Writing Report January 1, 2021

I thought that %#@&ing year would never end…

As mentioned elsewhere, I keep a running tally of how many words I write per day (easy to do thanks to MS-Word).

I define “words written” by what actually gets entered into the computer to be posted or submitted for publication later; I don’t count handwritten first drafts of articles and stories until transcribed, or notes assembled for various projects (which can run into the hundreds of thousands of words when I’m cutting and pasting from sources).

So how many words did I “officially” write in 2020?

173,775

That’s the equivalent of two good size novels.

Now at first blush that might look impressive to some, but to me is vastly disappointing.

My monthly average is 14,481, which might still impress some, but my daily average is a lousy 474 words.

That’s a piss poor number.

That’s about the length of my average fictoid, and I don’t write that many fictoids…

So what caused this precipitous decline?

Well, the pandemic played a big part directly and indirectly.  Dominoes toppled elsewhere by COVID19 eventually ended up spilling into our lap, and a lot of time this year was eaten up by essential activities other than writing.

Still, I’m hoping 2021 settles down into a routine that enables me to block out more writing time.  I’m starting my big project of the year today (because hey, why not?) and I’ll let you know how that plays out.

And as for this post…

250 words.

© Buzz Dixon