| At the end of 2011, I set a rather ambitious goal of writing 1,000,000 new words of fiction in 2012. Emphasis on the word "new" -- editing doesn't count, blog posts don't count, the only thing that matters is new words for a piece of fiction.
I posted one update earlier this year, but now I must make the sad declaration: I will not reach this stretch goal in 2012. The "Meelion Word March" is dead.
To make this work, I needed to write 3,000 words a day for 333 days of the year (plus a bonus 1,000 somewhere). That's about 90,000 words a month. I fell behind early in January and February, and after a low word count in March it was all but finished. I thought I might rally later in the year, but my Eeevil Plan™ failed to take into account two major things: editing, and the tour.
Remember: editing doesn't count. If I edit, say, 80,000 words for the second draft of THE CRYPT: Book One, then that 80,000 doesn't count. Editing 80,000 words? Takes more than a day. Takes more than a week. All that time, no new words are being written.
Then, add in the 2012 Tour, both East Coast and West Coast. I've tried writing on tour, and it's a real bitch to make good stuff. I basically wrote nothing on tour. Seeing as we spent upwards of five weeks on tour, six weeks if you count Balticon, ComicCon and Dragon*Con, that's a lot of lost writing days. Frankly, I didn't take that into consideration when I did the initial math (because 3,000 words a day is very, very do-able, if that's all that you do.).
I just received Tha Shiv's notes for PANDEMIC's first draft. That means it's time for the second draft of PANDEMIC. There will be many new words in there, but I turned in 150,000 words (a 600-page novel) -- any edits to those existing 150,000 words will not count.
As we roll into October, I am 410,000 words behind where I should be. Therefore, it's time to admit defeat, throw in the towel, tap out, etc.
In 2013, maybe I'll make that the Half Meelion Word March and see if I can achieve the goal.
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Here's my word count so far this year:
| January |
61,777 |
| February |
76,409 |
| March |
6,442 |
| April |
50,265 |
| May |
60,484 |
| June |
47,074 |
| July |
75,820 |
| August |
19,670 |
| September |
0 |
| Total |
397,941 |
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scottsigler
A
Fierst: DO NOT PANIC!
ARealGirl
