July is here, and I’d like to make the most of it by attempting to break one of my personal records.
Category Archives: Challenges
Challenges are a way of pushing myself to do better. I find them especially useful for getting myself out of a rut.
Practicing
Future plans and my plan to try a weekly quota.
1,200 words an hour—Attempt #2
A fun challenge. I want to write 1,200 an hour. Take 2.
1,200 words an hour—Attempt #1
A fun challenge. I want to write 1,200 words an hour.
Writing today
The break is over. Time for a fresh start.
Next goal is 7,000 words in a day
Back in 2018, I finally reached my goal to write 6,000 words in a day. I beat that word count in 2019, but I still didn’t break out of the 6,000 word range. I’m hoping to reach 7,000 in 2020, even if it’s just one time, so this is my post marking that goal. :)
Daily writing – Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020
I’m changing the way I title these posts for my own benefit. I want the day in there so I can keep track of where I am in the week, and I like the way “progress” fits in my mind better than “daily post” which feels like an obligation. This is a blog, and it’sContinue reading “Daily writing – Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020”
New focus on a daily quota
It’s getting late in November now and this year is almost over. I’ve taken a look at the year, and although I’m very happy to report that my writing slowdown of 2017 and 2018 is behind me now, I haven’t reached my goal to have my best year ever. ;D By a lot, to beContinue reading “New focus on a daily quota”
I forgot I was going to post about NANO
I forgot I was going to post about NANO this year. It doesn’t really matter now, because I’ve pretty much bailed on the NANO website. I never log my writing (except for the last day) on the day I write my words, and the new site only just now started even showing the tally ofContinue reading “I forgot I was going to post about NANO”
A lot of rambling about writing and a second challenge
Decided to give the “no timers” challenge a shot again after looking at my current run of daily word counts and comparing them to the run I had in April and May in which I didn’t use timers. The numbers so far are promising even after what I thought was a bad start but reallyContinue reading “A lot of rambling about writing and a second challenge”
Day 51 of no more zero word days
Yesterday was day 51 of my challenge not to have another zero word day. :) I wrote 1,873 words. Right now, I’m trying to get to a comfortable 3,200 words a day. Which I know sounds like a lot, but even for me, with an average pace of 500 words an hour, that’s not aContinue reading “Day 51 of no more zero word days”
Day 50 of no more zero word days
Today is day 50 of my challenge not to have any more zero word days. During that time I’ve written 41,200 words, and today isn’t over, so that number could get better, although admittedly not by huge amounts. It’s only one day after all. :) But I really don’t see this streak ending, as longContinue reading “Day 50 of no more zero word days”
No more zero word days—day 12
Notes on the challenge: Only true zero word days count as zero word days, meaning— Negative numbers aren’t zero word days because they just indicate that I deleted more than I wrote. I don’t want oodles of negative word days, because forward progress matters a lot more than just logging a number that isn’t aContinue reading “No more zero word days—day 12”
I’ve found my new writing challenge
Yesterday, I logged my day so I could try to keep my concentration focused on writing. Didn’t work exactly the way I hoped, because I only ended up with 1,075 words for the day when I’d aimed for considerably more. But— I did write the following note for myself in OneNote and I wanted toContinue reading “I’ve found my new writing challenge”
A new record—50,000 words, two months in a row
I did it! The goal I set out to meet this month has been met. But not only did I cross the 50,000 word mark for May after having written 50,000 words in April, I also finished a short story last night doing it. :) Now, there are three writing days left in this month,Continue reading “A new record—50,000 words, two months in a row”
A little word count challenge for today to get me to 50,000 words for May
I have five days left in May. I’m 5,286 words from reaching 50,000 for the month. That’ll be a record set, because I’ve never written 50,000 words of fiction two months in a row. So of course, I really want to get those words. Restarting would mean two months of writing to get close again.Continue reading “A little word count challenge for today to get me to 50,000 words for May”
A little challenge for today
Here’s the thing: I think I have a kidney stone. I also think it’s making its way out of my body so I’m not in as much pain as I could be and the worst of it was definitely back on Tuesday/Wednesday. It’s Sunday now and I’ve lost oodles of writing time to this, evenContinue reading “A little challenge for today”
Day 15 of NANO 2018
Day 15: I wrote 496 words for the NANO book (1,569 words total for all my fiction). I really did plan to write more for the NANO book today after I finished my other book (which I did, so YAY!), but in the end I think I was just too tired after all the writingContinue reading “Day 15 of NANO 2018”
The new plan for 2,400 words a day
I don’t think I went into this in my last post, but I have recently made a small change to my 2,000 words a day plan. I’m aiming for 2,400 words a day instead. Not because I want to actually average 2,400 words a day, because that has not changed. A 2,000 words a dayContinue reading “The new plan for 2,400 words a day”
The coffee post follow-up
Back in June of 2017, I wrote a post in which I said: I’ve quit and restarted my coffee habit many times over the course of my life. It’s finally time for me to commit to making a lifelong change. I like coffee but the caffeine and even the coffee itself isn’t doing me anyContinue reading “The coffee post follow-up”