It’s that time of year again, time for the mid-year review.
This hasn’t been the best year for me, to put it mildly.
In fact, it’s been one of my worst years on record in terms of word count, since I’ve been keeping track in a single spreadsheet. 2017 is the last year that even came close to this, at 380K for the year.
At this mid-way point for the year, I’ve written 127,332 words. If I assume the same pace for the rest of the year, that’s about 250K words for the year.
Ouch.
I’ve written two novels so far this year and started and finished two short stories. (I have another short story that I started but never finished. I’m still counting those words because I do plan on going back and finishing it at some point.)
I also have done some essays, some Patreon posts, and a tiny bit of what I call miscellaneous writing, like essays for MCM, etc.
My plan is that by the end of the year, I’ll have written two more novels and two more short stories.
That’s it. That’s all I can manage. I might possibly be able to start yet another novel, but I doubt I’ll be able to finish it.
I was originally planning on doing my usual Storybundle in August of this year, along with an edition of Cutter’s Final Cut. I had to cancel all of that at the start of June because I knew that I didn’t have the mental capacity or bandwidth to do it.
Even if I had managed to force myself to find the time and organize the Storybundle, I would have been upset every single day that it ran because I wouldn’t have been doing all the things I normally do for a Storybundle, like author interviews, regular posts, etc. I made the call that it was better for me to cancel than to torture myself that way.
NOTE: Because the person who runs the Storybundle site is awesome, he gave me the option to just postpone the bundle. My hope is that I’ll be able to do it in February or March of next year. Stay tuned!
My original plan for 2024 was to write 400K for the year. I did try to take into account the fact that I’d be down in Portland one week per month, dealing with my niece.
However, I didn’t realize that I’d be doing so much caregiving. I’m frequently on the phone with her (or calling places for her) between 60-90 minutes per day. That doesn’t take the emotional toll, which is far more extensive than just the time. The original estimate also didn’t take into account that I’d be down in Portland for six weeks post-surgery and that I wouldn’t be writing that entire time.
This last month was very much a recovery month for me. I managed 30K for the month. Which I’m honestly happy with, particularly given the rest of the month.
Can I do that every month for the rest of the year? That would mean an additional 180K for the year, which would bring me up over 300K.
I don’t know. Maybe?
The thing is—I don’t want to push myself. That would be bad. Writing is my fun, safe, happy place. I’ve pushed before and damn near broke myself. Can’t do that.
I figure 270K is a much safer bet for me. That means just 25K per month.
I think I can do that. I hate that I’m writing so few words. But I have to give myself some grace and time to heal. To recover. To deal with the emergencies, of which there are many.
I had thought that come July 1st I’d be able to do so many more things. That I’d start losing weight, working out, doing more for the business.
Nope. Maintaining is about the best I can hope for.
One happy thing to note: I’m reading A LOT. I’ve already finished over thirty books for the year. Escaping into fiction is my happy place.
I hope that your mid-year review is turning up better than mine!
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