2023 Fiction Word Count: 285333 / 478128 words. 60% done!
Insights To Not Forget:
Dealing with what I can write in an hour: I established 600 words as my daily word count back in 2017, but didn't start tracking how long I wrote during a day until 2018. So I focused my math on 2018 - 2023. 2018 was the only year in which I had reached an hour of writing on average until this year 2023 so far when my average time is an hour and thirty minutes. But I only had 185 days of reaching or exceeding 600 words, so that spreadsheet broke down my average words per hour at 581.
For 2019 - 2021, my time writing per day dropped significantly: 47 minutes, 36 minutes, and 50 minutes. The days of reaching or exceeding 600 words also dropped (49, 48, 85) and average words per hour dropped too (451, 390, 584). I haven't gone back to look at what I was working during those years, but just from the statistic summaries I'm looking at it is clear that I either didn't write most days of the year or if I did it was way under an hour. 2022 is an outlier from the earlier years. The total days of reaching or exceeding was 113, but my average words per day was 1309 and the average writing time went up to 58 minutes per day. So the average words per hour calculated to 1363 that year.
Now to glance back at My Year in Fic posts to see what was going on.
2022: The new words that were not Library updating words only equalled 132,008. I wrote or editing 311 out of 365 days. Also in making new words easier, this was the first year I said I was going to work on one project a month and that was a success. My three void babies joined my house and life at the end of July.
2021: Ah, the fun with getting Scrivener 3 up and running and the laptop not having enough space. That was no fun. Continuing Covid not-fun times. Hurricane Ida made landfall. And Trigun outlines took over my brain.
2020: Covid plague! I spent all of August and September editing and just editing.
2019: Actually list of accomplishements is pretty good. We had my parents' anniversary cruise in October before Mom's surgery. And then she spent the entire month of Novemember in two hospitals and a rehab facility.
2018: I increased the number of days reaching or exceeding 600 words to 105 days out of 365. Looks like I overwhelmed myself with "WRITE ALL THE THINGS" on original fiction and barely did anything on the two projects I had going then to work on fanfics instead.
So can I write 600 words in an hour? No. My time so far this year is an average of writing for an hour and thirty minutes and the words per hours are 581. And another thing 600 words is my daily goal that my brain weasels twisted over to only take an hour. I have all day to get to it, but I shouldn't look at changing it until I have 365 days of reaching 600.
Stories I Posted at Ao3 Finally:
Tin Man / Medical Investigation: Alchemy: Word count = 30,166. A mysterious illness suddenly puts DG in charge and she seeks help where no one in the O.Z. expected her to. Written for TM Challenge 4th Annual Big Damn Challenge. Cross-posted on LiveJournal, FanFiction.Net, and the BookWorm's Library on June 29, 2011. The character Maggie Connor was created by ErinM_4600 for her story You Ever Wonder Why?, and used with permission. The character Margo Whitney was created for my Biker Mice From Mars: Evil Jack series of fanfics.
Nonestic Tales: What Memories Can Bring: Word count = 3237. Now I see you standing with brown leaves falling around and snow in your hair. Now you're smiling out the window of that crummy hotel over Washington Square. Our breath comes out white clouds, mingles and hangs in the air. Speaking strictly for me, we both could have died then and there. This story was finished on June 4, 2009, cross-posted at FanFiction.net on July 13, 2009, and the BookWorm's Library on March 20, 2010, and is the first of the Nonestic Tales series. “Diamonds and Rust” by Blackmore’s Night was an inspiration song.
Nonestic Tales: Pirates of the Nonestic: Word count = 112,914. Away from the familiar O.Z., the runaway Princess and the Tin Man join Captain "Blood-rage" Betsy Bobbins' quest and cross swords with sullen pirates, the navy out to stop Bobbins, and a legendary evil lurking in the Nonestic Ocean. This story was finished on May 17, 2009, cross-posted at FanFiction.net and the BookWorm's Library on March 30, 2010, and is the second of the Nonestic Tales series.
Nonestic Tales: Making Whole: Word count = 6,835. Lovers at odds seem to end up in Wonderland, but does this realm have a way to give Azkadellia what she wants no matter how hard Ambrose objects?
