Year 2, Month 5, Day 14 of this Writing in Public challenge.
Tenth day of writing the novel Warm Springs: A Thunder Mountain Novel.
DAY #501 doing this Writing in Public Blog without missing a day.
That’s right, yesterday was Day #500 but I wanted to get past that number before I said anything. (365 days + 122 + 13 = 500 days)
Now that’s a streak. 500 days without missing. Not at all sure how I managed that. But still going.
And thanks everyone for the support on Patreon. I am surprised that anyone has even seen it yet, since I didn’t put it up until 6 a.m. on Saturday morning. I figured after 500 days of doing this, it was time to get a little support to keep going. So I put it up on the 500th day.
Patreon is basically this: You say you want to toss $5.00 per month (there are varied amounts) to help me keep going on these blogs. I have it set on monthly, so only one amount per month. If you toss in higher amounts per month, you will get some nifty things every month, such as issues of Smith’s Monthly and Poker Boy stuff and so on. And if the total coming in is over a certain amount per month, then I send everyone some nifty stuff.
Just think “patron of the arts” and you have Patreon.
For those of you who have been following along for the last 500 days, I hope this has helped in some way or another. It’s been fun and learning for me, that’s for sure.
Also, I just put up the new lecture (12 videos) on Writing into the Dark. Basically tricks and methods on how to write a novel without an outline. And the reasons to do so, plus help when you get stuck and in finding endings and so much more. All that in the top post and more information and how to sign up under the green tab in that post.
So now, after all that, back to the standard format here.
I rolled out after 8 hours of sleep at 1 p.m. (I went to be early for me last night.) Made it to the writer’s lunch at 2 p.m. and that was fun for two hours.
Then at 4 p.m. Kris and I headed up to the WMG Publishing offices to do some stuff there. We got done around 6:30 p.m. and headed for dinner.
I got home around 8 p.m. and did some e-mail and by 8:30 I was napping. Two hours. (I must really be catching up on a lot of lost sleep.)
Stumbled into this office around 10 p.m., did a little work on workshops and e-mail, gave up and went to watch some television to see if I could wake up. By 11:30 it was no hope, so after a half hour or so of trying to work, I sat down in my chair and woke up around 2 a.m., finally feeling better. That amount of sleep in one day is almost unheard of for me. But it happens at time, usually when I am relaxing about something.
So I got in here and finished the workshop stuff by 3 a.m. Then I jumped to my writing computer for a short session of 1,100 words in an hour.
Then back over here to this computer to make the lecture stuff live and get up the information, and then start into this blog. I may go write some more words, depending on how I feel and I will update this if I do.
Update: I finished this around 5 a.m. and went back and wrote another 1,200 words. So total for the day is 2,300 original words.
TOPIC OF THE NIGHT: The value of streaks.
After doing this daily blog for over 500 days now, I can attest to the value of a streak. And the power of a streak.
Some good friends of mine had short-story-per-week streaks going and hit them for a year or more. Other professional writers had streaks of writing at least 2,000 words per day without missing any day, and one of those streaks went into three years solid.
Trust me, you have a streak going, the streak adds power to continuing. Streaks can really get you through bad days.
That power usually starts hitting solidly on a daily streak around 30 days.
There were many nights I just thought I would put up a note saying, “Gone fishing” and skip this nightly routine. But I didn’t, so for over 500 days now, you folks have been following along on my silly life, the struggles, the naps, the collections, the work, and so on.
Were there major issues in the last 500 days that I didn’t talk about? Sure. I had some health issues that are none of your damn business. My mother died a few months back as well. (Please, no condolences. You didn’t know her and I honestly don’t need them, which is why I didn’t mention it here.) I have lost in the last 500 days just about 20 pounds and am still headed down to hit my ideal weight.
But what was consistent for me the entire 500 days was the writing. I missed a few days of writing for varied reasons along the way, which was fine. But in 500 days, I didn’t miss that many.
