I think I need to separate my word counts into different categories so I can get a good idea of how I’m dividing my time these days. If I could count comments on other people’s blogs towards my word count goal, I’d probably make it in no time! Perhaps I should? I’ve decided not to count interview questions in the tally. Partly because some are pre-written and I just choose which to copy and paste, and partly because the ones I don’t cut and paste from previous interviews require a lot of time researching and thinking just for a ten word question. I will count blog posts, even though some (like SyFy Q of the Day) are mostly cut and paste from earlier works.

Then there’s my WIP. This should mean About Damn Time, the novel that is intended to be first in the Kingdom Come series. I have two jobs for this: finish writing the thing, and edit/revise the first 30 pages. I have a reason for doing these things at the same time. You see, I won not just one, but three critiques! I have the first back already, and the second critter offered to wait till I revised the pages and she’d do her crit of the revised pages. This is like winning the lottery for a pre-published writer! On top of that, I had bid in a charity auction on a 30 page crit by another author, and won. She’s waiting patiently while I do my other two crit/revision cycles. I’m in another contest (random drawing) for yet another crit, so this could go on!

So… what have I done this week? Thinking back to Monday, I wrote my initial post for #ROW80. It was 747 words. I also began a random blog post to be used at a later date, which was 346 words.

On Tuesday I did 254 words in #5MinuteFiction on Leah Petersen’s blog. Technically, my 254 words were a blog comment, but I’m counting them because that’s how we submit our flash fiction. I also wrote a memoir for The Red Dress Club that is 739 words. Or did I write it on Monday? I think I started Monday and finished Tuesday, but it doesn’t matter. I also posted a SyFy Q of the Day, which was 619 words. I decided to go ahead and count the SyFy Q of the Day posts, even though they are mostly copied and pasted from earlier work. It does take time and effort to put it together, so it’s more like revising than writing, but for my #ROW80 goals, that counts. Late night Tuesday, Liz Silver offered up #1k1hr for anyone interested, and I added 1,309 words to my actual WIP. I skipped ahead to a new scene, but that made it easier. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve touched it, I’m sorry to say. Sometimes, when I’m stuck, or I haven’t had time to write and I’m out of the story, it helps to just skip ahead. I can fix it in edits later if I don’t get back to the gap.

And then there’s all the writing-related stuff I’m not counting towards my goal. I finished the interview questions for JK LeBlanc, but I did not finish the questions for Liz Silver. I have proofreading due on Friday, but although I started it on Sunday, I haven’t touched it for a few days. I need to get on that. I haven’t done any revising, but I messaged my next critter and she said I can send it this weekend and she’ll get to it next week, so I need to work on that too.

Here’s the breakdown:

Blog posts: 747 + 346 + 619 = 1,712 words

Fiction & Memoir: 245 + 739 + 1,309 = 2293

Revision: 0

Total: 4,005

Goal: 2,000

Success Rate =  200%

Total since start of Round Three: 4,005

Goal since start of Round Three: 2,000

Success Rate = 200%

∞

Wow! All day yesterday I felt like I wasn’t making much progress at all, but I guess when I go back and count it all up, I did quite well! I’m happy. That late night #1k1hr really makes a difference too. I hope everyone else had a really good start to #ROW80 Round Three as well.

And for future reference, this post is 719 words 🙂 The shortlink for this post is http://wp.me/p1qnT4-eg