Stories I Posted:
Sororal Lineality: Miha: Word count = 3,129. Biggs Darklighter arrives back at the Fleet and finds out what happened to Luke Skywalker from a new defector, Mara Jade.
Stories I Finished:
A lot of writing this year, but haven't finished a first draft of anything.
Stories Caught Up in Editing:
Star Wars: Rescue the Farmboy: Mission on Mimban: Word count = 61,146. I have finished sending it through the ProWriting Aid program, but I found out I didn't create the Honoghran words one scene needed. So I got started on that and didn't get it finished.
Stories I Didn't Finish:
Trigun: Three of a Kind: Word count = 203,308 (20,838 written in 2022 + 182,470 written in 2023). This story has so many words! I really would like to reach the end.
Strix: Forget the Sun: Word count = 75,604 (26,588 written previously + 4279 written in 2019 + 279 written in 2020 + 15,328 written in 2021 + 5416 written in 2022 + 23,714 written in 2023). I only worked on it for National Novel Writing Month in November, but I joined Rachael Herron's NaNo accountability group and with permission to just flood the narrative with all the stupid thoughts in my head, and I got the highest word count on this narrative in five years! It's still not done, but I'm in the third act setting up for the climax fight.
Sherok (Martian language): Word count = 8258. I think I'm done with creating this language. What I have left is defining the words I have created.
Honoghran: Word count = 604. I finally have a question should I ever meet Timothy Zahn. "Did you have any rules for the apostrophe usage in Honoghran or did you decide every other word needed one to look pretty?" We have them in titles, in proper names, in clan names, in at least one verb that we know is a verb, and then these three words in the two sentences in Dark Force Rising that I don't know what they are. In serious conlanging though, I think the ones in titles are substituting for "of the."
- ush = clan/clans
- Ary'ush = Savior of the Clans
- Mal'ary'ush = Daughter of the Savior of the Clans
For the clan names, I'm thinking that what is behind the apostrophe is a directional marker of where the clan was from before the destruction of Honoghr. For proper names, maybe part of the name is named after someone famous or in honor of. Since the firstchild, secondchild, thirdchild is actually child, grandchild, and great-grandchild, I don't think they have a bunch of numbered Juniors running around. With this thought, I believe in a generation or two after the events in
the Last Command, the Noghri will have a bunch of "word'rukh" or "Rukh'word" kids running around. And that's as far as my conlanging got with this one.
What I Think About My Stories:
My favorite story this year: Trigun: Three of a Kind has been so much fun, I have sneaked writing it into months that I haven't supposed to be working on it.
Story most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: I don't really feel any of the stories fit this one. Especially when I have posted such little new material.
Most fun story: Trigun: Three of a Kind.
Stories I wrote that I never thought I'd write: I really didn't think I need to conlang an already created language, but here I am with the amusing idea to do that and confuse a nasty Imperial. And people say fanfic doesn't challenge a writer as much as original fiction does.
Hardest story to write: Less a story and more sticking to the plan for the year. I generally kept to my month-per-project goal, but loss what I was supposed to be working on with the computer problems and when I was supposed to switch.
Biggest disappointment: My paying job's firewall messed up Ao3 displaying, so I had to stop uploading stories to Ao3 unless I was at home. And for some reason when July rolled around to finish uploading, I forgot to finish them. Also my desktop computer's hard drive died and I ended up not doing more updates to the BookWorm's Library in August.
Biggest surprise: Strix: Forget the Sun during National Novel Writing Month in November. I MADE WORDS! on everyday but one in November. Here is what I shared on Rachael Herron's Slack channel:
31,855/50,000 is where I'm calling it now
The total added to the messy, messy narrative is 23,714 getting me to setting up all the characters for the big battle of the climax. And I just checked my records, this is the most words I have added to it in FOUR YEARS! The only day I didn't do any writing was the 25th and that day was spent driving back home from the Thanksgiving celebration over 4.5 hours away. Even with the trip, I kept plugging away at this and didn't put it aside for a different WIP.
That is all thanks to the support here.
I've been keeping metrics posts for that kind of analysis later. One thing I noticed was having permission to jump around. Not that I needed permission, but I'm a very linear writer. So previously when I'd bog down in a scene and words would freeze, I'd keep throwing myself at with less and less results.
