2015 Writing Stats

Happy New Year!

This is posted later than usual because I’m actually writing it today. I guess this is what happens when you binge-watch a television series. Two more episodes of Gotham to go and my life can go back to normal. Whatever normal is nowadays. J

I’m looking forward to getting back into Ghostly Interlude, which is a good feeling. Those characters are talking to me again. I just hope I don’t take forever to add meat to this project. So maybe I should set a goal. That’s what New Year’s is all about, right? Setting goals and trying to keep them? So here’s one (I’ll have to come up with more, but that’s for another time): Finish Ghostly Interlude by March 1. That’s two months. Two months with no holidays and no vacations. Now that I’ve put the goal in writing, let’s see how I do.

I’m fairly confident I will succeed. Why? Because despite all that stuff with my heart messing with my head, 2015 was a good writing year for me—word-count-wise, anyway. I keep track of my writing on an Excel spreadsheet (I do love Excel—guess there will always be an accountant in me!) and have been since 2011. If I had known when I started writing that it would be my life—that I would end up writing several novels—I would have started keeping track then. But we never know what will impact us until it does, right?

Anyway, on with the stats!

Words Written (these numbers are from first drafts):

• 2011: 121,972
• 2012: 84,797
• 2013: 53,334
• 2014: 60,653
• 2015: 76,653

I’m still kind of amazed that my writing went down the year I lost my job (2012). Didn’t mean I wasn’t writing. Unfortunately, revising/editing doesn’t show the amount of time I spend on a project.

Words Adjusted (these numbers reflect revising/editing):

• 2011: 8,388
• 2012: 17,489
• 2013: -7,929
• 2014: 12,441
• 2015: 4,479

2013 was a traumatic year for me—writing-wise. A negative number! I had to cut out pages of a project that was written before I kept track (so it doesn’t really reflect the words I had written the year before). It also shows why I didn’t write as much fresh stuff—too busy editing. I have thought about keeping track of my time, but that would feel like way too much work and even though writing is my job, I like the fact it doesn’t FEEL like a job. You know?

I could list how many days I spent on each project—the information is there—but that’s too much work for me to do now (maybe later, when I get stuck on a project—it’s certainly doable).

 

Blog (yep, I even keep track of what I write on this blog):

• 2011: 31,816
• 2012: 50,897
• 2013: 64,929
• 2014: 60,131
• 2015: 65,906

Some of these numbers are kind of skewed, since it also includes the blurbs for those books I’ve read. Still, it shows that I’ve stuck with this blog no matter what. Kind of impressed myself there!

First Draft Projects:

• 2011: Finished Book 3 in March. Started Book 4 in April
• 2012: Finished Book 4 in January. Started Book 5 in April. Finished Book 5 in October.
• 2013: Started Book 6 in April
• 2014: Finished Book 6 in February. Started Book 7 in March.
• 2015: Finished Book 7 in August. Started Novella in August. Finished Novella in December.

I do know, based on this data, that when I’ve got projects to edit, I don’t do much first draft writing. 2013 showed me that. Now, 2013 was a very GOOD year. That was the year I got my first publishing contract. It just wasn’t a good year for first draft writing (same with 2014). Somehow I’m going to have to figure out a way to do both, especially if I want to get books finished SOONER.

Let’s see if I can get Ghostly Interlude ready by March 1. Because I do love starting new projects in April (Books 1, 4, 5, & 6 did).

So… How was your New Year’s Eve? Had a wonderful dinner at our friend’s and then sat around and watched Michigan State get blown away. Bugger. I had hoped differently. I don’t really care for the two teams remaining, so I doubt I watch the championship game. Today at 1pm is OSU and Notre Dame. Go Bucks!

Have a great Friday!

Stacy

Wednesday Reads and My Reading Statistics

Ahhh, my last post for 2015. Nice to end on a reading day, too.

It appears that my total books read this year is 92. I do not expect to finish the book I’m currently reading, mainly because I’m binge-watching “Gotham.” If it weren’t for that, I could easily add another book. Here’s what I read this week:

Dec 23: “Blood Kiss” by J.R. Ward, first book in the Black Dagger Legacy series, a paranormal romance at 397 pages. Blurb from book: Paradise, blooded daughter of the king’s First Advisor, is ready to break free from the restrictive life of an aristocratic female. Her strategy? Join the Black Dagger Brotherhood’s training center program and learn to fight for herself, think for herself…be herself. It’s a good plan, until everything goes wrong. The schooling is unfathomable difficult, the other recruits feel more like enemies than allies, and it’s very clear that the Brother in charge, Butch O’Neal, aka the Dhestroyer, is having serious problems in his own life. And that’s before Paradise falls in love with a fellow classmate. Craeg, a common civilian, is nothing her father would ever want for her, but everything she could ask for in a male. As an act of violence threatens to tear apart the entire program, and the erotic pull between them grows irresistible, Paradise is tested in ways she never anticipated—and left wondering whether she’s strong enough to claim her own power…on the field and off.  Oh wow! As soon as I started reading this, I got sucked back into this world and had a hard time putting the book down. I loved it. This is a spin-off of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. It features a brand new couple (Paradise and Craeg) and revisits Butch and Marissa. Simply wonderful. I can’t wait to read more in this series.

I love statistics and comparing reading from year to year. Goodreads helps me do that (one of the reasons I like it so much). According to Goodreads, the average length of book I read this year was 313 pages (those novellas didn’t really diminish that number so much, now did they?). And while reading 92 books in a year is a goodly number for me (I only read 88 last year, missing my goal of 90), it’s not the most. That would be in 2013 when I read 93 (which was why I thought I could reach 90 in 2014!). The 26,620 pages I read this year aren’t the most, either. That would be in 2012 when I read 30,966 (from only 87 books—bet I didn’t read many novellas THAT year!).

I started keeping track of my reading in 2010. Would you believe I only read 39 books that year? Then again, I did have a day job. The following year I began taking the reading challenge (my goal was 50 and I read 59). 2012 was the only year I adjusted my goal (from 50 to 80) and that was because I had lost my job and knew I’d be reading more (I did; I read 87).

So… Do you like setting reading challenges low (knowing you’ll blow right over that number), realistic (because you’ve done it in the past), or high (just to see if you can do it)? I still haven’t decided what I want my goal to be next year. I don’t think I’ll go low, but I really don’t want to fail another challenge (and I refuse to adjust the number lower). I hate losing. Especially to myself!

I will most likely post something on Friday. If I can figure out what I want my goals to be, I’ll list them. Of course, it would help if I actually thought about what goals I want to achieve next year, huh?

Happy Reading and have a safe and happy New Year’s Eve!

Stacy