Life, Writing, Weirdness

Another month gone by so time for another writing report. I’m going to look at things in a fairly similar way to last month, a few specific numbers (I track everything) and then how those numbers match up with goals I’ve set for the year. A few other things might find their way in, too.

• Raw Word Count: 12,542. This is low compared to last month and compared to the general monthly need to meet the total target for the year, but I did a lot of editing this month. A lot.
• I did make 1000 or so words of progress on both Power Genesis and “An Infestation of Imps”, but the focus was very much on the editing side of things. July will be similar, I think, and I’ll get back to serious drafting some time in August.
• 7 blog posts, which is a couple fewer than I’d planned but that takes me to 19 since I started blogging again properly, towards the open goal of 50 for the year. So, while there were a couple of sizeable gaps between posts this month, I’m not unhappy overall. I also drafted two more beyond this one for later this week.
• This month’s Non-fiction work was primarily blog posts and some editing of the first volume of the Memory Project. That volume is essentially complete, but I’m doing a final read through and there are a few images I’m still trying to track down.
• Continuing the slow refresh of indie works, I managed two more this month, Six Small Steps (formerly Skip to My Luu, the title being a cheesy homage to one of the discovers of an astronomical object critical to the story) and Draugr Rising, e-book and paperback in both cases. I’m going to try to hit two or three refreshes every month from here, adding prep for something new to publish in the months I only do two.
• 9 story submissions, bringing me to 14 against a goal of 30 for the year. This is progressing well enough that I feel safe in revealing that the secret goal here is actually 50 submissions. I have far too many stories that could be out looking for home. One of those submissions is publishing in just a couple of days (“Brhirri Surf Rescue” on Sci-Fi Shorts – link as soon as I have it, which may not be until pub day on Thursday)
• Most folks would regard Blue Sky as a replacement for the social media network formerly known as Twitter but if I’m being honest, I found Twitter devolving into a shouty pit of self-promotion and bad ideas long before Muskrat took over. It took far too much curating to actually interact with the people I wanted to interact with and see things that were worth seeing among the recommendations, adds, and bots. I miss what Twitter used to be. Blue Sky gives me that old feeling back but with a higher character limit and stronger capabilities. I’m not super active there yet – really, I’ve only just dipped my toe in the water – but I’m liking it so far. writingdad, if you want to look me up over there.

As I wrote above, the raw word count for June was low compared to May, but that’s because about a week into the month, I started to think about all the stories I had in the background that had only been partially edited. Languishing. Desperately waiting for a bit of polish and a chance at finding a home somewhere.

On the one hand, editing those stories is overdue. On the other, it seemed a little odd to be worried about those stories considering I already had more than sixty fully edited shorts and flash pieces that ought to be out looking for homes, but the more the merrier. By the time June 30th came around, I’d moved 11 more stories to a final draft status and 43 more to a second or third draft. I account for editing on a net word change basis, so the word count for the month doesn’t really indicate how hard I worked on the writing. When things are caught up, I’ll have well over 100 stories that will either become submissions or that I’ll find a way to publish myself.

There’s a quick-ish wrap-up for June. The intent for July is a lot more editing, a story submission every few days, two refreshed indie titles and prepping a new indie release for late August or early September. This is most likely to be Big Hair Day.

Be well, everyone.