writing a lot | Karavansara

About half an hour ago a friend asked me how many words I have written so far from the beginning of this year.
I did some math – it was a lot easier than I thought because I keep track of my projects wordcount: blog posts, work on my stories, articles and reports, translations.
The total came up to roughly 650.000 words in 2017.

pulp_writer

A little more than 2000 words per day, every day – roughly 270.000 words only in blog posts here on Karavansara and on my Italian blog.
Which is actually less than I hoped for – I was aiming at 1.000.000 words in 2017.
But well, I still have seven weeks before the end of the year.
Writing 3000 words per day every day until New Year’s Eve, I might be able to pack another 150.000 words into this year.
800.000 would not be a bad number.

And in 2018 I will do a day-by-day wordcount tally, using a spreadsheet.
To do statistics on it.
I like statistics.

The whole point, of course, is not to suck.
No, OK, let’s me get this from the start.
I was discussing with a friend, 36 hours back, whether what I am doing with my 42000 words in 7 days challenge is like running a marathon or running the 100 meters.
In other words, is it a matter of endurance or is it a matter of speed?
From what I saw so far, it is both and none of them at the same time.
Last night, I’ve been able to write 2800 words in two hours – my standard “cruising speed” when writing being roughly 1000 words per hour, this means 40% more than my usual.
On the other hand, what’s allowing me to go on is not speed, is the need to reach the current target.
It’s a matter of staying focused, and keep writing. Continue reading →