April In The Books

Ooh, is that a clever title for this? "In the books," see what I did there? Because it's a writing update...and I'm writing books...and it's in the...

Well, I don't care if you think it's totally lame. I like it. I think I may call my writing updates "In The Books" from here on out. I like it. Did I mention that I like it?

Anyway, let's talk about April. How did it go? Well, my goal was simply to continue as I was doing. 1,333 words a day. 1,333 words a day times 30 days = 39,990 words. So that was my goal for the month. As you know, Bob, I had a couple of bad days this month. I mentioned it in my last update at the halfway point of the month. One day I spaced it, and didn't finish my words because I thought I already had. Another day, I was traveling and so busy that I straight up forgot to write. So, with those blemishes on my previously pristine record, did I hit my goal?

There you go, I got 41,314 words this month. That's a couple thousand over my limit. Even with two blown days, I managed to get a few thousand over my goal. Not only that but I beat every other month in this whole process except for my record month of last month. I beat February by a few thousand, and I even beat my previous record of January by five words...that's right, five. January was 41,309 and this month was 41,314. Funny, if you ask me, for it to be so close.

Anyway, the best part about the whole month was that I had a few hiccups, but they made no lasting difference. I didn't collapse into a quivering mass of gelatin on the floor like I would have done in times past. Instead, I shook it off and moved on. And because of that, my average, even with two bad days, was higher than it was for any other month so far.

1,377 is a good 55 or so words higher than my third highest average. I'd say that's something special. And, check this out. Here's my total for the whole year up until now:

That's the whole process in one shot...it's been just over six months of this...six months and four days since I count from my birthday at the end of October. It's hard to read anything on a picture that big, though. Let me zoom in on the totals for you.

Check that out. This whole process has netted me 229,888 words. The final goal is 304,475. Or, if we round both of those numbers off, I'm 225,000 into a goal of 300,000 words. That's 75%. Even if I don't round them off, it's 75%, as the percentage box there at the bottom demonstrates.

So, at the 50% mark of the year, I'm 75% of the way to my final goal. I'm not a mathalete, but I think that means that if I keep up my pace, I can hit 150% of my goal by the end of the year. That's approximately 400,000 words. That's a lot. That makes me pretty excited to consider.

So, I guess what I can say is that I'm doing pretty well so far. I said in previous editions of this report, I have written a novelette, a novella, and two novels in that time. Now, we can add a second novella to that list, because, as I said a few days ago, I finished up "Digital Wizards" as well. I haven't just been writing "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" over and over, and that's a plus too. You'd think by now that I would have descended into that insanity but no, I continue along as sane as can be.

So, what about the other goals that I set for myself this month. I pledged to get my second audiobook published, the audiobook for Kingdom of Flies and Fireflies: The Short Fiction Collection, Volume One. If you were to look over on Amazon, you'd find that it's still not listed, but it will be any day. Around a week ago, I submitted the files for the finished audiobook, and they are in review. That takes 7-10 days or so, as long as there isn't any issue, so they should go live any second now, maybe even before this post publishes, who knows?

If there's some kind of problem, then my goal to publish that book may get pushed to May. It'll become my goal to fix and redo whatever needs to be done. Otherwise, my goal is to get the audiobook of A Battalion of Ideas: The Short Fiction Collection, Volume Two moving in the right direction. I was going to say that I wanted to be at least 25% done, but then I remembered that I had four or five stories already recorded and edited. I should check what percent I'm already at...okay, after a bit of work on the spreadsheet, it turns out that I am at 28% of the book done already. That leaves 72% to go. I'll do half of that this month, 36%. So, I'm going to make my goal to have 64% of the book done by the end of the month. Then I can do the same amount next month, and have the whole thing done.

The last goal I set was to spend time going through the Tyler Mowery videos on YouTube and use them to plan out my next project, which I was thinking would be "Skeleton Crew." However, I did none of that. I watched like...one of the videos, and did almost no pre-pro work for "Skeleton Crew." Then, when "Digital Wizards" finished up, and I needed something to start on, I had different ideas. I wanted to do a Lazerfist adventure instead. So, I started writing on that. I guess I'll be working on that for a while, so "Skeleton Crew" will have to wait. But hopefully, I can get the preplanning done and be ready to start by the time I finish up the Lazerfist book.

So, I guess that means I'm not Brandon Sanderson after all, because I didn't achieve all my goals. I didn't even come close on that last one...and I think it's one of my biggest failings as a writer. It's something I really need to work on. I need to get a groove for pre-pro like I have for the writing part itself. Not totally sure how to go about it though. I'm thinking that I need to come to terms with zero word days that happen because I'm working on outlining rather than writing. I think that's a goal for a month or even a year to come, however.

For now, we roll on as is. I'm going to keep the 1,333 words per day goal, That's going pretty well, and I don't feel like I'm ready to take it higher. I'll work most heavily on recording and editing audio to get A Battalion of Ideas ready for Audible, and I am going to put some time into publishing the next collection as well. I have enough stories for two more still, so I ought to get going on that, and then get some novels published as well. I'm way behind on the publishing here. I really got to get to work with this stuff. So, publish the eBook, paperback, and hardcover editions of the next collection, which will be called "Two Vampire Weekend" is the last goal.

I should make a list of them all like Rish does in his posts. Here we go:

1. 1,333 words per day, 41,323 in total for the month
2. Finish 64% of Battalion of Ideas audiobook
3. Publish eBook, paperback, and hardcover of "Two Vampire Weekend"
   

May is gonna be awesome.