This year and Rachael's writing messy mantra finally took hold, and instead of dropping the whole novel when I hit a block, I moved to a new scene and words gushed.
Don't know what this means for the character who always gave me the blockages yet. :laughing:
What's your favorite piece of dialogue you wrote this year? What's your favorite piece of description or narration you wrote this year? Both come from this part of Trigun: Three of a Kind:
“Quiet, Punisher. I’m tired of balancing your divided loyalties.”
Wolfwood spun the cross off his back and the cloth unwrapped from around it. His right hand tucked into a hole in the center of it as he shifted his left leg back and pointed the long end at the Gung-Ho Guns. The metal split apart, showing a gun barrel in the center. It spit out bullets with sparks and smoke, and Wolfwood used them to draw a line of bullet holes at the Gung-Ho Guns’ feet. They all danced back, including Bluesummers.
“Mamajamming! That’s bigger than Uncle Vinnie’s bazooka!”
Everyone ignored Chuck to stare at Wolfwood. He smirked back at them. “I’ve picked a side, but you’re still going to have to deal with me.”
Bluesummers narrowed his eye and twitched his outstretched fingers.
Wolfwood dropped the muzzle of his cross gun to the floor as his body bent back like Milly-ma’am.
Bluesummers smirked briefly. “And you actually thought you’d be a deterrent. Gray the Ninelives, punish the traitor.”
The huge guy in brown gladiator armor lurched forward, reaching for the man in the black suit. This fit Hannah’s rule close enough. Chuck pulled out the blaster, aimed up at the big guy, and pulled the trigger. “Eat blaster, dome head!”
The blaster bolt hit Gray the Ninelives right on the brown collar that started right under the eyes of the dome and ended at the pecs as the armor went around those muscles. And the collar and the flesh-colored dome popped off Gray’s shoulders like a bottle cap when Uncle Modo opened a root beer bottle. The face underneath was made of brown metal but no mouth, just twelve slits around the bottom for escaping heat. The blue eyes were reflectors, not eyeballs. The brown metal didn’t make a full skull and green metal circuit boards looked like a brain out of the forehead.
Chuck blinked. “More like chrome head. You’re a robot!”
“You are the most troublesome child,” Bluesummers said with a weary growl.
“Every day all day long!” Chuck guessed he was too old for ‘troublesome tot’ that Limburger called him a lot.
Gray the Ninelives recovered from losing his disguise and reached for Wolfwood again.
Chuck grinned and leaped onto the massive arm. He ran up to Gray’s shoulder as the robot straightened and tried to grab him instead. Chuck ducked behind the head, grabbing hold of the edge of brown metal at the boundary of the computer brain. “Aooow! Hannah’s gonna be so jelly. She thinks she’s the only one who can rage against machines!”
Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would, less, or about what you predicted? Honestly, less than I thought I would. I didn't anticipate getting caught up in conlanging and I didn't anticipate the computer issues that made me go "whelp, work on what has been working last month" and usually keep on writing Trigun: Three of a Kind. I'm not begrudging my words, I just thought I'd touch more projects.
Number of Days I Wrote or Edited: 333 days.
Number of Days Meeting or Exceeding the daily 600 word count: 185 days.
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? I made myself accountable to more people for original fiction and having people I didn't want to disappoint and letting myself throw utter crap on the page where it would count did unlock progress there. I also didn't stick with linear writing when a scene locked up on me but jumped to a different scene and got words.
