Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

1/5/17 Daily… Gaining Speed

January 6, 2017 /

Getting Ready for a Writing Challenge…

I have a writing challenge that will be starting on Sunday, at least in a partial way, and I am slowly trying to do two things at the same time.

First, I am trying to pull back my sleep schedule, getting up earlier and going to be earlier. Second, I’m trying to slowly get up to speed on the writing.

Managed that today with three sessions and 3,700 words. Might not get this book done by the time the new challenge starts, but it will be easy to finish when the new challenge is over.

Also managed some meetings, a bunch of running around, some distance walking, and so on. Normal day for the most part.

What I Learned Today (Streak Day 5)

Read a white paper from Data Guy on some of the stuff he’s going to present later this month at a conference. The next Author Earnings Report is going to be very interesting, of that there is no doubt. Keep an eye open for that later this month. I’m sure I’ll be talking about it here.

I learned that I suck at figuring out ways to stop my own stupidity. I have tried a number of times over the last week (since I got the idea for this next challenge) to talk myself out of even trying it. Nope.

So I learned that I clearly do not fear failure in front of all of you. You would think I should. (grin)

You will understand on Sunday when I announce this silliness, but I am giving myself two days to figure out how to stop myself.

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FEBRUARY ONLINE WORKSHOPS

All workshops have openings at the moment. The new workshop starting in February is Writing Secondary Plot Lines, which should be great fun.

www.wmgpublishingworkshops.com

Any questions at all, feel free to write me. And if you are confused as to which workshop to take first, we have a full curriculum posted on its own page.

Class #11… Feb 7th … Endings
Class #12… Feb 7th … Point of View
Class #13… Feb 7th … Writing Mysteries
Class #14… Feb 7th … Speed
Class #15… Feb 7th … Teams in Fiction
Class #16… Feb 8th … Depth in Writing
Class #17… Feb 8th … Plotting With Depth
Class #18… Feb 8th … Writing Fiction Sales Copy
Class #19… Feb 8th … Writing Secondary Plot Lines
Class #20… Feb 8th … Advanced Depth

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The Writing of HEAVEN PAINTED AS A SUNSET: A Ghost of a Chance Novel

 Short Stories Used in Book.  Words… 7,100 words
 Day 1… Words written… 1,100.  Total so far… 8,200 words.
 Day 2… Words written… 3,100.  Total so far… 11,300 words.
 Day 3… Words written… 1,400.  Total so far… 12,700 words.
 Day 4… Words written… 00.  Total so far… 12,700 words.
 Day 5… Words written… 00.  Total so far… 12,700 words.
 Day 6… Words written… 2,600.  Total so far… 15,300 words.
 Day 7… Words written… 00.  Total so far… 15,300 words.
 Day 8… Words written… 00.  Total so far… 15,300 words.
 Day 9… Words written… 2,200.  Total so far… 17,500 words.
 Day 10… Words written… 3,100.  Total so far… 20,600 words.
 Day 11… Words written… 1,200.  Total so far… 21,800 words.
 Day 12… Words written… 3,000.  Total so far… 24,800 words.
 Day 13… Words written… 3,700.  Total so far… 28,500 words.

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Tracking Running… January 5, 2017
5 miles. No running.
Weight 189… 19 more to 170 goal.
Month to date distance: 21 miles

8 Days until the first half-marathon…
Note about the exercise day: This will be a joke and painful, at best.
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Tracking Word Counts… January 5, 2017
Totals For Year 4, Month 6, Day 5 (Year started August)
Writing in Public blog streak… Day 1,204

— Daily Fiction: 3,700 original words. Fiction month-to-date: 13,200 words  
— Nonfiction: 00 new words. (from last night) Nonfiction month-to-date total: 00 words 
— Blog Posts: 400 new words. Blog month-to-date word count: 2,000 words
— E-mail: 9 e-mails. Approx. 800 original words.  E-mails month-to date: 121 e-mails. Approx. 8,700 words
— Short Fiction Goal: 120 stories (July 1st to June 30th). Stories to date: 8 stories.
— Novel Goal: 12 Novels. Novels finished to date: 3 novels.

Comments About the Writing of the Day: Running around everywhere, but still got writing done…

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7 Comments

  • Harvey

    January 6, 2017 at 5:28 am

    I’m pretty sure that “failing to success” thing covers all bases. I know it does for me. Still, failing to success isn’t an alternative to succeeding in reaching a goal. It’s a great alternative to quitting or never starting though. 🙂

    • allynh

      January 6, 2017 at 2:36 pm

      After doing word count on a few editions, they are using columns to count words. They take the space of 33k, but the actual word count is far less.

      So that means when he talked about 6k serial episodes for newspapers, that is 6k columns, but actual word count would be less.

      This is like when you talk about writing “manuscript pages” vs actual word count. When I started out in the Long Ago, and the Far Away, on typewriter, I counted pages and 250 words per page, filling a container. So they focused on filling columns.

      Now I need to read enough episodes to understand their story density, and prose resolution. Fun stuff.

      And of course, as the magazine reminds us: Remember the Maine! HA!

  • ed ryan

    January 6, 2017 at 9:19 pm

    I was all proud of myself today – I challenged myself to 60000 words in January and have hit 2k (average best was 2850, worst was 1400) everyday for the last 6 days on my way to achieving that – until I get here and Dean reeled off 3700.

    If I can keep this up all year (tho I’m trying to do this challenge 1 month at a time) that would be 720,000 words for the year,. Not exactly Pulp speed – Mach Speed maybe??

    I look and think “Oh poor me, I’d miss Pulp speed and still right a mere 6 or 7 books” (I write 100 – 120k fantasy novels)

    Imagine if I only do half that – 3 or 4 books, yeah that would suck,…. 🙂

    Fail to success, here I come!

      • dwsmith

        January 15, 2017 at 5:22 pm

        Not failing yet. (grin) Just powering along today. If I have a good day I’ll finish the novel in five days while traveling. Stay tuned.