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.