Sept writing goals

[sarasa_cat]

AFAIC, September starts the new year where I live so I'm going to try something new.

I've never had success counting daily words written because it doesn't reflect my style of writing (writing is almost entirely rewriting). I'm going to try something new this month and perhaps for the whole year: counting words published.

What counts?

• Posted fic - drabbles, short one-offs, and posted scene/chapter drafts  (I aim to post at least 5 fic posts per week on tumblr)
• Essays, meta, and well thought out responses (a bit of a judgment call here as to what counts and what doesn't)
• Fic I cannot yet post due to challenge restrictions (but it goes in a special category-- the waiting for publication category?)

What might count?

• Final archived fic on AO3 - again, this is a bit of a judgment call based on how much editing/writing/rewriting I need to do before posting an archival version of a story. If I do no more than format 20 tumblr posts into a few chapters (maybe fixing a typo or two), I don't think I'll count it, or I'll only count it as "archived words." If I need to do significant work editing, rewriting, and adding new text, I'll .... I don't know what I'll do?! Maybe I'll just count it all as "archived words?"  Hm. TBD as the month moves onward.

== GOALS ==

Must do - top priority:

• Finish writing and editing the 7000 word DA Kinkmeme story I wrote LAST FREAKING MARCH for a Cullen/Amell/Alistair prompt and post/archive.
• Post 1-3 scenes/chapters per week of DA Kinkmeme story "A Necessary Arrangement" (Amaia Hawke/Cullen in an AU Kirkwall)
• Post short story for aorin about Neria Surana's thoughts on other DAO characters
• Post short story for nerdycookies about Neria Surana's thoughts about being an elf in the Circle
• Work on my DABB Wave 2 story (post weekly progress updates?)

Other WIPs, muse dependent:

•  Meta: finish my Day 6 Alistair essay (long long long) and post it
• Meta: any of my many Cullen essays
• Meta: any of my essays that are jazz riffs off of the 30 Days of DA Meme (30 Days of DA Redux)
• Alistair's Epic: This Bird Has Flown
• Cullen-in-Kirkwall Epic: A History of Lies (part of Postcards from Kirkwall)
• Postcards from Kirkwall: Mari Hawke's responses to various memes and prompts; same for other characters (Merrill + Aveline especially)
• Cerys Mahariel's Epic

Comments

[ex_pendency799]

I've noticed a few original fic authors using the "words posted" versus "words drafted" count for measuring progress; it's an intriguing idea. Seems like it works at lot better at tracking/encouraging via this idea of "productivity" than general wordcounts, especially in comparing over months or years.

[sarasa_cat]

I find myself completely unable to track word count for WIPs. I can spend hours on a scene and the word count doesn't change. It might even shrink. I've tried again and again over the years to track word count and always a big fail.

To me, words posted means PRODUCTION. I've produced something that is at least a polished scene or half-decent essay. It's something people would want to read.

I'm really curious how my writing changes when I push myself to produce rather than write. This month is an experiment. Over 4 days, one spent entirely traveling and away from the computer, another mostly gaming but not entirely, I've produced 4000 words with a few more--maybe 1k?--to be published for production before I go to sleep tonight. Obviously, some of these words were written before Sept 1st, but that's okay because this is about production and editing takes me far far far more time than writing!

Also... the motivation for this experiment is this: I find that I really enjoy writing (fiction and analysis), to the point that I think about it all of the time. But, my production habits are atrocious. Absolutely atrocious. Hundreds of thousands of rotting words atrocious.

If I can actually train myself to change my production habits, I can start taking my writing more seriously. Thus, I'm posting scenes to tumblr as I write them (more or less) and worrying later about stitching things into a proper novella or novel. Likewise, I've taken on a dakinkmeme prompt that I'm writing as a serial: I know where the story is going, more or less, but I'm just writing in a linear direction and letting the characters surprise me. (For instance, Tranquil Elsa decided that she was going to narrate Chapter 2 and that idea sprung completely out of the blue.)

So, yes, this is all about encouraging production. :D