Category: Writing

Posts about writing. Writing is my work but since I work better when I pretend work isn’t work, I mostly call it fun—even when it isn’t. ;)

One Million Words Challenge Is Not Dead—Yet

Lynn

Since early April, I’ve allowed myself to freely write on multiple stories each day instead of constraining myself to only the one I want completed first.

So far I’ve put almost all my effort into six projects: my early 2014 novella, two novels I need done ASAP, a new novel meant for a new pen name, and two short stories (one of which is done and needs only to be published).

Getting that story publishing should be a high priority but every time I sit down to format it, I get distracted. Yeah. I’m really not acting in my own best interests here. ;)

For the moment, I’m looking for a way to pump up my word counts this month, on those specific projects I need to finish, by focusing on the one million words challenge. Now that I feel like I’ve had a bit of a breakthrough, I think I can meet the word count goals I’ll need to meet to end the year with those one million words of fiction. :D

The math as of today: 905,523 words left to write / 232 days left in the year = 3,903 words per day.

The good news is that although that will be tough, it’s doable.

I need to revisit the idea of a daily time quota, and that may not be my favorite idea, but it’s time to do whatever I need to do to get me where I want to go. I honestly believe I can still meet the one million words challenge but I’m going to have to keep improving and pushing.

I’ve always said I want to be prolific. I want to write a lot—and I mean a LOT—of books.

If that’s truly what I want, then I probably need to get busy making that happen.

Progress: May 13, Tuesday

Lynn

I’m bored. Not of my books (although you’d think so after today’s determined efforts to procrastinate), not of this site, but of these progress posts.

I thought they’d be helpful or motivational or something, but they’re really not doing anything for me.

So this could be the last “progress” note. I even created a category for them.

Ah, well. I’ll just use it for something else. I still haven’t renamed the “It’s a Job” category either. I might not.

Right now, I’m sitting at -255 words.

I deleted some stuff with the intent to write on that story and then I gave in to the fact that I just don’t feel well. I think I have an ear infection or something. My ear hurts. And I’m very tired. And although I had big plans—HUGE plans—for my writing today, when it came down to it, I just didn’t feel like writing.

So here’s to a better day tomorrow and calling it a night tonight.

Progress: May 10–11, Weekend

Lynn

Not much writing done over the weekend, but like I said a while back, weekends just don’t seem to be good writing days most weeks. This was one of those weeks.

Saturday I made it to 337 pretty early, but then never got back to it.

Sunday I didn’t write a word of fiction although I did write a nice, long note to myself about the coming weekdays and what I need to get done. :D It was boring number crunching so I’m not going to bother repeating any of it here.

My conclusion: I need to pick up some serious speed. :D To get to one million words of fiction in 2014, I’m going to have to start averaging almost 3,900 a day. Since I’m not writing much on the weekends at the moment, that means I’ve got to start having some killer good weekdays. Possible, just not likely if I don’t do something different than I’ve been doing.

Progress: May 9, Friday

Lynn

—Working to increase my daily average word count

Made it to 1,175 after a 4 hour midday interruption. Thought I was going to come home and write but I didn’t feel well, and in fact, I never did feel better, so I just ended up reading a book.

9:28 am: 452
10:58 am: 939
3:08 pm: 1,101
3:49 pm: 1,175

 

WIFI is hard to resist ;)

Lynn

WIFI is hard to resist! Why else would I be online right now when I intended to try to write for another half hour?

Getting the WIFI turned off is the easy part—keeping it turned off is where I’m running into problems.

And once it’s on, there’s always just … one … more … little … thing … to … check. Just one more.

Progress: May 6, Tuesday

Lynn

—Working to increase my daily average word count

Writing day cut short, but I made it to 887.

Probably should’ve written more, but suffice to say I didn’t get back to writing tonight. I could now, I guess, but I’m exhausted. Sleepy-time I think. ;)

Progress: May 5, Monday

Lynn

—Working to increase my daily average word count

Currently at 2,221.

I’d hoped to be further along today, but I guess it’s just been one of those days. :D

Maybe I’ll get one more chance to up my count.

Made it to 2,346.

Progress: May 2, Friday

Lynn

—Working to increase my daily average word count

Crashed at 1,882.

Really wanted to get to 2k, but I just didn’t make it.

I’ve really got to get some publishing tasks done this weekend. I have books to get into print that should’ve been in print months ago, and I have a short story that’s been done since the 15th, which I said would be ready in a couple of weeks back on the 4th-ish of April. Those weeks are long gone and it’s time to get that formatting done and get that story published!

I should set aside a day and just format stuff all day! It might be sorta fun to just dig in like that. ;)

First Sales on Google Play

Lynn

I finally had my first sales on Google Play! Considering my books are priced at >$8 apiece because of Google’s habit of discounting, I’m tickled someone thought the series worthy. Book 1 of one of my series was purchased on the 29th of April, then books 2 and 3 were purchased on the 30th.

Took long enough! But finally I feel like my effort putting my books up there wasn’t wasted. :D

As for setting up an account on Google Play, it was a pain, but the actual process of adding books and uploading? Really simple. Probably on par with Kobo Writing Life or Nook Press, except there’s no preview of any kind. You just upload your cover image and your EPUB (and/or a PDF if you want). I have a PDF for all but my last upload.

I probably won’t bother with PDFs in the future—ah, never mind. I do a PDF for OMNI Lit/ARe, so I will probably keep doing them for the novels that I also have there. I don’t put everything over there, because I just can’t be bothered with the short stuff—you know, thinking about it now, I probably should. I might sell a copy or two. But I’ve been saying that for a while and I haven’t done it yet.

Ah well. Someday, maybe. ;)

Progress: May 1, Tuesday

Lynn

—Working to increase my daily average word count

Final count : 2,874

Still trying to write 800–1,000 words on 5 to 6 stories each day; still not succeeding most of the time.

I deleted a lot of words today so this is a great word count, IMO! :) If I take those deleted words into account, my new words for the day was more like 3,800 (I deleted around 1,000 or so).