Fighting A Month Long Setback, What Plan Is Best? Journey to Onederland: Week 34 Progress Update

Yikes, last week was a bit of a setback within a setback. But I think I've got the plan that will get me on track this week and make all the difference to get me going again.

Writing Update For the Month of December

Should have got this out a while ago, but I've been behind on literally everything that I'm doing in my life.

So, you may remember that last October, I decided it was time to make a really big goal for writing. I started on October 28th, and will be working on it through the next October 27th. I did an update for November, the first full month of writing, and now it's time (well, past time) for the update for December.

In December, my goal was to increase my writing from whatever I could manage to at least 500 words a day. It went really well to begin with, but then my dad passed aaway, and everything in my life went out the window for a while.

When I cam back to it after a trip out to my dad's house for the funeral, I was much more spotty with my success. When I did write, I got at least 500 words, but I forgot to write relatively often.

Here is my final tally chart for the month of December:

So, there was a big hole there from the 10th to the 18th where I wrote nothing at all. Then on the weekends or if I had days off from work, I would forget to write. I usually write on my lunch break at work, so when I'm not at work, sometimes I forget.

I actually wrote on Christmas day, but not the weekend afterward. Why? Well, I didn't get Christmas day off. I was in there making the news happen, so I had a lunch break. I'm an intermittent faster, however, so I don't have to sit there and stuff my face with Doritos and Mountain Dew anymore. It gives me plenty of time to write instead...but I only seem to remember when I do things the usual habitual way.

Rish does try to call me to remind me to write, which helps, but it's definitely something I've got to get better with, because I didn't write on fourteen of the thirty-one days in December. It's all well and good to up my output to five hundred words a day, but that doesn't help a lot in getting to my goal if almost half of the days are zeroes.

So, I finished out the month with 12,574 words. Should have been closer to at least 15,500 but considering that nobody ever stops at exactly 500, it probably would have been several thousand above that. In 2017, when I did the 500 words a day thing, my total word count was more than 20,000 for the month.

So, here's my chart for the year-to-date total:

Missing so many days meant that I barely beat out November's total, and my total for the year so far is only 26,883. That's a lot, and more than I was doing back in September, for example. But, considering my goal is 300,000 for the year, it doesn't make me feel to excited. I still feel like I'm way at the bottom of Mt. Everest. Still miles to go before I even make it to the base camp.

Here's my picometer with my percentage

EDIT:
New progress meter.

26883 / 300000 (8.96%)

Eight percent is kind of small for two months worth. Two months is sixteen percent of twelve. So, I'm a little behind. However, I'm not upset or worried just yet. These first two months were supposed to get me in gear so that I could put the pedal to the metal for the last ten months. I plan to write at least one thousand words per day for the next ten months of the year. If I manage that, then I will definitely make 300,000. I even have 26 days of breathing room because of the 26,883 words I've written already.

So, for January, I'm taking it to the next level. The level that I'm supposed to be at. I am going to write one thousand words per day. If I manage that, then I'll get 30,000 words for the month, and ten percent of the total needed for the year. Should work out great...he said knowing just how poorly things can go because that's what happened last month.

I guess I'll let you know how it turns out.

Trying To Overcome A Setback, How Long Does It Take? Journey to Onederland: Week 33 Progress Update

Okay, now that I totally blew it in December, what happens next? Can I get right back to it? Or is it a struggle? Check it out on the week 33 progress update.

Shots Fired

I was at work today, and I heard a commotion starting over by the assignment desk. Things always get a little hectic when news is breaking. One person on the desk shouted out, "I'm getting reports of possible shots fired at..." and then he said the name of my daughter's high school.

That perked my ears up. Uh oh. Did I need to worry?

I tried to keep doing my job while keeping one ear open for more updates on what was actually going on. They were calling around to the police departments, trying to get what they'd heard on the police scanner confirmed.

I was hoping that everything was fine, and my daughter was in no danger. School should have let out more than an hour ago, so whatever shots fired probably happened after school, and she doesn't have school spirit or do after school activities. She wouldn't be there.

But they kept talking about it over there. They were sending a crew to get video. They had the chopper in route to get video.

That's when I realized that I was being stupid. It's not 1992 when I graduated high school. I don't have to sit around and wait for the news to tell me if my daughter is safe. I can just text her. So, I did. I kept it vague, so I could skip telling her about a shooting at her school if possible.

It only took a moment for her to respond.

And now my fears could be forgotten. Isn't modern technology wonderful. It may have its drawbacks, but the ability to put worries to bed with a simple text message is certainly nice.

I started typing up a response to her.

Interestingly, I found myself welling up with tears as I wrote the words, "just needed to hear you respond." My child, my baby was okay. It had been really unlikely that she wasn't, but I just wanted to know for sure.

After all the years of bringing her up from a squalling newborn, to a precocious child, to the amazing quasi-adult that she has become. I love her so much that the very idea of there being a possible threat on her life fills my eyes with tears just to consider. Sometimes it really is nice just to be able to have a response from somebody that you love. Even if the response is simply:

My cryptic response back to her got her curious, though.

She wanted to know what her weird dad was up to. I told her that the assignment desk was saying there had been some kind of shooting at her school, but I didn't really know anything about it, and I just wanted to make sure she was safe.

Now, she was really curious. So, she went looking for some kind of word on what was going on. Of course, for the most part, word of these kinds of goings on would come from us, the people in the building I work in who were at that moment still in the dark. So:

I didn't have any info to tell her.

Then, at last, we found out what had really gone on.

How did a nosebleed get confused with a shooting? Are we just too jumpy in our society now, and anytime a car backfires we dive for cover? What kind of a nosebleed necessitates an ambulance? I don't know. Must have been the mother of all nosebleeds. I saw video of the kid in the ambulance, being looked over by paramedics.

Silly. They got me all worried and seeing my daughter's life flash before my eyes for nothing. If only I could be like all the other parents from the high school, the ones who don't work in a newsroom and remain blissfully unaware that anything like this even happened. The nosebleed sure wasn't going to make the news.

Emotional Eating and the Carnivore Diet--A New Weekly Update

Finally managed to get back at it. This is my update for the last three weeks straight. Check it out, and see how I navigated the emotions that came with the death of my father...spoiler alert: not well.

Six Hundred Three Score And Six Words

I need to get to 1000 words, but I kind of feel like quitting where I am since I’ve got the word count of the beast.

Join Us In Writing A Christmas Story For The Dunesteef

It's January now, so it's officially on...if you want to write a story for next year's Christmas episodes, get it to us by the end of January, and you can be considered. Follow the link to see the prompt.