And I have put out 14 issues now in 14 months of a monthly magazine called Smith’s Monthly. Even with some printer problems and a few other issues along the way, my own magazine is now out every month with a full original novel, a bunch of short stories, and other things every month. And I’m going to continue that streak as well.
Every night I reported in here for 500 straight days without missing. Today is Day #501 and I plan on keeping going into the future.
And doing these topics of the night as often as I can.
So use streaks, folks, as motivation. You get a streak going, it will drive you to continue the streak.
And when you do that with your writing, it becomes a very powerful motivational tool.
WEEKLY HOURS
I worked at what I call basically my day job for 49.5 hours. That includes working at WMG Publishing, doing an afternoon at the store, and doing workshop assignments and recordings.
I did only 1.5 hours of focused exercise, but got lots of other exercise doing other things.
30.5 hours of television and naps. A little much.
Only 24.5 hours of writing. I did over 22,000 words of fiction in those hours this week.
My goal is to slowly increase the writing hours and decrease the naps and work time.
In the first two weeks of the month I have written over 50,000 words of fiction total.
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MONTHLY TOTAL ON NOVELS ONLY
LAKE ROOSEVELT novel done (most written last month).
Day 1…. 4,850 words. Total words to date…. 4,850 words
MARTIAN LOVER novel started.
Day 2…. 3,600 words. Total words to date…. 8,450 words
Day 3…. 4,200 words. Total words to date…. 12,650 words
Day 4…. 3,400 words. Total words to date…. 16,050 words
WARM SPRINGS novel started.
Day 5…. 4,250 words. Total words to date…. 20,100 words
Day 6…. 4,550 words. Total words to date…. 24,650 words
Day 7…. 4,950 words. Total words to date…. 29,600 words
Day 8…. 3,450 words. Total words to date…. 33,050 words
Day 9…. 3,150 words. Total words to date…. 36,200 words
Day 10.. 4,550 words. Total words to date…. 40,750 words
Day 11.. 2,650 words. Total words to date…. 43,400 words
Day 12.. 2,400 words. Total words to date…. 45,800 words
Day 13.. 2,150 words. Total words to date…. 47,950 words
Day 14.. 2,300 words. Total words to date…. 50,250 words
(I would need to be at 70,000 novel words to be on the monthly target I set at this point. Really dropping behind the 5,000 word per night level. So as of tonight I’m changing the goal to 4,000 words per night average for the month, which would mean I would need to be at 56,000 words at this moment. That is within reach. I’ll try to do a Topic of the Night on adjusting goals when you need to.)
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Totals For Year 2, Month 5, Day 14
— Daily Fiction: 2,300 original words. Fiction month-to-date: 50,250 words
— Nonfiction: 00 new words. Nonfiction month-to-date total: 1,000 words
— Blog Posts: 1,300 new words. Blog month-to-date word count: 12,400 words
— E-mail: 32 e-mails. Approx. 1,100 original words. E-mails month-to date: 351 e-mails. Approx. 11,300 words
— Covers Designed and Finished: 0. Covers finished month-to-date: 1 Covers
HOURS
Day Job Work… 4 hours… Total for week… 49.5 hours… Total for month… 88.5 hours
Exercise… .0 hours… Total for week… 1.5 hours…Total for month… 5 hours
Television and naps… 5 hours… Total for week… 30.5 hours… Total for month… 63.5 hours
Writing time… 3 hours… Total for week… 24.5 hours …Total for month… 56 hours
(The rest of the time is sleeping and showers and meals and stuff like that…Day Job includes e-mail and errands for business only. This blog time is about an hour tonight and included in the writing hours.)
For projects finished in the first year and links to the posts, click on the Writing in Public tab above.
For projects finished this month and where you can read them, click continue reading below.
You can support this ongoing blog at Patreon on a monthly basis. Not per post. Just click on the image.
And thanks.
Stories and Projects Finished This Month So Far
In order of production with the most recent at the top.
—Finished the novel Roosevelt Lake: A Thunder Mountain Novel. It will be in Smith’s Monthly #16
