I am probably not going to hit my word count goal for 2020. I’ll be really close. I might end up about 20K shy. Still, 580K words for a year isn’t a bad thing. I’ll be satisfied with that. Particularly given that it was 2020.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what my 2021 writing goals are going to be. I have other goals as well. I’ll probably put those into another post cleverly titled: Other 2021 Goals. (^_^)

For now, I am setting a 2021 writing goal of 460K for the year. In addition, I’m going to try to write every day.

Why is the word count so low?

I have a *major* construction project that I’ll be doing in 2021. (I will write more about that later.) During the first six months, I’ll need to spend some time working at the project, but it will only be a day here and there, working with contractors. Starting in July, for at least four months, my focus must be elsewhere. During those four months, I’m anticipating a word count of 15K per month, that is, 500 words per day.

The other eight months of the year, I’m planning on writing my usual 50K per month. I know that I sometimes have difficulty hitting that sometimes. However, I have a couple of things planned to help me.

In January, I’m doing another marathon. Only this time, it’ll be a “half” marathon – 5K words per day, 10K steps per day. In April, I’ll do another full marathon.

If the construction finishes early (ha!) I’ll do another full marathon at the end of October. It would actually be a lovely way to get back into the writing. At this point, I have no idea if that will be possible. I’m currently planning on still having short word count all the way through October, and not picking up again until November.

Now, the writing every day. I’ve never tried to maintain such a streak before. My health just hasn’t let me.

However, I have managed to speak Hungarian every day for 518 days. Some of those days were really painful, and I was dreadfully slow. When I’ve been sick, I’ve done my Hungarian during the middle of the afternoon, when I had the most brain.

One of the things that’s helped me maintain such a streak on Duolingo is the “Streak-Freeze Amulet.” You purchase it using “lingots” – the coins used within the “game.” Then, even if you miss a day, your streak has been preserved.

In Duolingo, I’ve used three amulets over 500+ days. You need to go through enough lessons to maintain your streak, not just a single one. I’d thought I’d done enough one day, and it turned out I hadn’t. The other two times I completely forgot to speak my Hungarian. One of those was a total oops day. The other involved a trip to the ER, so I give myself a break on that one.

I am giving myself three “Streak-Freeze Amulets” for 2021 in terms of my writing every day streak. I may or may not ever use them. However, just the concept means I’m not stressed thinking about trying to write every day.

The rules I’ve set up for myself are as follows:

I cannot use two amulets during a single week. If the week’s that bad, the streak is gone.

If I end up using all of them and need a fourth, the streak is gone.

So those are my 2021 writing goals. Have you set yours yet?