The Return of the Word Count Meter
May. 4th, 2015 09:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhienelleth So, some exciting things are afoot these days. One, the new job is going really well. I kind of love it, and while the teaching part is mostly fun and makes me feel like I'm using that expensive education that I will owe money on for the rest of my natural life, yes, the schedule is a HUGE part of my happiness. Why? Because it matches my husband's, and because...it LEAVES ME PLENTY OF TIME FOR MY FIRST LOVE, WRITING. (No worries, the DH knew that when he married me, and besides, he has a first love, too. We have often joked that his was actually part of our wedding vows: "...and I promise not to interfere with your soul deep need to continue training in the martial arts and go to Japan every year to train with people better than you." No, really.)
Anyway. Yes, the job goes well. The writing goes well. It makes me happy, and there is stuff that I'm SUPER excited about that I cannot talk about on social media, even a locked LJ post social media. Suffice to say, I have more incentive than ever before to get my butt into gear and whip this manuscript into shape.
And while yes, I can take as much time as I like to do that, I am giving myself a self imposed deadline to finish the first draft by mid-June. I already have around 40k words, but I had an epiphany last night about the beginning that means I am going to have to rewrite some of them (but it will be so much better! I am excited by this, rather than put off.) So, my goal is 100k words (about) by June 15th. This should be pretty doable, given my schedule and the fact that my current job ends on May 30th, so then my schedule will be really open.
In the meantime, Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays are my lightest "work days", which means they will provide me with ample opportunity, and I plan to write every single day. If I look at it as a whole block of words (disregarding what is already written, which will give me a nice jump start anyway), I will have to write 2,325 words per day. This is totally doable. Back when I was writing all of the time, some days I averaged 5k words or more. Obviously, some days were less, but that's okay. That number isn't really accurate anyway, since like 30k words are very likely already written and won't be changing much. The point is, I've done the math and I know I can do it, and as long as I do my word count thing here and keep reasonable track, holding myself accountable, I have pretty strong faith that it will happen.
So, be prepared for lots of daily word count updates to return. There may be small snippets. There will be pirate icons and such. I don't even know how many people are still on LJ who would remember the first time around. Hopefully it won't be too obnoxious having me post about the same thing all of time. :)
This is what they will look like:
Anyway. Yes, the job goes well. The writing goes well. It makes me happy, and there is stuff that I'm SUPER excited about that I cannot talk about on social media, even a locked LJ post social media. Suffice to say, I have more incentive than ever before to get my butt into gear and whip this manuscript into shape.
And while yes, I can take as much time as I like to do that, I am giving myself a self imposed deadline to finish the first draft by mid-June. I already have around 40k words, but I had an epiphany last night about the beginning that means I am going to have to rewrite some of them (but it will be so much better! I am excited by this, rather than put off.) So, my goal is 100k words (about) by June 15th. This should be pretty doable, given my schedule and the fact that my current job ends on May 30th, so then my schedule will be really open.
In the meantime, Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays are my lightest "work days", which means they will provide me with ample opportunity, and I plan to write every single day. If I look at it as a whole block of words (disregarding what is already written, which will give me a nice jump start anyway), I will have to write 2,325 words per day. This is totally doable. Back when I was writing all of the time, some days I averaged 5k words or more. Obviously, some days were less, but that's okay. That number isn't really accurate anyway, since like 30k words are very likely already written and won't be changing much. The point is, I've done the math and I know I can do it, and as long as I do my word count thing here and keep reasonable track, holding myself accountable, I have pretty strong faith that it will happen.
So, be prepared for lots of daily word count updates to return. There may be small snippets. There will be pirate icons and such. I don't even know how many people are still on LJ who would remember the first time around. Hopefully it won't be too obnoxious having me post about the same thing all of time. :)
This is what they will look like:
