Tracking The Next Year of Writing

When people ask me how much I write, I tell them I hit my daily 2,000 word goal most of the time. I’ve had days and maybe even weeks where I’ve been on vacation or sick or I’ve been really busy, so I might guesstimate 10,000 words a week. Which means (for all you math wizards) in a given year I can pump out about 520,000 words. 

I figured out, from about this time last year to now, I’ve successful sold and/or published everything I’ve completed except for one flash fiction piece. 500 words out of 520k has been sold. A decent chunk (about 180k) of that was for a Hollywood company, and some of those releases are still sitting somewhere, but I got paid upfront and paid well for them. Everything else has seen the light of day. 

But I never really kept track.  

(Dramatic Pause)

Until Now. 

Starting today (October 1st 2013 so you don’t have to find your calendar) I will be tracking every word I write. Well, not every word. Not Facebook posts, blog posts, letters to the editor, grocery lists or updating my dead pool picks. But everything else will be tracked… every flash piece, short story, novella, novel… all of it. I won’t bore you with daily details but I will give some weekly or monthly updates to it. 

My Special Gal has created an Excel spreadsheet so I can drop in my numbers at the end of the day and let the magic begin. Obviously, my goal is to not only break 520k for the 12-month period, but to keep on getting things published and sold. At the end of the year I’ll talk about my 2014 goals like I do every year, and hoping to step up to another level with my career. 

If you’re interested in seeing more about this in coming weeks, let me know… if you think it’s stupid and you could care less, let me know… posts like this will motivate me to keep it going , because if I get behind I will look like an idiot and you can call me out on it.

When I did my 18k run a couple of weeks ago, many people sent me messages about it. I’d like to think I motivated a couple of fellow writers to buckle down and get writing. That is another part of the goal. Well, let’s see what the next 12 months of writing can bring me!

Armand Rosamilia