We’re about halfway through the year. I thought I’d look at what I’ve done so far, and what my plans are for the rest of the year.
My word count goal for the year is 500K. I won’t make that without a writing marathon sometime this year (10K words/10K steps per day). And I knew that going in.
At this point, I have 214,251 words for the year. The spreadsheet that I use for tracking estimates that based on my current writing speed, I’ll reach 420K by the end of the year.
My average daily word count is currently 1152 words per day. I am figuring that I’ll be able to increase that over the next few months. There will be times when I don’t write, but I try to plan for those ahead of time.
As for the writing marathon, it has to be not only the right time but the right project. I’m currently in book three of the Water Witch series. This would have been a good project to do a marathon for, but the timing is wrong. I just can’t fit it in at this point. I may end up doing a half marathon, starting the week of July 17th. That would be only 5000 words per day. (The 10K steps at this time is kind of a given, as it’s summer and I need to walk.) That way, I’d be able to write a lot more words and get my word count up.
I don’t have time for a full marathon until November. Yes, I’m just that busy and have things all planned out from now until then. Ugh. Maybe I can fit in another half marathon someplace. We’ll see.
In terms of projects, I’m surprised at how few stories I have done this year. Almost all of my word count is on novels. And it’s likely to continue that way.
In terms of everything, I feel as though I’m pretty much on top of things. This month I’ll do quarterly taxes—hopefully, they haven’t changed the UI. Again. (I can rant about this for quite some time, honestly.) But I did them first quarter, and I’ll do them now, second quarter, so I’m staying on top of those.
I set up the KRP store in January. Even though it needs to be completely redone, I feel as though that’s been a success. I built it, and people have been using it.
I’m working with a marketing person on how to better sell my books. So far, that’s been a really good investment. I’ve learned a ton and am applying all of it, not just to my books but to Blaze’s as well. As a result of this work, I’ve been spending a lot of time cleaning up our existing catalog. There’s some really funky stuff out there that I’d forgotten about, that needed cleaning up.
I have a columnist producing non-fiction columns for MCM every issue now. I have a Storybundle in the works, ran my first Kickstarter, and will have another Kickstarter in the fall. The Storybundle includes the latest edition of Cutter’s Final Cut. I’ve been keeping up with the publishing schedule. One thing—since IngramSpark is now offering free book uploads, I did put off publishing some print books there. I’m catching up with those now.
In terms of personal growth, I’ve been reading and studying more books, spending good quality time thinking about writing and process and how do I do better. I feel good about the learning I’ve been doing, improving my craft as well as my business.
So what’s the schedule for the rest of the year? I’ve talked of some of it—the Storybundle, the next Kickstarter, revamping the store. In addition, Blaze and I are going to start offering some products, physical items we’ll see. We’re excited about what’s ahead.
And there will be writing. Lots of it. As I think I’ve mentioned before, my brain has come back, in a large part, due to the diet I’m currently following. I’m able to write again like I used to. So I’m figuring there will be more words. Perhaps enough so that I don’t need another writing marathon. We’ll see.
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