

[PHOTO NOTE: I typed “Downward Trend” in the old Pexels free media search and this featured photo is what came up. I’m going with it.]

Last week was not the most horrific of weeks I have had recently writing, not by a good sight. But, I would be lying if I said that it was favorable either.

I’m glad that I’m noticing it now and can take some steps to try and pick up the pace. It’s not like last year when I didn’t realize I was behind the eight-ball in meeting my yearly goals. Heck, I didn’t even have a yearly goal last year or any of the years before, so I’ve been able to get a better handle on how I am doing and working.

Good news: I am only 7,111 words away from making the monthly goal. One advantage I have this month is that there will be an extra week to work with. Two good weeks will get me up to that level relatively easy.

As far as the type of writing I’ll be doing… there’s this fanfiction project that I want to, if not put to bed, then I want to get the big part of it finished so I don’t feel pressure to finish the rest of it so fast. I’m sick of not writing anything more for the blog and want to get that started up again. I’ve got more than a few ideas; I just need to get over the idea that whatever I write has to be perfect.

As for self-publishing… I just have to admit that I’ll likely wait until the summer break to get some of that work done. That’s a bit of research and legwork that takes a bit of time, especially for someone who is doing this part-time like I am.

Random observation: Substack is sending me a lot of emails about all the cool stuff they have to tell me. But I actually have to read through all that and I can imagine that will be a time suck. That in itself might be worth a post.

Anyway, here’s the stats. Hoping for a better week.

Writing statistics for the week ending 1.22.2022:
+2,399 words written.
Days writing: 4 of 7.
Days revising/planning: 0 of 7 for 0 total minutes.
DWGM (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 3 of 7 days.
Yearly goal:
GOAL: 200,000
Weekly average (Approx): 3,850
Monthly average (Approx): 16,667
Percentage of daily quota to meet: 70 percent

Writing Journal 1.19.2022: Ugh (not a horrible week, but I got behind)

Making this really quick. Even though I have not had a horrific week of writing last week, I am a little behind the pace and I want to pick it up this week.

I was 600 words off-pace last week… not a good place to be, even though I was meeting writing goals 5 out of 7 times due to my revisions. Not enough for me. Now that I have a goal to match, I don’t want to miss it.

One bit of good news is that last weekend, I received an award from my writing group, the Iowa Writers’ Corner. I had been getting the monthly trophy for the highest word count in the “weekend warrior” category (for writers like me who are not writing full-time). Due to my word count for the year, I have this now to keep.

It does look nice.

However, I’m not going to be just satisfied with that. I want to bump up my game. And I’m starting this week.

Anyway, here’s the stats. I’m going to get to work on some fiction projects and hopefully more blogs this week (haha). Cheers.

Writing statistics for the week ending 1.15.2022:
+3,276 words written.
Days writing: 4 of 7.
Days revising/planning: 3 of 7 for 75 total minutes.
Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 5 of 7 days.
Yearly totals:
GOAL: 200,000
Weekly average (Approx): 3,850
Monthly average (Approx): 16,667
So far: 7,157
Percentage of daily quota to meet: 70 percent

Well, I Accomplished A Little Something This Week (The Positives Of Limited Goals)

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A Writer’s Biography, Volume III, Part 6: The importance of writing groups

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A Writer’s Biography, Volume III, Part 3: About that writing journal

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A Writer’s Biography, Volume III, Part 2: On nonfiction writing and abandoned projects

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Keeping busy

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A Writer’s Biography, Volume III, Part 1: What made me start writing again?

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Writing Journal 9.2.2018: Trying to break out of a slump

Well, the title says it mostly. As for the numbers – well, they’re slightly better than last week thanks to some Labor Day weekend activity.

+293 words written.

Days writing: 2 out of 7.

Days revising: 3 out of 7 for 120 total minutes.

Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of revisions): 4 out of 7 days.

And there you have it.

A few thoughts.

  • Right now I haven’t heard much about the progress behind the publishing of The Holy Fool. I know that I’ll have to call up for a progress report on that soon; with all of the things I’ve been doing getting ready for school, that’s not been on my mind. Or, maybe it has.
  • Call what I’m doing with my current WIP The American Nine revision 2.5. I’m polishing up some last minute things before considering a more serious revision.
  • There are two rough drafts of other projects on deck for me right now, and I’ve been debating whether to go forward on them for at least a month. I might just try to dive into one and the other and see what happens.
  • I was going to write a piece mid-week last week about something that happened to me regarding a project that I decided to pull the ejection lever on. That didn’t happen, but I’m thinking that it is actually going to prompt not one but two Writer’s Biography pieces. You’ll see at least one this week.
  • As for tonight, dinner with friends, a little planning for the next week at school, and getting some social media posts for the Twitter and Facebook pages. Glad I’ve been saving up some good material on writing I’ve come across.

That’s it for now; I’ll write more later.

 

Writing Journal 8.26.2018 Part I: Essentially took a break

Yeah, I didn’t get too much done this week.

I’ll post the numbers, such as they are, in a later post for either tonight or later tomorrow night – had some family obligations, etc., for during the day today. They won’t be much.

Reasons:

1. Just finished most recent revision on my WIP and I think I had to take a few days break from the story before diving back into it.

2. Toying with what, if any, of the projects I have in the virtual trunk that I should consider moving forward with as a rough draft. Not sure 🤔 of the answer to that.

3. My first (relatively) full week of school at the new district and getting ready for another week of a fully full week on a block schedule for my high schoolers on one hand and a totally different schedule for the middle schoolers on my roster. It will be an interesting juggling match.

So, those were the contributing factors behind the scenes. Hope to make forward progress this week. I’ll send the follow up to this post later tonight or tomorrow night.

Also, I think I’ll have an interesting midweek post (Friday, maybe, instead?) on a project that fell through – an attempt at a book length nonfiction title and the reasons for it.

That’s it for now; I’ll write more later.