Category: Writing Goals

Writing Goals

Writing 365,000 Words in a Year Update #22

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It’s been almost two weeks since I updated. During that time I’ve been working fairly diligently on two of my main projects, Under Jupiter and MF. And tonight I passed 200,000 words!!!!!

PARTY TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Obviously this nice round number feels pretty big. I started this goal in September of 2016, and a lot of time has passes since then, and obviously I’ve written a lot of words. But sometimes I wonder just where all of those words have gone, because I feel like I have so many unfinished projects that I must still be an undergrad. Seriously. It feels like it is taking forever to finish things. I think part of that is the fact that I’m often working on more than one book at a time. Like right now I’m doing rewrites of Under Jupiter and doing a first draft of MF. Also, I have about an hour a day (if I’m lucky) to get all my words and rewriting in. And that’s if I’m not so tired that I just pass out the moment the house is quiet. I do wish that I would have been tracking daily the project I was working on, that would really help me understand where all the words have gone.

But I made it! Deep breath. To Two Hundred Thousand Words. Which means I can totally do this. I can totally do this. And come September. I will have finished things. And they will be wonderful.

JEH

 

Blogging · Self-Publishing · Writing Goals

Writing 365,000 Words in a Year Update #21

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Okay, this week wasn’t as good as last week. The main reason for that is I wrote nothing one day because I was too addicted to reading The Girl on the Train. I consciously made this choice, but I’m still wondering if that makes it okay or not. I did write more the next day to make up for it, as you can see on the chart. I made it to the gym twice, and I also made it out to writing group for a weekly writing session, where I got a lot of work done on Under Jupiter. I also found a new favourite tea collection which is currently fuelling my writing session.

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From the chart, you can also see that I did better this week at concentrating on Under Jupiter. I’m working on it at the moment, actually, but am taking a quick break to write this blog that I was supposed to write yesterday. Oops! Ah well, I have some more interesting blogs coming up for you next week, including more book discussions and fabulous pictures. Like this picture of the candle and pretty books sitting beside me on my desk.

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This coming week, I’m expecting to see a high word count. Mostly because I need to push to finish Under Jupiter, and a couple other projects I’d like to self-pub soon, because I love them and I’m excited to share them, and I’m also kind of addicted to self-publishing. Yes, you heard that right.

Alright, time to get back to the real work. I hope you had a good week, and I’ll chat soon.

JEH

Writing Goals

Writing 365,000 Words in a Year Update #20

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Well, yesterday I reached the official halfway point… And I’m currently only 3,400 words behind my goal!!!! *Celebration dance* *Throws flowers in the air*

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I never planned on rewards for this challenge. Writing almost 180,000 words in six months feels like accomplishment enough. Especially when I have a near full-time day job, two crazy monsters and one crazy cat to look after the rest of the time. Let’s be honest, it can be very difficult most days. But this goal has taught me so much, even though I’m only halfway through. For instance, I’ve learned that I CAN write 1,000 words a day every day if I really set my mind to it, though writing over 600 words feels like a challenge on the busy days, but is really easy on the weekends (unless it is a jam-packed fun weekend of ice fishing).

This past week was a great week. I even had one 3,000 word day that I wasn’t expecting, though it was on a side project instead of the main project I’m working on drafting, which is MF. A lot of my word count lately comes from rewriting Under Jupiter. Since I drafted UJ about ten years ago, there is a lot of rewriting to do. I’m a much stronger writer now, and have an easier time picking out the plot gaps and character weaknesses that need to be filled in. In other words, there are a lot of missing words. Here’s a shot of my tracking sheet for the past week. You can also see that there were a couple days slightly under the 1,000 words. But at least I averaged out well!

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When I set this massive goal back in September, I said I would be focusing on five major projects, and nothing else. That goal has definitely changed, though I did initially wrap up the Black Depths Universe, which was one of the projects. I’m currently working on drafting MF, which for now all I will say is an adult fantasy novel. The rewriting project, Under Jupiter, wasn’t initially budgeted for, because I didn’t take into account all the effort of rewriting, and all the new words I would be adding. These words will likely only count for the rewriting process, and when I get into third and forth drafts, that word count will disappear and I will have to go back to drafting new things to get my 1,000 words a day. After I finish drafting MF, I’m hoping to write a new adult fantasy. I’m pretty excited for this but I don’t think I’ll get around to it until at least June, and that will probably be the last project of this year long goal, and hopefully by then I’ll be at my 365,000 words.

