I like stats!

I have to say, I'm kinda nerdy about this kind of thing. I really love reading stats on certain things, especially the publishing world and writing. I love when agents and editors post their stats on how many queries they receive and how many of those actual get requested and how many actually get contracted. Fascinating stuff.

I'm also intrigued by writers and word count, maybe because I do it too. I keep track of every word I write. I love to track my progress and see how long it takes me to write X amount of words. I like to impress myself. I like to know what I am capable of. I think all writers should keep track and see what they can do, and what they could do if they pushed themselves harder. NaNoWriMo taught me I can write far more than I thought.

My newest book, the second book in my Classy 'n Sassy series, titled Size Matters, which was contracted by Simon & Schuster for their Pocket Star imprint, was officially started on July 7th, not long after I received word that the book was officially under contract. Before that I had an outline, a very detailed scene by scene outline, and maybe the first scene written, but that was it. I'd always hoped to write the book, so I was prepared. ;) But I did have to alter the outline a bit before I started. And of course my summer was hectic this year, as most usually are with two kids home for the summer, so I didn't get a ton done before we went on our family vacation, and I don't think much of anything when we came home, with getting ready for school to start.

Anyhoo.... here are the stats:

7/7-9/4 (1st day of school): 19,527 words.

That was a period of 60 days, with an average of 325 words a day! LOL! But obviously I did not write for many of those days--only 19, actually. So, I averaged 1027 words on the days I actually did write. Whew! That sounds better! But still far below what I am capable of.

Once school started, I was on a mission. I had an official deadline of November 1st. I wanted the book done by October 15th so I had time to edit and perfect it. I figured out what had to be done to reach that goal (1500 word a day, EVERY day) and I put my fingers to the keyboard.

9/4-10/8: 54,027 words

At that point the book was not actually done, but I needed to take a break and go back and reread the whole thing before I could write out the end. For some reason, I can never ever plot out the very end.

So, over that period of time--35 days--I wrote on average 1543 words a day. But I did not write every day, even though I tried. Life certainly gets in the way sometimes. :) Of those 35 days, I only wrote on 25 of them. That's an average of 2161 words a day.

Over 54k in 25 days. Not too shabby :)

But I also must note the retreat I went on during that time. :) Every year my RWA chapter goes away to an adorable B&B for the weekend for nothing by writing. It's awesome. This year we brought in a speaker for a workshop, and that was really cool. So for those three days, I did get more writing time than normal. I wrote over 8500 words just at the retreat.

The end of this book was tough for me, so it took longer than I had anticipated. But I got it to my agent and she read it, sent it back with some minor suggestions. I made them, resubmitted to her, and she sent it to my editor at S&S last night :) Man, that felt great!

Fingers crossed my editor likes it!