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!

Back in writing mode!!!

I don't know about you guys, but I have trouble flip flopping between creating new and editing old. I need to submerge myself in one or the other. And I'm proud to say as of yesterday, I am back in creative mode!! YAY!!

And that means I am back to my 1000 word a day goal!!

This is something I am very serious about. But I do cut myself some slack. I work a month at a time, usually. And as long as I make 30,000 by the end of the month, I am happy. Some days I do not make my goal..other days I do and double it..once I even tripled it! What a day of accomplishment that was!

So needless to say, I keep track of every word I type, every day! I was last in creative mode in July and managed just over 30,000 words!! I thought maybe you guys would be interested in a breakdown of the month!

Here goes:

Number of days my 1000 word goal was met: 18
Number of days it was not: 5
Number of days I didn't write at all: 8 (Didn't realize this number was so high!)
Number of days I wrote at least 1500 words: 9
Number of days I wrote over 2000 words: 4

Total word count: 30,590

So, half of the days I made my goal, I wrote 50% more. And 4 of those times, I more than doubled my goal. I more than made up for the days a shorted and the days I missed.

Not bad!! Let's see how I do in October!

When starting a new project....

Do you plan out how long it will be? Just curious.

I follow a ton of writer's blogs and a lot of times I see the little WIP meter on the sidebar. So, it appears that they know when starting a project, how many words it will be once completed.

I usually have a round about number I want to be in. For example, A Bitch Named Karma is rather short, only 72,000 words. I never planned it that way...that's just where the story ended. But I knew when I wrote my next book, Spellbound, that I wanted it to be more of a commercial length- between 85,000 and 90,000. After all the edits and rewrites and such, it's complete at 92,000.

I am now writing a sequel to A Bitch Named Karma and I would like it to be around the same length as the first, because I don't know...it's a sequel and it feels like it should be that way.

If I reach my goal....I'll take a break!

I'm busy working on a sequel to A Bitch Named Karma. I'd always had the idea floating around....but there was no way I was writing even one word until I sold the first book. Didn't wanna jinx it or anything.

So once the publishing dream became reality, of course I wondered if I should write the sequel. Do people like sequels? Do publishers like sequels?? I asked my editor the question and it was a resounding "YES!" So I started it.

The original goal was to finish it by the end of 2010. (But I didn't seriously even start it `til a couple weeks ago.) I think that's a reachable goal. My daily word count goal is 1000. I usually can write a couple hundred more than that, but that's all I can realistically manage with two kids. That will have me finishing the book around the end of September or so. I think that's decent. We're leaving November 30th for a 9 day trip. I should have all of October and November to edit. Not sure if that will be enough, but it should be pretty good. After going through the editing process with my editor for one book already, I can tell that my writing is much stronger. So, hopefully that means my first draft will be better than my first drafts have been in the past!

So anyway, I think I may take a break the first week of August. I am desperately wanting to get some scrapbooking done. If my total word count is 40,000 by the end of July, I will take a vacation! (I'm at 12,000 right now). Today is the 6th...I have 26 days....so I'll need to do more than 1000 a day...but I think I can do it.

Do you set word count goals and reward yourself when you make them???