Hitting a Million?

November 22, 2024 by Harvey

In Today’s Journal

* Quote of the Day
* Hitting a Million?
* Two Interesting Comments on Publishing to Paper
* The Numbers

Quote of the Day

“A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.” Billie Jean King

Hitting a Million?

You all know I’m trying to hit 1,000,000 words of published fiction for the year on or before December 31.

After yesterday’s writing session, I didn’t like my chances, so I did some quick math.

1,000,000 (goal) – 898447 (yesterday’s annual total) = 101,553.

Initially, I thought there was no way. I’d basically have to have a 100,000 word month in December. I’ve had those before, but not for a good while and never consistently.

So to make myself feel better, I divided 101,553 by the number of days remaining in the year (including today): 40.

The result of that little bit of math helped a lot.

I have to average only 2539 words per day every day for the rest of the year to hit that 1,000,000 word benchmark.

See how important keeping track of your average words per day can be? (grin) So at this point, barring any emergencies, it’s basically all up to me. MAN that feels good.

If you want to keep track, you can follow along by watching the “Average Fiction WPD” in The Numbers below.

For the first time since I’ve been publishing the Journal, I’m well over a million words of consumable words (fiction and nonfiction) this year too. I keep a running tab on that at the bottom of The Numbers.

For the record, I keep those numbers to motivate me personally to keep moving forward. But I publish them here only so you can see what is possible if you sit down and Just Write.

For example, if you average even 500 words per day of fiction (a half-hour of work) and stick to it, that’s 182,500 words per year. That’s at least three respectable novels per year. Others would call you prolific.

If you average 1000 words per day of fiction and stick to it, those numbers double: 365,000 words per year. That’s SIX respectable novels published per year.

Not to mention, the more fiction you write, the more you’ll learn about writing fiction. So what’s holding you back?

I should also note that I owe everything to that non-process I keep talking about: Writing Into the Dark.

I should add, WITD is not “sloppy writing” or anything like that.

I’m very careful with my writing and it’s the best I can offer at my current skill level. I cycle over everything to make sure I’m conveying all of what happens in each story as the characters and I run through it and as it unfolds around us.

I don’t have to think through anything. I just have to record accurately what happens and how the characters react to what happens (and to each other) in dialogue and description.

That really is all there is to it.

But the whole basis for that is not worrying about it.

My individual novels, novellas and short stories are good (to some), but they’re no more ‘important’ than yours or the one I wrote yesterday or anyone else’s.

They are simply what they are: stories. They exists only to entertain: first to entertain the writer and then to entertain the writer’s audience.

So I’m taking this opportunity again to encourage you to believe in yourself, trust yourself, and give writing into the dark and honest, all-out try. That’s the only way you’ll ever know whether it will work for you.

And I speak from long experience.

A case in point—A couple of days ago, my electrician expressed an interest in western and in science fiction and fantasy. He also said he prefers to read “real” books, by which he meant those published to paper.

I happened to have paper copies of the original Wes Crowley trilogy (the first three novels I ever wrote, and now books 4, 5, and 6 of the overall 22-volume saga).

So I gave them to him.

When he came by yesterday, he said he’d read the first 60 pages of the first book.

Like a moron, I said, “So what’d you think?”

He shrugged. “The story’s all right.”

My brain torqued: ALL RIGHT? Where’s all the high praise? (grin)

Then he said, “Anyway, I read that 60 pages in one sitting.”

Tada! I was totally appeased. If that’s what he meant when he said the story’s “all right,” then I’ll take “all right” every day of the week.

Two Interesting Comments on Publishing to Paper

from Tiffanie Gray

from DW Patterson

If anyone else would care to pitch into the info fest, leave a comment or email me privately and I’ll share your thoughts.

Talk with you again soon.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………… 780

Writing of Blackwell Ops 31: Jack Temple

Day 1…… 1620 words. To date……. 1620
Day 2…… 5016 words. To date……. 6636
Day 3…… 3466 words. To date……. 10102
Day 4…… 1235 words. To date……. 11337
Day 5…… 3188 words. To date……. 14525
Day 6…… 3933 words. To date……. 18458
Day 7…… 3187 words. To date……. 21645
Day 8…… 4081 words. To date……. 25726

Fiction for November………………… 61315
Fiction for 2024……………………….. 898447
Nonfiction for November…………….. 20390
Nonfiction for 2024…………………… 354810
2024 consumable words…………….. 1,077,296

Average Fiction WPD (November)….. 2920

2024 Novels to Date…………………….. 16
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 1
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 18
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..… 98
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 255
Short story collections……………………. 29

Disclaimer: Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.

Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.