Tuesday, July 29, 2008

To not be a hobby writer

The frequently reader of my blog might notice the shiny new word count meter over on the sidebar. Goals don't work for me. I just don't think about them really unless someone reminds me. *coughSarahcough* However, at least during Nanowrimo I was thrilled to see my progress bar go up and up until I hit my goal. So the progress bar is back and the idea is that it will continue to go up.

The goal of 130k total words isn't definite, it might take more or less to actually finish but I think that's a fairly good guess for at least the first draft. The second bar you see is for weekly progress. I'm starting with a weekly goal of 5000 words per week, which is less than 1000 per day. I figure doing a weekly word count is going to be easier to maintain than a daily one. If I do somehow manage to maintain a 5000 words/week pace then I will finish the first draft in 12 weeks.

This should help me keep on track and stop me from going any further down the "hobby writer" path. Hobby writers never actually finish books, or if they do it takes many years. I don't want that. All forward progress! :)

Also, completely off topic to this post those of you who are fans of Robert Jordan really need to check out Brandon Sanderson's latest blog post about him. It's really moving and well done.

1 comment:

ditty said...

"All forward progress counts."

You prompted me, so I had to do it. My Elizabethtown quoting mechanism operates like a kneejerk reflex.

But yes, 5k a week is a valiant goal. Onward and upward!