My Writing Life: The January Numbers

Empty Hearts. Coming Soon. I'm going to publish my
backlist as ebooks this year. This will include both
Sam Bowen books and all three Con-Dorks novels.

So, I made this little goal or pledge to myself on Elvis' birthday: write a half million words this year. Write every day of the year. And publish/finish/clear out some long-standing and oft-stalled projects that are on my desk. This means, in practical terms, publishing six books' worth of backlist for small press trade and ebook formats, and writing/completing three book-length manuscripts, in addition to a handful of short stories, radio scripts, comic book scripts, and even, it would seem, a role-playing game.

Ambitious? Yeah, maybe. But what good is a goal if you don't have to stretch to meet it? I'm really going to try and hit the word count goal, if nothing else. Any projects that don't happen automatically roll over to year. It's time to get my writing career back on track. It's not like I haven't been this productive before. I'm tired of having things be almost done. This is my year to sprint for the finish line.

So, here's my January output. This was the month that I got my shit together, so to speak, and roadmapped out what projects I would do, and when, for the entire year. My calendar looks like a rainbow. But the system seems to work, despite my needing some time to get back in the saddle. So, how did I do? Here's the stats:

Projects completed: 2--I turned in a story collection and finished and edited another

Bonus Projects (meaning, things not on the calendar): 2--I edited a book manuscript for my mother and workshopped a story for someone else


Words typed: 32, 989

Target number: 42, 466

Shortfall: 9,477

Mind you, these don't go away. If I want to hit my mark, I've got to add these numbers to the Feb count. The good news is, I'm writing novel. Plenty of chances to catch up.

I figured I'd come in under the wire this month. Like I said, I'm getting my sea legs under me. It was bound to happen. February is a short month. I am pretty confident that I will catch up and maybe even get ahead.

In my experience, writing begets writing. I've already got new projects that I'm slotting into the open spaces in the calendar. I figure by the time I'm in October and November, I'll have enough new stuff set up to refill the calendar for 2015. At least, I hope so.

It feels good to be working like this again. It's been a while.