![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
October Word Count
Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 09:38 amKeeping in mind that my goal is 5000 words a month....
The current novel: 9200 words
Holy fsck. That's a lot of words.
As will come as a surprise to no one who does this writing stuff seriously, the trick is to just keep plugging away at it. Yes, there are a few big bursts of output in that total, including Sunday's, but the vast majority is made up of chunks in the 250-500 range. But if you do enough of them, even modest chunks add up.
I don't aim to write every day; I've tried it, and it tends to wring my brain dry and make it cramp up. I figure my ideal is two days out of three, on average. I wrote about 16 days out of 31 this month, and about 18 last month (there are a few multiples per day). So not bad; there was a dead week or so in there, but otherwise the pattern was pretty close. Steady progress is important, but so, as with building up physical abilities, is respecting rest & recharge time.
And like any muscle, the writing brain gets stronger as it gets used more. It used to be that 350 words was a stunningly great session for me; now it's acceptable.
Assorted old-mission stories: 1615
Total new words in October: 10815
I'm tempted to stop counting the old-mission stories; it made sense when I only had one or two in progress, but they're getting a bit chaotic. And I evidently don't need them to bolster my monthly total. But it's better to have data and not need it than the reverse, I suppose.
The current novel: 9200 words
Holy fsck. That's a lot of words.
As will come as a surprise to no one who does this writing stuff seriously, the trick is to just keep plugging away at it. Yes, there are a few big bursts of output in that total, including Sunday's, but the vast majority is made up of chunks in the 250-500 range. But if you do enough of them, even modest chunks add up.
I don't aim to write every day; I've tried it, and it tends to wring my brain dry and make it cramp up. I figure my ideal is two days out of three, on average. I wrote about 16 days out of 31 this month, and about 18 last month (there are a few multiples per day). So not bad; there was a dead week or so in there, but otherwise the pattern was pretty close. Steady progress is important, but so, as with building up physical abilities, is respecting rest & recharge time.
And like any muscle, the writing brain gets stronger as it gets used more. It used to be that 350 words was a stunningly great session for me; now it's acceptable.
Assorted old-mission stories: 1615
Total new words in October: 10815
I'm tempted to stop counting the old-mission stories; it made sense when I only had one or two in progress, but they're getting a bit chaotic. And I evidently don't need them to bolster my monthly total. But it's better to have data and not need it than the reverse, I suppose.
