Sunday, September 1, 2013

Three Months


This month and a half, I worked on my first 2 paying commissions. One for a follower in the game Trials in Tainted Space (Yes, TiTS), and one for a friend of mine. The scenes I am writing for the follower may or may not be included in the game, that isn't up to me. Other than that, I got back on track with my writing a lot more, sticking to my writing goals.


I also tried using goonwrite.com for my covers for the first time, and was not disappointed. A Different Prince Charming, Becoming His and Solon's Maiden will all have covers from there.

Monthly Words

My goal for this month (Running from the middle of July to synch reports to months) continued to be 1000 words a day. I have written a total of 46.124 words, coming to 981 words/day. Beginning now, my goal will be to write 1250 words a day. While that may not seem like a huge increase, it does take my monthly goal from 31k~ to 38k~. Hopefully that'll motivate me a bit more without becoming too much.

What I Have Learned

The main lesson of the past roughly 1½ months has been that a word count goal of 1000 words a day is too little, now. With 3 hours of daily work and using the Pomodoro technique, I can write roughly 4500 words. While I cannot keep up this pace every single day, it does mean that I end up being -wildly- ahead of my goal. This, in turn, leads to difficulties motivating myself to write.

I won't bore any potential reader with the details of my spreadsheet record keeping, but I can tell very easily from them that I could have written more. Basically, I have a day where I write 4-6000 words, then maybe another day like that, and then I don't write for 2-5 days. Not because I don't want to, and often not because I don't have anything to write. It's simply because I feel like I am so vastly ahead that, well, why bother? I don't think I can readily change this part of myself. Rather, I'll simply have to move my daily/monthly word count goal up or down until I find a sweet spot that motivates but doesn't overwhelm.

At the end of the month, I also experienced a drop in wordcount. I have had and will continue to have family visits. This naturally lowers my wordcount on those days, but it also seems to mess with my internal balance. It drains me of energy, and leaves me unable to write for a while after. This is the reason why I fell a tiny bit short of the 1000 word/day goal this month. Still, it is something I will have to learn to manage, since being a hermit isn't an option. :)

Finished Work This Month

TiTS Commission Scenes written: 4 (Each between 2500-4000 words)
Solon's Maiden nearly finished.
Becoming His finished (Assassin story, being proof read)
A Different Prince Charming published.

Note: Going to combine this and the other report into one, from next month on. It's just easier.

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