Monday, March 9, 2020

February...er, March Sweeps, Week One


I haven't done any sweeps updates since February ended, but that doesn't mean that sweeps ended. Rish has been updating every day still over at his blog, but I figured my time could be better spent putting effort into other things that have fallen behind in my life. However, once a week is definitely a possibility.

So, when I ended February, I gave myself some goals for March to live by. How is that going? Let's see.

First of all, my goal of 1,000 words a day remained. As well as my goal of writing every single day. Is that still happening? Well, here's my word count chart so far.


Yes, I have made it to 1,000 all eight days of March. So, that's going pretty well.

My other goal of getting my words done before I leave for work in the afternoon hasn't gone quite as well. I sit down at my computer each day as though I'm going to write, but I always find something else to work on or look at or play around with instead. I have written some words before leaving for work, but never once have I actually managed to write my full 1,000 before heading out yet. Instead, I've been writing much harder when lunch time comes around. I've managed to get my words written during my lunch hour almost every night. So, at the very least, that is a positive. I haven't been up super late much this week...minus tonight...don't look at the time of day that this post was published. I finished my words before coming home from work, I just did other things upon getting home, and wound up being up late.

I still need to improve with that goal, obviously. Let's see if I can manage it better in the upcoming week. I'm afraid it may not pan out. My kids are home for spring break this week, which means I will have little alone time to get work done. But I will do my best.

Lastly, there is my goal of beating last month's total of 33,603 words. Now, we're not at the end of the month yet, so I can't really report on this. I can only display my progress so far. In eight days, I've written 9,153. I don't think that's too shabby. I still feel like this will be an easy goal to achieve, because I have two extra days this month. I'm already 1,153 words above my 1,000 a day. So, as long as I write for all 31 days, I'm bound to make it. The key is just making sure I keep up with that. Here's my progress bar for how that goal is coming, though.

9153 / 33604 (27.24%)

27% of the way there. Eight days is 26% of 31, so I'm doing just fine.

There's one more thing that I wanted to mention. On Saturday, when I wrote my 1,199 words, something fun happened. My total word count for the entire year ticked over into the six figures. I wrote another 1,096 today, so my word count on the year now sits at:


That just seems pretty darn amazing to me. Before now, my best single year for writing was my 43rd trip around the sun, when I wrote 90,036 words in one year. In four months, I've surpassed that, and am well on my way to tripling it. That is something that blows me away, one because it's such a high number, but even more importantly, two because I totally believe it to be not only possible but nigh on inevitable. When it comes to writing, I've finally turned a corner that I don't think I will reverse back away from again. As someone who has lost and gained weight off and on a few times, believe me, that means a lot. Now I've just got to make sure that I get my weight down in the same way that I got my writing up.

Make a manageable plan, and stick to it. Start small and increase incrementally until you arrive at the place you should be at, and don't give up. Even if you have hard days. Get right back to it, and you will succeed.

I need to read that paragraph to myself every day so that I don't forget it, and I apply it to all of my efforts in life.

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