Did you meet last year's goals? Let's find out. The goals from my 2023 one-page business plan are:
- Writing Strix series
- November: Finish Strix: Forget the Sun's first draft = still not finished but pleased with progress this year
- November: Edit Strix: Forget the Sun to second draft
- November: Finish Strix: Forget the Sun's third draft
- November: Send Strix: Forget the Sun to a developmental editor
- Writing Star Wars fanfics
- March, September: Edit Rescue the Farm: Mission on Mimban to second draft = still not finished
- March, September: Send Rescue the Farm: Mission on Mimban to beta reader
- March, September: Finish Rescue the Farm: Mission on Mimban third draft
- March, September: Finish Sororal Lineality: Miha third draft = finished
- March, September: Edit Sororal Lineality: Plans and High Command to second draft
- March, September: Send Sororal Lineality: Plans and High Command to beta reader
- March, September: Edit Sororal Lineality: Plans and High Command to third draft
- March, September: Finish Rescue the Farmboy: Extrication first draft
- March, September: Finish Sororal Lineality: Kyber first draft
- March, September: Outline Everybody Lives But Maul story
- Writing Trigun fanfics
- January, June, July, December: Finish Trigun: Three of a Kind first draft = still not finished
- January, June, July, December: Edit Trigun: Three of a Kind to second draft
- January, June, July, December: Send Trigun: Three of a Kind to beta
- January, June, July, December: Edit Trigun: Three of a Kind to third draft
- Writing Zackverse
- April: Work on Hyrueliana's overhaul
- Writing Biker Mice From Mars fanfics
- May, October: Find Wars Are Won series notes and see if stories can be consolidated
- May, October: Finish next Wars Are Won story to first draft
- May, October: Finish Evil Jack: Till Death Do We Part to first draft
- Post regularly to Intentionally Left Blank, Dreamwidth, Discipline Under Fire, and Tumblr Random Thoughts = Do once a month
- BookWorm's Library website maintenance
- February, August: Make sure the software is up to date
- February, August: Add any files that need adding
- Add more fanfics to AO3
- January, July: Upload twelve already published stories = this number is now at seven already published stories and twelve fanmixes for already published stories
- January, July: Upload Rescue the Farmboy: Mission on Mimban third draft
- January, July: Upload Sororal Lineality: Miha third draft next = finished
- January, July: Upload Sororal Lineality: Plans and High Command third draft after Mission on Mimban
- Other publishing
- February, August: Upload Rescue the Farmboy: Liberation to the Library = finished
- February, August: Upload Rescue the Farmboy: One More Service to the Library = finished
- February, August: Upload Sororal Lineality: MJ-0002 to the Library = finished
- February, August: Upload Sororal Lineality: Aftermath to the Library = finished
- February, August: Upload Sororal Lineality: Miha to the Library
- February, August: Upload Rescue the Farmboy: Mission on Mimban to the Library
- Update FF.net profile of where newer stories are now
My daily writing plans to help the above list of goals get done:
- Write 600 daily words. Can be split among stories. The yearly goal is 478,128. = I ended up writing 285,333 for the year, and had 185 days of or exceeding 600 words.
- Write and edit every day. = Wrote 333 days this year.
- Work in meditation time with Brain FM.
- Figure out how to keep the house clean.
- Figure out the house remodel.
Do you have any goals for the coming year? The goals from my 2024 one-page business plan are:
- Writing Strix series:
- April, September: Finish Strix: Forget the Sun first draft
- April, September: Edit Strix: Forget the Sun
- April, September: Send Strix: Forget the Sun to a developmental editor
- Writing Star Wars stories:
- May, October: Conlanging Honoghran
- May, October: Edit Mission on Mimban to second draft
- May, October: Send Mission on Mimban to beta
- May, October: Edit Mission on Mimban to third draft
- May, October: Edit Sororal Lineality: Plans and High Command to second draft
- May, October: Send SL: Plans and High Command to beta
- May, October: Edit SL: Plans and High Command to third draft
- May, October: Finish Rescue the Farmboy: Extriction first draft
- May, October: Finish SL: Kyber first draft
- May, October: Outline Everbody Lives But Maul story
- Writing Biker Mice From Mars stories
- March, August: Finish Wars Are Won: Sacrifice of Happiness first draft
- March, August: Finish Evil Jack: 'Til Death Do We Part first draft
- BookWorm's Library maintenance
- July, December: Make sure software is up-to-date
- July, December: Add Sororal Lineality: Miha
- July, December: Add any other files that need adding
- July, December: Add recipes to Cookbook
- Ao3
- February: Upload already published stories
- February: Upload Mission on Mimban third draft
- February: Upload SL: Plans and High Command after Mission on Mimban
- February: Upload thirteen fanmixes
I'm aiming for 600 words everyday which will be 219,600 for the year.
Here's to 2024. We'll get through all this together.
