The Word Challenge
Keep Powering…
I am on track to have the worst year writing word count in maybe over thirty years. My average is about 1.3 million words a year.
The first three months of the year I wrote very little, around 80,000 words because of losing my vision to that infection last October. So in April 1st I restarted, rebuilding slowly, and I had just about had hit my normal speed again when I fell on that run and broke my shoulder. So maybe 2,000 words in the last six weeks, all blog stuff.
So everyone who challenged me back in April is going to win if you had a decent nine months. We will figure it all out by the end of the year. But right now, my word count from April 1st is 565,000 words.
If I can get back to two-handed typing, that total will go up. How much by January 1st, we shall see.
Keep firing everyone in the challenge. I expect you all to kick my ass. (Just be careful of the shoulder when you do. (grin))
8 Comments
Kerridwen Mangala McNamara
I’m discovering that publishing books takes time away from writing. (Also being sick. Which has been most of this year, on and off, different things… and putting more focus back on homeschooling as I have a kid applying for college, a new high schooler, and although grader who decided to take an AP exam.)
I’m at 439,382 – with 7 books out on 2023 and 1-2 more planned. (I’ve been complaining that this year seems more stressful even though the kids and I decided not to do Lego team this year, which should be saving me 8-24 hours per week. My 18yo pointed out that I’ve been upping the internal pressure with book “deadlines.” (In quotes because these are self-imposed and adjustable. )
dwsmith
Your kid is right. Keep the writing fun. And the publishing.
Kerridwen Mangala McNamara
Kids tend to be!
Kerridwen Mangala McNamara
Right now I’m trying to follow your and Kris’ advice and talk to a lawyer about the small press contract for a superhero sequel they’ve accepted. I think I know what I’m doing… I’ve been proofreading engineering contacts for my dad since i was a kid, but trying to get it all right and see if it’s worth doing this in the future (I’m currently signed up for an anthology with my writers group…)
So far I’m talking to a trial lawyer who has published several books and is s friend. He didn’t have a copyright lawyer to recommend… nor did my very-on-top-of-things write friend (30 books, hybrid author)
Any suggestions?
dwsmith
For a short story? Just Google standard short story contracts and look over a bunch of those. Talk with other professional short story writers.
Kerridwen Mangala McNamara
It’s a novel in a shared universe.
At this point I think I have most of it, but there’s a clause about not using their characters, powers, etc.. And I want to be sure I’m not pecks myself from writing any future superhero books or stories. Or using characters with similar names that aren’t theirs. (I mean names can be reused, right? Like in real life?)
My lawyer-author friend writes nonfiction… and my writer friends don’t seem terribly critical about their contacts. (I may not be doing them justice… but the most savvy-seeming one didn’t have a lawyer to suggest…)
Sigh.
Is writing in a really cool shared universe worth it in the long run?
Barb
At least you had health issues! I’m also at my lowest since I started countinb (2015), not even 350K yet, and I’m struggling to keep going. I hope next year will be better, but life is really getting in the way of the writing!
Also, I did too many trips this year and lost three weeks of writing wandering around Europe – but it was for research purposes, and I hope it will come out in the book I wrote after those trips!
Onward, though… “Never give up, never surrender!”
Kerridwen Mangala McNamara
Darn Life! Lol!
(Right there with you…)