Tag Archives: gywo

Reading and Writing and ‘Rithmetic

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Does anyone remember that song? School days, school days, dear old golden rule days…. I am old. Wow.

it’s a loooonnnggg weekend, and coming up on the end of the month, which means a  GYWO word count, yay! I actually got back to some writing this month, which feels good. Getting away from needing a pat on the back for every little step and just… writing (even though I did send a very rough draft to a friend for reading because I am special like that. And she was bored. Sue me), so I’ll be adding more to that story before I go back and edit words out. I wrote them so I am counting them!

I also finished A Reliable Wife this morning. Erm. Interesting. It took me so long to finish this book I don’t even know if I can review it but I will try and post it up here. I might have bought a couple of books today…… okay I did buy a couple of books today. They seem to be oldies but goodies but I flipped through them at Target and they looked interesting. I got The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Go Ask Alice, author anonymous.

Looking forward to reading them both!

Get Your Words Out, April: Slackeriffic

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I’ll say this… I am glad I made myself sign up for those blogfests. They will help out in my May count.  I haven’t been writing much at all, not even blogging with the same regularity and intensity over on the Diary, and only blogging here when I’ve updated something.

My April numbers show it, I feel. I usually hit about 30K words a month. this month I just barely scraped 25K. Got to get on the ball! Right after I take a nap.

I’ve attached the chart that I use to track and submit my numbers. There are corresponding monthly charts behind it that feed into this one. This just gives me a snapshot of where I am. Almost 50%! WOOO! Even given my slackerificness, I am head of the game.

GYWO_2010_Pledge_Tracker

Getting My Words Out- March Edition

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Weeeeeeeeee, end of the month! It’s that time again!

I’ve had a few people ask me why I count my words. Well, the answer is— because.

No, seriously. To me, it’s something that keeps me writing. It keeps a goal in my head to shoot for. I don’t say ‘I have to write 1900 words today’ and then set out to write that number of words. I just write. And then count the words. It’s interesting to see the numbers I come up with at the end of each month. I can then gauge if I am slacking off or being an overachiever or doing okay.

Anyone that knows me or my writing knows I don’t have issues with word count. I am verbose. Quite. LOL. My goal with this challenge was to do more, shorter projects. And to get myself into a habit of blogging regularly. I’ve tried to update here once a week at least and I try to blog over the The Diary 3 times a week. I count those posts because it is writing that I am doing on purpose. I don’t count my press releases and other work writing because it’s part of my job.

So how did I do?

Total Year to Date Count : 99,190

March Goal: 34,000

March Total: 34,434– I beat Feb’s number by just a few words!

I am 33% of the way toward my goal of 300,000 words…. though, I’d better check because I thought I saw my name under 350K on the Get Your Words Out Site. Which would put me behind.

Anyway, I am right on track, or fairly head actually. I expected to pass 25% this month and I did that, so yay.

As for how I am going to keep this momementum, I’d love to start something new. I just haven’t been inspired much and my mind is still pretty consumed with my long form piece. I put my NaNo aside because it’s driving me nuts that I can’t finish it, but I can’t finish it. Once I finish the long form, I’ll pick it up again. I guess. Or just leave it. I don’t know. It seems to have fizzled.

I could probably write another 100K ords of my longform (seriously) and that leaves about 100K or so for a NaNo 2010 and another big project, about 50K words. So, something to plan for. I also hope to keep entering pieces for publication and sharing my work via Al Gore’s Internets.

Blah blah blah, all about me and more words,

Getting My Words Out: February Update

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We have reached the end of another month in 2010… time is flying by! It’s time again for the Get Your Words Out Word Count Report.

In the month of February, I blogged quite a bit on my personal blog, sometimes managing 7 blogs a week. I also completed a chapter of All I Wanna Do, the epic fanfic that seems like it’s never going to end but will, eventually. I also slaved over my first short story submission, Try to Say No, which I’m particuarly proud of. I’ve heard nothing about it, thus far.

My word count for February comes in at 33, 431, beating January’s 31K by a few thousand. I am at 22% of my goal for the year, which seems about right. At the end of March I should be over 25% of my goal. My YTD count is 64,756.

Sometimes I just can’t believe I write that many words!

I am hoping to get to Chapter 41 this weekend and the beginning of this week and have an update to that story by next weekend. My father is in town so I need to use my time wisely this week!

Giddy with Glee~

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I wrote!

I wrote!

The heavens parted and words came forth! I wrote!

Praise be to William Shakespeare and Strunk & White, I wrote! Lol.

