It’s rather sad that another year of my life has passed without a completed novel in my possession. And my word count this year is only slightly better than last years, but at least I’ll report it this time because if you’ve been keeping track all year you can do the math yourself anyway.
28, 224 words in 2012. There, I said it. Maybe now that it’s out there and I have to carry the shame of all of you knowing it, it will force me to try harder in 2013? I sure as hell hope so.
So, why such a low number this year? Honestly, I’m not sure I have a good reason. I’m constantly thinking back to a few years ago when I wrote 134K words in less than a year and I try to understand what was so different then. What I’m doing wrong in comparison now. But I don’t have any answers. All I know it that this year I at least tried to be more consistent, to write every month, even if it was just a little. I didn’t always succeed, but I did write more consistently this year than last.
I also let shiny new ideas take off when they came to me instead of trying to suppress them for the sake of the current WIP like I have in previous years. As a result, I currently have 3 WIP’s. Yeah… I’m still not sure how well that sits with me because it hasn’t really amounted to a better word count, but it did keep me writing when I wouldn’t have been if I’d been sitting around waiting for my one and only WIP to feed me words. I suppose in 2013, one of my goals will be learning how to juggle 3 WIP’s more successfully.
And I started and finished a couple short stories again finally. After writing none last year, I felt like it was something I needed to work back into my writing routine. It’s good practice. And if nothing else, it helped increase my word count during those months when none of my books wanted to play nice with me. In case you missed those short stories this year, you can check them out here:
So, I feel sort of weird about this year in review because I’m not completely disappointed with my writing this year. I mean, it’s not really worth being proud of, but it’s also not worth hating. But I really, really do hope to achieve more in 2013. It’s time to be more productive, to spend my free time more wisely, to try harder than I have before. I’m not sure my confidence in this future can sustain another year of so-so success. I want the real thing. I’m hungry for it, even if the real thing is only reaching my own personal goals.
Writer peeps, how did you fare in 2012? What do you hope to achieve in 2013?