Well, 5,595, actually. I could probably hit 6,000 today if I wanted to. But that would sacrifice a small portion of my sleep, which will prevent me from getting my work done tomorrow.
So, yeah. That's why I've been so absent lately.
As you may recall from my last post (about two weeks ago, now; I know, I know, I'm sorry), I was having a bit of a struggle with the whole perseverance thing. Well, that came to a sharp and frightening head sometime in the past week or so and demanded the entirety of my attention to overcome (along with, you know, school and living and such).
Thus, the blog took an unfortunate hit.
I am back now, however, with exciting news and a renewed vigor.
First bit of news, I'm going to reach my word count for this month. I don't want to celebrate too soon, as I actually need to do the writing tomorrow. But once I do, I'll have produced 50,000 words this month. I'll be right on track to continue this Journey to 500,000 words in a year.
That's kind of exciting. Especially since it's February, the shortest month of the year. If I can be this productive in February, imagine what I can do with July or August or so. (Heck, NaNo will be no problem, come November.)
I am trying very hard to keep myself from growing cocky and over-confident. I saw the damage that can do to me during the past weeks, and I don't want to go there again. I also saw the damage that can be done by doubting myself. If there's one I really want to take away from the past three days (during which I have produced 10,000 words), it's encouragement that I am capable of so much more than I expect out of myself. If I set my expectations high, and actually, honestly work to meet those goals, I can reach staggering accomplishments like today.
Sorry for the self-pep-talk. I'm going to have some more substantial content coming again soon. I know I made some fairly concrete and bold promises over the past couple of months, and I also know that I haven't fully met those promises. I can't say that I'm going to rise up and fulfill them all the time from here on out. But I do think that I'm going to do a better job of it for a while once again.
I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Total so far for February: 46,062 words.
Goal for February: 50,000 words.
Total so far for 2011: 69,498 words.
Goal for 2011: 500,000 words.
*waves a flag and starts a cheering section*
ReplyDeleteYou can do eeeet!
But yes. More posts soon? I miss you guys!
Good to see you're still with us, sir! Also thanks for flipping the switch and officially joining my blog. Hope to see some stuff from you soon.
ReplyDeleteI was curious: do you divide your attention between different work or are you usually singularly focused on a single project on a given day?
Ruth, thanks for the encouragement. Yes, there should be more (and more consistent) posts soon. I might even try to write multiple posts at once, and schedule them for daily submissions. You know, like a real blog (ambitious, I know.)
ReplyDeleteWe'll see.
(By the way, you should become a regular follower, so it looks like I have friends. :p )
Matt, in answer to your question, it depends on the day.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the first half of February, largely because my classes were giving me snippets of inspiration, I was dividing my time between "Godchild" and a number of smaller works -- potentially short stories.
This weekend, however, has been entirely devoted to "Godchild," as well as some side work developing an outline for "A Tree in Times Square," which I'll be talking more about in the coming days.
I can't really identify what makes me focus on one project or divide my attention among several. It might be something to think about in a future post.
Thanks for the question.