Category: Word Count Chronicles (page 3 of 30)

7/10: 462 words. I didn’t to writing yesterday until late in the afternoon after church and after I took the kids to play in the creek. But when I stopped writing, I found that Casual Business with Fairies was at 11,111 words, which was unexpectedly gratifying.

7/11: 861 words. With another good writing session this morning, things have been really falling into place for the Beginning Hook. And for a book that I had not plan or framework for when I started writing it, I’m pretty stoked about that.

7/9: 1147 words. Even though I haven’t written chapters 2-3 or 8-10, I finished writing chapters 4 and 11 of Casual Business with Fairies today. I get the impression it’s just going to be that kind of book, at least for now. I did cross the 10,000 word threshold for the novel today. Feeling good about that.

7/8: 693 words. After writing no words yesterday for a variety of reasons (an early start at work, releasing one podcast episode and recording another, and taking the kids to a matinee showing of The Rise of Gru), I had a really productive writing session this morning. It took me a few minutes to find the thread and get started, but once I did, the words really flowed. I should be able to finish the current chapter today (if I’m lucky) or tomorrow. The Beginning Hook is really coming together well.

7/6: 650 words. There are some widely accepted guidelines for dealings with fairies. I had to learn these and find a way to share them with my protagonist in Casual Business with Fairies as he prepares for a visit to the land of the Fae.

7/5: 215 words. My writing time was pretty constrained this morning. Much of it was consumed by me finding the exact insurance policy language I wanted to include in this chapter. I’m expecting the chapter to be the shortest in the book. Long enough to establish my protagonist’s expertise in insurance policy language, but (hopefully) short enough that I don’t lose any momentum with the reader by writing about insurance policy language.

7/4: 954 words. The protagonist in the new novel, Casual Business with Fairies, is a lawyer who works with insurance companies as a consultant about policy language. Normally, that wouldn’t be relevant and wouldn’t make its way into the book, but later in the book (at least as I have it planned now), his skill with contracts is going to be a significant factor in the plot. So I had to spend some time early on establishing his expertise.

7/3: 585 words. I’m content with the number of words I got out today, but it felt like nothing was happening. This chapter starts with something interesting and ends something even more interesting, but the middle requires some information to be shared and some character development. That’s where I was today. Necessary, but not exciting. However, it paves the way for me to write the fun part tomorrow.

I also can’t help but thinking that if I could just write 500 words a day, I could finish this novel by the end of the year. It seems unlikely that I can manage that pace with my law practice, family, and a new podcast project I’m working on. But there’s really no rush. I’ll keep working on it and finish it in a reasonable time.

7/2: 187 words. While I didn’t make a lot of writing progress yesterday, I did figure out the premise of the story I’m writing. I have been working on it for a couple of weeks with only the vaguest of ideas of what I want it to be. But this morning, while cleaning the house, I finally figured out what this new novel, Casual Business with Fairies, is about. I rode a pretty nice high for much of the day after that revelation. Now I can’t wait to see if it turns out like I’ve outlined.

6/30: 360 words. Most of my words this morning went toward creating a new appendix in Write Your Novel One Day at a Time (link) for writing and creativity resources. A friend of mine suggested I add this after reading an advance copy. So while I was at it, I added the information to my author website as well, Writing and Creativity Resources.

The first half of June involved a great deal of editing, rather than writing. It took a lot of time to edit and revise the transcriptions of the interviews that make up part of Write Your Novel One Day at a Time. After finishing the editing, I spent several days trying to figure out what to do next.

It wasn’t until June 18 that I landed on the new story that I’m writing about fairies, and began writing more consistently again. I finished June with 6,944 words for the month, and I have accumulated 86,444 words for 2022 so far. Even with having edited two books in the last two months, I’m still well ahead of pace for my goal of 100,000 words for the year.

6/29: 458 words. I’ve written over 5,000 words of the new novel about insidious fairies, and I still don’t know where it’s going. It reminds me very much of how Seeking Sanctuary went, when I couldn’t figure out my antagonist for a long time.

I spent some time this morning creating the beginnings of the outline for this novel. At the very least, I (think I) know how the first six chapters will go. Beyond that, we’ll just have to see.

I don’t know how “panters” or “discovery writers” write this way. For me it creates too much anxiety not knowing which direction things are headed.