The Journal, Tuesday, 5/31

Hey Folks,

Yay, the last day of May!

Okay, but more than likely today will be a nonwriting day. I’m going to treat it like that from the beginning.

In fact, today for me is Idea Day. I’m gathering ideas for the stories I’ll start writing tomorrow for my June Challenge. For details, see https://www.facebook.com/HarveyStanbroughWritingInPublic/.

Mona and I have to be in Tucson at 8 a.m. for her first appointment, and then she has another one at 10:45 or so. So much of the day will be gone before we get back.

I don’t like cutting things close, so I’m gonna pre-post this just in case we don’t get back in time. Anyway, I’ve included a topic. And there’s some pretty good stuff in “Of Interest.”

Topic: Revisiting Goals

With June coming up, this is a good time to revisit goals. What follows will be about mine, but it might help you too. I hope so.

This is a great time to see where we stand compared with goals we set for the year, then adjust them up or down as necessary. Or just leave them alone, pat ourselves on the back and get back to work.

I look at June 1 as the “early midpoint” of the year.

I know splitting the year at June 1 means I’m putting five months in the first “half” and seven months in the second. But that kind of makes June an adjustment month if you need or want one. And I need one badly.

I know I’ve been calling May an adjustment month, but that’s a different kind of adjustment. It wasn’t about adjusting my writing.

The month of May was about making a transition from and then back to the Hovel and getting used to my new office and to getting through a life roll. Two out of three isn’t bad. (grin)

Okay, so goals…

For my own annual goals, I’d like to reach one million words of new fiction this year. At present, I’m sorely lacking in that regard with only 292,907 new words of fiction. To be on par, I’d have almost 417,000 words.

I’d also like to write 15 novels this year. (That includes a monthly goal of writing at least one new novel per month.)

I have five novels thus far. So I’m even with my monthly goal and making progress on my annual goal.

But I added the June Challenge: writing at least one short story per day “in public” and posting them scene by scene on Facebook.

With that, the monthly novel challenge became a little more difficult. Still, I should be able to write a novel for June. And by July 1, I should also have at least 30 more short stories, bringing my total close to 200. (grin)

The June Challenge should also jump-start my numbers, so it will help with my annual word count goal.

But what about that annual word count goal?

As I mentioned above, at the moment, I’m woefully behind.

To write 1,000,000 words of new fiction in a year, I have to write at least 83,334 words per month.

That sounds like a lot, but to put it in perspective, it means I have to write fiction at least 84 hours per month. Or, put another way, I have to write fiction for 2.8 hours per day.

So if I AVERAGE 3 hours of writing per calendar day, I’ll exceed my annual goal of writing 1,000,000 words of new fiction in a year.

So I won’t adjust that goal. Instead, I’ll leave it as-is and put my rear in the chair a little more often. (grin)

Beginning on July 1, I think I’ll go back to my daily word count goal too. That worked for me for a long time, especially where average was concerned.

I won’t do that during June because I’m counting short stories. If a story comes in at under 3,000 words, that will probably still be it for the day.

Okay, so I hope this helped a bit with your goals. If you have any questions or suggestions, by now you should know I’m always open.

Today, and Writing

Nothing today. Back tomorrow.

Of Interest

If you worry about ebook piracy (I don’t), check out I recommend you check out https://go-to-hellman.blogspot.pt/2017/05/readiums-new-licensed-content.html.

See “The Eight Great Traits of Great Book Titles” at http://writerunboxed.com/2017/05/20/the-eight-great-traits-of-great-book-titles/. Meh.

At Dean’s place, see “Moonscapes Bundle” at http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/moonscapes-bundle/.

Fiction Words: XXXX

Nonfiction Words: 670 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 670

Writing of

Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX

Total fiction words for the month……… 45313
Total fiction words for the year………… 292907
Total nonfiction words for the month… 15290
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 89980

Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 382887

The Daily Journal blog streak……………………………………… 553 days
Calendar Year 2017 Novel Goal (15 novels)………………… 5 novels
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 25
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 3
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………………… 167