So, while I wasn’t planning on getting myself rewards, I feel that this halfway point is deserving of a little something, mostly because there is still a long way to go! I’m thinking a book or a chocolate bar or something. Nothing big. Just a little something to put an even bigger smile on my face.

How is your writing going?

JEH

Blogging · Writing Goals · Young Adult · Young Adult Books

365K in a Year Update #17

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Okay, I’m hoping I’m right about the number, but in the long run, I’m thinking that the update # doesn’t matter.

This is the first week that I’m really struggling with my word count. I’m about 2,500 words behind my goal at this point. I should be almost at 160,000 words, but I’m not. I feel kind of down about this but I’m trying to be understanding at the same time. Day to day life has been very stressful as of late. In between taking care of people I love, my day job, and trying to find a few moments here and there to relax and do stress relieving things and get some sleep, I’ve been trying to squeeze in some writing. Obviously I’m not squeezing enough. Now I’m dreading the attempt to catch up and maybe even get a little bit ahead again. It’s important to me that I accomplish this goal, because there are so many stories that I want to tell. I have a ton of books planned and it feels heavy when I’m stuck carrying all these stories around. It’s the best feeling to get them out.

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Out, Out damn stories!

Yesterday, I read Sarah J. Mass’s newsletter, in which she discusses wring a 105,000K book in 5DAYS! I cannot begin to express how jealous I am. I wish I had the time to cloister myself away and get some stuff done. Lately, I’ve barely been feeling like I have five minutes, and even when I actually do, I’ve been mentally drained. The good news is that I have been getting SOME writing done. And also, I’m taking a mini-vacay this weekend: I’m going ice fishing! Maybe this will be just what I need to rejuvenate my writing mojo. I’m also finding that rewriting is easier than drafting at the moment, which is good news for my next project! Big announcement on that one tomorrow.

Other good news this week was that I went to my favorite local book store yesterday, and I saw this:

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There was an entire end-shelf display dedicated to my books! I was so incredibly happy. This really makes me feel like the Black Depths series was a success. I can’t wait to launch my next big project.

What have you been up to?

JEH

Blogging · Nature · Photos · Writing Goals

365K Words in Year Update #13

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Lucky # 13! This update, I’m pleased to say that I have made it to the gym twice. There are a few reasons for this:

  1. I ate way to much cheese and chocolate at Christmas
  2. My trip to Mexico is coming fast
  3. I downloaded and audiobook to listen to and I love it!

So on that front, things are going well.

In the writting world. I wrote nothing on Christmas Eve and Christmas, and have been writing between 600 and 1,000 words a day since. The lead I had at the beginning of my year (September 2016) has shrunk, and I’m down to a 14,000 word lead. Which is pretty good, though I’m hoping with a week of sunny vacation that I’ll be able to draft up a storm!

This morning I woke up to light, thick, fresh falling snow. The roads were a disaster but everything looked so pretty again.

Also, as I posted earlier this week, I made it to my 40 books in a year reading goal as posted on Goodreads. I’ve actually finished another book since then and plan on finishing one more. I can’t wait until January 1st, 2017 when I get to set my new reading goal. What’s your goal going to be?

 

JEH

 

Writing Goals

365K Words in a Year Update #12

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted a word count chart, so here it is:

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I’m feel much better about how I’ve performed this week. There was only one day I wrote nothing, and the rest of the days were very close to one thousand words. Which is good. One thousand words a day is pretty achievable for me, but isn’t so much that it wears me out. I’m making good progress on a short novella, and am happy with how it is going. On the 19th, I wrote 1,900 words on this story without even batting an eye. I was so into the writing that for once I wasn’t watching my word count with loathing and counting the seconds until I would be at 1,000 words. Now that is a good day.

I’m also glad I’m doing so well on the approach to Christmas. I might attempt to write a little bit extra over the next couple of days so that I don’t have to work on the holidays. Everyone deserves a holiday. Even a writer. Even me. I’ve loaded up the fridge with delicious food, and am looking forward to eating cheese for at least three days straight. I’m also beginning to do a bit of re-writing. Writing 1,000 words a days leaves me a lot of time for re-writes, which typically take longer than drafting. At least for me.

Happy first day of winter!

