The Value of WPD Averages, and Next Level Stuff
In Today's Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* The Value of Words Per Day Averages
* Next-Level Note of the Day
* The Writing
* Guest Posts Welcome
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
"I skipped a few days of writing because of work, theatre, and so on. Today I made a comeback. I wrote a short story, and my average of the SK Challenge is now 903 words. I am not behind so much. I won't give up. Let's see if I make it until the end of the month!" BJ
"Today was a kick ass day. 1,824 words. I finally got my average wpd above 1,000 for the first time this month." DT
Congrats and "Hang in there" to both of those writers. If you're in any of the Challenges or otherwise watching your average daily word count, they have exactly the right attitude.
The Value of Words Per Day Averages
Some of you are following along on my WPD averages, and some of you are joining in the fun and figuring out your own WPD averages.
Good. Keeping track of your WPD average is fun.
Your WPD average itself is a great and fluid guideline for what you've done and what you still need to do as a writer. It's also a little challenge within itself.
But it's also important to remember your WPD average works for (and is more important for) the longer term: the whole year.
The key, as the writers pointed out in both quotes above, is to not give up. To keep writing when you can and keep striving to reach your goal.
My WPD average goal is 3250 words per day. If I can maintain that, I'll exceed my huge (for me) annual goal of 1,100,000 on the year by over 86,000 words.
So I started keeping track of my WPD average in the Numbers section on a monthly scale. My WPD average was crazy good during January, but for various reasons it's suffering this month.
When I take time off to do the marketing stuff I talked about a yesterday, it will fall even farther. So I decided to figure out my WPD annual average as I go too. That's what matters in regard to my annual goal.
To do that, I divide my total number of fiction words on whatever day for the year by whatever day of the year it is. For example, February 12 was the 43nd day of the year.
So 153558 (total fiction to date for the year) divided by 43 equals 3623 words per day mean average.
In Numbers below, I've added a new line: Average Fiction WPD (Annual). So from yesterday (I report fiction one day late) my monthly and annual WPD looked like this:
Average Fiction WPD (February)…….. 2928
Average Fiction WPD (Annual)……..… 3623
Ahh. That's better. (grin) Now if I can only keep it up.
The WPD average will also motivate me to get the omnibus editions I mentioned yesterday done as quickly as possible.
Next-Level Note of the Day
Whenever possible, replace a tag line (he said/she said) with a brief descriptive narrative. Why? Because you're giving the reader more for his money.
The tag line only lets the reader know which character's speaking. Nothing more.
The brief descriptive narrative does that too, but it also pulls the reader a little deeper, enabling him to 'see' more of the scene.
In the excerpt below, as before, the number represents a first-line indent.
In my current novel, I wrote this initially:
She drove. When we were several blocks away, she glanced over at me. “So that last bit— That was for any neighbors who might be watching?”
“Yeah. Or listening.”
We rode in silence for a moment. Then she said, “I never would have thought to do that.”
In cycling, that passage became
She drove. When we were several blocks away, she glanced over at me. “So that last bit— That was for any neighbors who might be watching?”
“Yeah. Or listening.”
We rode in silence for a moment. Then she slapped the steering wheel lightly. “I never would have thought to do that.”
This is the result of me slowing down during cycling, taking the time to see what's actually going on. Taking the time to not miss an important detail.
Do you see how replacing the tag line with a brief descriptive narrative deepens the scene a little? Questions or comments are welcome.
The Writing
Another less than stellar day of writing yesterday. Every novel writes differently. This one's running in jerks and starts. (My WPD average dropped from 3656 to 3623.)
I still expect it to wrap soon. If not today, tomorrow.
Guest Posts Welcome
As I've said before, soon I'll be posting a little less often. If there's a writing or publishing topic you know well, consider sharing that knowledge with others by writing a guest post for TNDJ.
Note: I will not entertain posts that encourage the fear-based myths of fiction writing (outlining/plotting, rewriting X number of times, etc.) but anything else is welcome.
If you're in doubt about whether your topic would make a good guest post for TNDJ, queries are welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. Please spell check your post before you send it. Any editing I do will be necessary and light.
Also, I'd be happy to link to your website, Amazon or Facebook (etc.) page, to books you want to promote, and so on. (Please provide the links.)
Of Interest
Early Look: A Simpler Way for Authors to Create Websites If you don't have a website yet and you want one, you might give this a serious look.
10 Things I’ve Learned Writing Romantic Comedy
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 910
Writing of Blackwell Ops 37: Temple’s Touch
Day 1…… 2012 words. To date…… 2012
Day 2…… 2487 words. To date…… 4499
Day 3…… 4597 words. To date…… 9096
Day 4…… 2790 words. To date…… 11886
Day 5…… 3430 words. To date…… 15316
Day 6…… 3353 words. To date…… 18669
Day 7…… 2811 words. To date…… 21480
Day 8…… 3166 words. To date…… 24646
Day 9…… 2077 words. To date…… 26723
Day 10…. 2245 words. To date…… 28968
Fiction for February………………….. 34448
Fiction for 2025………………………. 155803
Nonfiction for February…………….... 11320
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 43300
2025 consumable words…………….. 192593
Average Fiction WPD (February)…….. 2871
Average Fiction WPD (Annual)……..… 3623
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 3
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 7 (updated)
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 107
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 277 (updated)
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.
Hello, Harvey. I absolutely loved that change from "she said" to "she slapped the steering wheel," but when I do that same kind of thing in my writing, I--and I think most writers--simply call it "editing" our own work. I sense a reluctance on your part to use that phrase. Is that accurate?