It’s the final week of January and I’ve accomplished the following:
- Written 1003 words across three of my bigger projects.
- Finished two drabbles
Bring on February, where I hope to up my word count.
Here’s to another week!
Happy writing!
Tag: word count
Week Three | 2020
It’s the third week in January and I’m slowly getting into the swing of things.
So, what have I accomplished in the past seven days?
Let’s list it shall we and find out!
- Written 1029 words across three projects.
- Finished two short stories.
- Edited one story.
I’m hoping to push the words in February when the kids go back to school. So, for now I’m happy averaging 1000 a week.
Here’s to another week!
Happy writing!
Week Two | 2020
It’s a new year and a new challenge.
So, what have I accomplished in the past seven days?
Let’s list it shall we and find out!
- Received an ACCEPTANCE for a previously published story into Stories of Hope anthology.
- Written 1100 words across two projects.
- Written and submitted a poem.
- Edited 3 short stories.
I realized after I posted last week that I was a long way off my target of 3,500 words but as a friend reminded me tonight… it’s better than no words at all. And you know what? It really is!
Here’s to another week!
Happy writing!
Week One | 2020
It’s a new year and a new challenge.
So, what have I accomplished in the past seven days?
Let’s list it shall we and find out!
- Received an ACCEPTANCE for my story White As Snow into Twisted Fate vol 1.
- Written 1506 words across four projects.
- Submitted a story to the Stories of Hope anthology.
It feels like a slow start to January but given the amount of words written it’s definitely not.
I wonder what next week will bring?
Until then… Happy writing!
Week Sixteen
Today is the end of the sixteenth week of the 365 Writing Challenge and I failed dismally this week in way of words added to pieces of fiction and poetry. However, I did write an impressive 2,114 words on my blog. So, that’s a win in my book.
So, what have I accomplished in the past seven days?
Let’s list it shall we and find out!
- Added 100 words to an Iron Faerie Publishing submission piece.
- Added 100 words to Le Fay.
- Submitted one drabble to Black Hare Press.
- Wrote one poem.
- Edited a couple of short stories.
And of course, the wait for contest scores continues, as does waiting to hear back on a few – 5 – submissions I’ve sent to publishers in the last month.
Of course, that list doesn’t include my work with The Horror Tree which can often be overwhelming or my work with Iron Faerie Publishing.
Until next week (or the week after that). Happy writing.
Week Fifteen
Today is the end of the fifteenth week of the 365 Writing Challenge and I’ve managed to write 1156 words across seven days.
So, what have I accomplished over the past week?
Let’s list it shall we and find out!
- Wrote a further 644 words and completed Of Blood and Fire. It comes in at 5,044 words and was submitted in the early hours of Thursday, 11th April.
- Continued work on Le Fay, writing a further 300 words. It’s now sitting at 4,000/6,000 words. I had to push the deadline back two weeks.
- Wrote two short poems.
- I’ve sat staring at my untitled story for the Summer Splash anthology more than I would like but I’ve managed to get 156 words down.
Of course, that list doesn’t include my work with The Horror Tree which can often be overwhelming or my work with Iron Faerie Publishing. Or any of the blogs I’ve written over the last week.
Until next week (or the week after that). Happy writing.
Week Thirteen and Fourteen
Today is the end of the fourteenth week of the 365 Writing Challenge and I’ve managed to write 5008 words across fourteen days. Hard to believe, I know. This of course, doesn’t count the words that go into my blog posts, if it did, I can guarantee you the word count would be higher.
So, what have I accomplished in the past two weeks?
Let’s list it shall we and find out!
- Started work on Of Blood and Fire – I’m 4,408 words into the short story which is centred around King Arthur and Camelot. Complete with dragons and… vampires. Yep! You heard correctly. Vampires!
- Submitted a poem, Raven Queen to Dragon Soul Press.
- Edited two short stories.
- Edited 9,000 words worth of articles for a client.
- Submitted my short story, The Drowning Pool to Pixie Forest Publishing’s anthology At Death’s Door.
- Wrote a 600 word scene that will eventually be included in the WIP Eldritch.
- Wrote two more poems
- Wrote two drabbles
Of course, that list doesn’t include my work with The Horror Tree which can often be overwhelming or my work with Iron Faerie Publishing.
All up it’s lead to a very busy, but productive two weeks.
Until next week (or the week after that). Happy writing.
It All Starts With Coffee
Yes, it’s true! I’m a coffee addict. Like you didn’t know.
So, by now, it’s no secret… or at least I hope it’s no secret, that I write every day. Some days not as much as others, but I do write daily.
It’s not something I’ve always done. In fact, it took me two years to make the habit stick and it wasn’t easy.
Now, I’m not going to tell you what to write… that part is up to you. Blog, novel, short story… journal? Whatever. Nor am I going to give you story ideas… although, that might make for an interesting series of blog posts sometime in the future.
For now though, let’s get back to developing daily writing habits.
Decide what you want to work on. Is it a short story or a novel? Does it have a deadline? How many words is it?
Break it down. And keep your daily word count target small. There’s nothing more overwhelming then setting a daily goal of a 1000 words and falling short because you were so caught up in writing ALL THE WORDS. Trust me, small is better.
Take my goal for instance. In January I set a goal to write 275 words a day. Some days I write more, others I write less, but in six months I’ve never missed a day.
I know many writers who churn out upwards of 5,000 words one day and then don’t write for days afterwards. I don’t get it. I mean, each writer’s writing process is different but I’d much rather see the progress on the page, bit my bit, than multiple zeros on a spreadsheet. But then, I also like accountability. I like seeing proof of my progress.
Make time. I cannot stress this enough. Even ten minutes. My biggest time saver when stealing time for writing is my iPhone. I often find I’m more productive if I just use the notes app, but I have MS Word on there too and I save everything to OneDrive, so its all right there waiting for me to pick it up the next day on whichever device I choose to work with.
You’re probably sitting reading this and going but I don’t have time, right? Wrong. Back in April I felt the exact same way. I asked other writers how I could fix it. How I could up my productivity and stop procrastinating. I’m time poor. I have four kids and a husband, along with a house to take care off. Something had to give, and it couldn’t be any of those three big things. Family is important.
So, what did I do? Well I began tracking my time for a whole week. 7 days. It made me accountable to the house, the kids and my husband, and I soon saw a pattern forming and I was able to identify blocks of time where I could write.
Back in May, I posted this about finding time and while it’s not a concise picture of every day of the week, it is a rough idea of what a week day looks like for me. It’ll likely change when I get a part time job, becoming even crazier, I suspect, but I’ll deal.
So, I made time. Two hours at night. And not every night mind you. Some days I blow off writing at night in favour of TV and when I do I make up the words in other ways. By blogging, for instance. Yes, I multitask.
Pick one project. You don’t have to do everything at once. I have… three, no four novels on the go at the moment. I switch between all of them depending on the day and my mood. It helps me to keep the story fresh. And tricks my mind into thinking I’m working on something new, even though I’m clearly not.
And, I could go on, but I won’t. So… if you think there’s something I’ve missed or you have a question, pop it in a comment and I’ll be sure to reply.