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JEH

 

Writing Goals

365K Words In A Year Update #11

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I’ve been skipping updates, skipping writing sessions, just skipping everything! I’ve been a bad student, although, since I realized this last week, things have improved somewhat and I have written 600-1000 words 6 out of 7 days in the past week. Yesterday was only 350….

Anyway, continuing to improve going forward. What I’ve learnt is that NaNo was just too much. I burnt myself out. NaNo used to be easy. I used to be young and carefree and full of energy and life didn’t seem to have interruptions, and now I’m in my thirties and life is like “hey, over here!” “No, over here!” and I’m constantly being pulled away from what I would like to be doing (i.e.. writing). Although I suppose if I’m honest, I’ve also been fitting in time for painting and baking. But the baking is for Christmas, so that’s okay, right?

The good thing about the frigid cold that feels like it will kill you in minutes (I mean, you step outside with bare skin and it HURTS), anyway, the good thing is that there have been these amazing sundogs which look like three suns rising on the horizon in the morning and like big, circular rainbows around the sun later in the day. There have also been gorgeous looking frosty mornings. If only it would be frosty and sundoggy without the cold.

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So, it’s time to brew the coffee (I was going to post this last night and then fell asleep), and get writing. There will be another post up today. But until later, have a great weekend.

JEH

Writing Goals

On Quitting NaNoWriMo

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img_4689Wow. This post is a bit more difficult to write than I thought it would be. Usually, I am not a quitter, but this past week a lot of things have occurred which really made me question my decision to do NaNoWriMo when I’m already have my personal goal of writing 365K words in a year goal, which I’m really happy with. I’ve come to the conclusion that writing the 1,667 words a day that NaNo requires is just too much for me. So I’m cutting it out, I’m cutting back, and I’m returning to my 1,000 words per day goal, which I find a slight struggle to do on some days, but most of the time I find it alright.

I’m coming to the realization that expecting myself to write 600 words a day would really be my ideal. Maybe because I’m working an almost full time job and have two tiny kids to look after. And a cat. A needy cat. Who likes to sit on my laptop. So, 600 words a day is easily do-able. But my goal for the next 9 months is 1,000 words a day. So I’m going to stick to that.

So, I’m not buying myself my pretty NaNo reward, which is fine. I already have a million blank journals anyway. I really don’t need another one. I mean, I WANT one, but I don’t NEED it. Maybe I’ll get lucky and someone will get it for me for Christmas. Anyway, that’s the gist of it. Now. Time to write those 1,000 words.
JEH

Self-Publishing · Writing Goals

365K Words in a Year Update #9

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I’m taking a pause in my NaNo-ing as I’ve just realized I’ve reached 100,000 Words in my 365,000 words in a year goal!  Whoo-hooo! *Insert Party Here*

I’m so supremely pumped about this! I think I might have to reward myself with a little something for reaching this huge milestone! Here’s a look at my table for the past couple days. As you can see, yesterday I had a great day, but I didn’t even realize how close I was to 100K until I updated the 800 words I’ve written so far today!

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This 100K words has mostly been the finishing off two projects which were already started when I began my 365K goal. I’ve written one completely new short thing, and I’m 18,000 words into my brand new novel, which I’m just calling Life, for now though it will definitely change in the future.

Wow. I really can’t believe I’ve come this far already! I’m so happy with myself. Even though I’ve had a few days where I haven’t written new words, i’ve generally been either rewriting something, working on formatting, or horribly sick. So I feel pretty good about that too, though I’m still hoping I can get more consistent with my daily word counts. For now I’m going to happily take the 100K and just my buy myself another e-book to read in the future. What better way to reward oneself for writing that by getting something new to read?

JEH

Covers · Self-Publishing · Writing Goals · Young Adult · Young Adult Books

Finally the Finale!

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Twisted Currents is finally here! I do not have the physical copies yet, but the ebook is up on the Kindle store now.

You can also order physical copies on the CreateSpace store, this is a great option if you don’t live in Saskatoon and want to order yourself or someone you love a whole bunch of books. You can find the entire series here.

Now Reformatted!

So, now that I’m done writing the Black Depths Series, I can get back to focusing on NaNoWriMo, which I’m terribly behind on. Hopefully I can catch up within the next week. This year, I’m working on a piece of literary fiction, but don’t worry, I have some other YA drafts I’m looking at polishing and self-publishing in the near-ish future.

For now, go out, read, enjoy!

JEH