Have to make a big deal of it, because it’s been so long since words flowed. Crossing my fingers that I can keep up the momentum through the end of the chapter.

Yesterday on my personal blog I was reminded of a weekly story that used to post on Redbook.com I think, every Friday. It was called the Story of V, and I was completely addicted to it. It was more soap opera than literary offering, but I was into it. I’ve come to think of my epic fiction piece as like that story, just a weekly installment of decadent fantasy. And I’d like to be able to offer an update that regularly– not perfect but good enough to read, just to get it out of me. Not worrying about making it sound like a novel, just write and have fun. Fix it in post, lol.

We’ll see. Still working toward short stories, drabbles, writing exercises. TIME! I need more of it. There is a new prompt at Promptedtowrite. We’ll see if I can focus on something long enough to get something out.

Guh. Gonna be late for work. Shower is runninnnnnnnnnng.

Pen in hand,

Getting My Words Out: January

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Today is the 31st, which marks the last day of the first month of Get Your Words Out, a totally insane writing challenge for 2010. My challenge goal is 300,000 words in 2010. I’m positive I can do that… last year I missed the cut-off so I decided to do it on my own and ended up well over 350K thanks to NaNoWriMo. This year is panning out to be great as well… I checked in with an amazing 31,325 words for January.

So, what comprises my word count? Whatever I write on purpose, for pleasure. I include updates to current WIPs, drabbles, writing exercises, book reviews, and blog posts that aren’t written for a specific purpose like some kind of commercial post (which I never do anyway). I also don’t include short ‘hi, bye’ posts. My word count isn’t suffering so I don’t feel the need to waste time sending that through a word counter.
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GYWO “Freedom Edition”: July 4, 2009

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It’s time for the word count that I forgot to do on June 30th. I need to set some kind of reminder!

I started doing this at the beginning of the year, based on a Livejournal community doing the same thing. I missed the deadline by a few days :( so I decided to challenge myself to do it.

The idea is based upon the adage that only 10% of your material will be usable, and if that’s true then the only way to produce quality writing is to write more.  So in order to write more … I uhm…. write. More.

Hence, Get Your Words Out.

What Counts?

For the structured program, any purposeful writing– blogs, snippets, drabbless, short stories, long form, etc.

For me, I count anything I wrote on purpose except for blog posts. And I don’t think I counted anything I wrote for the writing class, since they tended to only be a paragraph or two at most.

My Progress

I started the year with a goal of 200,000 words, mostly because I had just started really writing and wasn’t sure what I was capable of. It sounded like a good, lofty goal that I could work hard to achieve. Months later, I realized I was going to surpass my goal because I am, as they say in literary circles, wordy. *shrug*

I met my goal in May, and reset it to 300,000. I’ll just keep moving it until I hit December 31 and we’ll see where I end up. I plan to do NaNoWriMo this year so that will be 50,000 words– I’m sure to surpass 300.000 by November 30.

Let’s see where I am so far!

Goal: 300,000

Previous Count:249568

New Words:  18613

New Count: 268,271

Words to go: 31,729

I’m very excited about that number! \o/ It represents a lot, for me. Mostly that I am doing something I never thought I could do. And the more I do it, the better I will. get. HUZZAH!

Write on!

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GYWO: June 21

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Time for another edition of Get Your Words Out!

Yeah I haven’t updated this count since May 1. Holy goodness. Good news is, I don’t think I’ve written much in the last six weeks, so it should be an easy one!

At the end of April I surpassed my goal of 200,000 words. Uh, that was supposed to be Jan- Dec ya’ll. I’m wordy. So I increased my goal level to 300,000 and kept on truckin.

So, now on……..June 21st, I am going to count everything I’ve written since May 1.


Goal: 300,000

Previous Count:208,562

New Words: 41006

New Count: 249568

Words to go: 50432

I didn’t include a chapter of AIWD because I’m not quite sure I didn’t count it in the May 1 count… it’s fine, I am doing well on my numbers, so if I didn’t count it, it doesn’t matter. This number was boosted by starting a new piece– which I am totally stuck on, now.

So now I am back on track and provided I write something before June 30, I will have another count then.

*Just for my own reference point: counted everything through Ch 19(AIWD)  and page6 (ST)


Get Your Words Out- May 1 Update

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It’s payday, and my reminder to update my word count for 2009. My goal on Jan 1 was 200,000 words.

Previous count: 198,036

New Words:             10,526
Word Count Total:  208,562
Words to go:          -8,562 \o/

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I reached my 200,000 word goal, so I am raising it by another 100,000 words. YAY.

GOAL: 300,000
Current Count:  208,562
Words to Go: 91,438