Okay, I was out of town for a week, so I haven't done a writing update yet for February. Then I thought about it, and figured that maybe it would be better for us all if I did updates three times a month instead of every week, especially when months have 31 days. Up until now, I've been doing an update each week, and then a fifth update to finish off the month three days later. Instead, I could do one on the 11th, the 21st, and the 1st when the month is over. So, off we go.
How is February going so far?
Well, it may not be obvious to you from the chart, but I'd have to say that this month is going amazingly. As I said, I was out of town for a week. I was on a cruise with my wife, and yet I still managed to write 1,250 words every day. I had my wife take a picture of me one time sitting at the table on the cruise with my bluetooth keyboard and my phone, writing on my latest story, "The Elephant in the Room."
It's not that big of a deal, considering that there is tons of down time on a cruise. I mean, there was one whole day that we were at sea with no stop whatsoever, so I had the time, but I was on vacation, and yet I still made myself sit down and write every day for about an hour on my story all the same. I'm proud of myself for pulling that off.
Not only that, but today, I put the final two words down on my story, "The Elephant in the Room." You know the words. I wrote, "The End." That's right. I finished my story. Well, calling it a story doesn't really do it justice. It's basically a book. According to the Hugo awards, under 7,500 words counts as a short story. 7,500 to 17,500 is a novelette. 17,500 to 40,000 is a novella, and 40,000 and up is a novel.
This story I just finished clocked in at 35,481. It's so close to novel length that it could spit on it. It's the longest thing I've ever written that isn't a novel, outdistancing "Do Over," which was 27,357. It's 8,000 words longer. That feels like a big accomplishment too. I suspect, that I could publish "The Elephant in the Room" as it's own book, and not worry about anyone complaining that it was a little short. I probably won't. I'll probably package it with a couple of short stories or a novelette or something, but I could if I wanted to, I think.
Now, I've got to get writing on something new. I had another success today, however. Aside from just finishing the one story, I managed to find the outline for another story that I was considering writing. I generally call it the alien love story. It's an idea I came up with about twenty years ago. I made the outline for it back in 2010. It's one of those ideas that's been banked up in my head forever, but because I was such a lazy piece of crap when it came to working on writing, I was probably never going to finish it.
However, I'm suddenly not a lazy piece of crap. I've actually been putting in the work. I write more than a thousand words a day. It's time to write this freaking story finally and get it out there for people to enjoy. And so, I will be starting on that story, which I'll probably call "Love Comes Walking In" or something like that. Maybe I'll publish it together with "The Elephant in the Room." I suspect the two stories might be of similar lengths.
So, as far as my monthly total goes, I'm almost 13,000 words in after ten days. What does that make my progress meter say? My goal for the month is 36,250, and I am at...
35% of my goal for the month...at least, as far as the writing goal goes. The goal for the month was 1,250 a day plus a story published each week. How many stories have I published so far this month? Well, none. I should have gotten at least one by now, but I have zero. As I said, I was out of town for most of this month so far. I was able to write every day on the cruise, but I was not able to work on publishing whatsoever.
So, I'm way behind on that one, and I'm going to have to step it up over the next few weeks to get extra stories published. I've got 19 days left now to do four stories. Can I do it? Yes, I definitely can. Will I? Well, that remains to be seen. Here's my meter for story publishing.
Gotta fix that for next time.
Okay, here's the year to date chart.
I'm almost to 120,000 words. That's pretty good.
We're at 39.16% of the way to the final goal. However, we are only 28.96% of the way through the year. I am a full 10% ahead of the pace that I need to be at to win. I'm loving that.
As far as my average goes, you can see that it is now at 1,295 per day. That's a great average...it's a little less than what I got last month, but that's fine. I'm not trying to beat last month's total this month. I'm trying to get 1,250 words as well as publish four stories. If I manage that, then it's a success.
So, admittedly, I'm in a little trouble since I haven't published any stories yet, but I'm gonna nail it. Don't worry. Things are going great, and I'll be back again in ten days to fill you in on how I'm catching up on my goal. See you then.
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