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Why 200,000 words?

I thought it might be a good idea to talk a little more about why I choose 200,000 words as my 2017 writing goal.  At first glance, it seems like sort of a random number.  To be honest, it IS a random number.  But I did put a little more thought into it that just picking a number out of a hat.  So here are a few points to make me feel better about this goal.

First, 200,000 is a lot of words.  It's not one of the goals that I won't have to work at.  I did the math, of course, before I settled on this plan and to reach my goal I would have to write 548 new words each day.  That's without taking a single day off, not my birthday, or Thanksgiving, or even a sick day when I can't get out of bed.  Also, during my December writing challenge (when I started writing daily) I averaged only 501 words per day.  I exceeded 548 words only 7 times out of 31, for a pitiful compliance percentage of 22.6%.  This goal wasn't going to be a walk in the park by any stretch.

Second, I want to write a book.  Several books actually, but before there can be many there need to be at least one.  I did a little research, and the average novel is around 60,000 to 70,000 words.  I knew that my goal needed to be more than just write a book because I have also heard many authors talk about success coming from continuing a series more than just releasing a stand-alone title.  Continuing to produce work after I have published my first book is going to be critical in calling myself a writer.  I am a writer; not I was a writer.  So by my crude math, I figure that if I can write at least 200,000 words in 2017 that I should be able to have three first drafts of novels.  Not necessarily finished books, but a good place to start.  And I am hoping that at least one of those three drafts will be worth publishing.

Third, I needed a big splashy number to get people's attention.  Saying I wrote a book is impressive.  Saying that I wrote more words than the population of the Territory of Guam (estimated population of 161,785 in July of 2016) is splashy.  It is also a bit more fun to track in a spreadsheet than a chart that shows books written at zero until around May, then only goes to one until September.  You get the idea.

Fourth, this is a stepping stone to larger word counts and more books written.  I honestly believe that I can write more than 200,000 words this year.  But if I just base my goal off of my December 2016 words written I should only have a hair over 186,000 written by the end of the year.  I wanted to push myself to do better, but also allow myself time to do other things related to writing.  Keep in mind; this goal is NEW words written.  I don't count words edited.  From what I have experienced so far, editing is a much more labor-intensive process (but I'll save that discussion for another post).

Can I make it?  Time will tell.  Having something to strive for is the point of setting a goal.

Words in December 2016

This morning I would like to talk about my journey into writing daily. I started writing daily on December 1 of last year (yes, just one month ago). It wasn't much in the first few days; I was lucky if I could write 300 to 400 words at a time. I was doing word sprints for the first time and had just started to track my progress. I wanted to see if I could get faster. I felt slow, but I kept doing it. And by the end of the month, the little bit I wrote each day had really added up.

I'll admit it; I love spreadsheets. I also like things where I can challenge myself to do better than I did before, where I'm competing against my own high-score, and where I can show gradual improvement. For example, I'm terrible at golf, but I love to play because I want to see if I can get better. In fact, tying these two topics together, years ago I made a spreadsheet golf to track my progress, but not only to track my overall score but also to track my putts. So when I discovered word sprints, the ability to track my daily writing progress and the benefits of keeping my monthly word counts, I was hooked. Now I can strive to crush my previous monthly record and strive to set a new high-score. So grab some popcorn and enjoy.

In the month of December 2016, I was able to write 15,533 words. I have attached this chart for you visual learners because I always feel much better when I have a picture look at. Most days were just around 400 words, but doing that for 31 days added up to an impressive total. I had a couple of really good days, and my new daily, high-score was 1,324 words. I only posted one day with less than 100 words, and that was on Christmas so I'm going to give myself a pass. When I set out to do this daily writing thing, I decided I was the kind of writer who would write every day, even holidays. The kind of writer who would prioritize this writing over the other things in my life. Success doesn't come for those who wait for it; you have to go out and seize it.

I am happy to report that I should crush this word count in January. It's only the 11th, and I just crossed 13,000 words this morning. But that's the goal, right? Incremental improvement, if I can just write more each month than by the end of the year, I should have my 200,000 words. I may not be a great writer, but my December word count proves that I am a writer. Greatness comes with practice.

It's going to be a GREAT year

It's going to be a great year, I can feel it already.  This is not a post about how terrible 2016 was because I actually had a pretty good 2016, but I am sure that 2017 is going to be better.  I can feel it in my bones.

Here are a couple of big goals for me in 2017:
Goal number one: make some goals.  Check.
Goal number two: tell people about your goals so they can hold you accountable.  In process...
Goal number three: write 200,000 words this year.  Wait, what??
Goal number four: publish your first book in 2017.  Okay now, hold on
Goal number five: keep your expectation for this first book low.  #pessimism
Goal number six: don't forget to post on your new blog.  We all remember what happened to the last one.

If you are by chance still reading this, then congratulations you are my very first reader.  Hang in there, I promise it will get better.  Cheers!