Today is going to be busy so since I reached my goal last night I'm going to get the post up early today :)

So here's the numbers

For the week:
3035 Words   -- that's 101.2% of my new 3000 word goal

For the month of January:
14,956 words
Days of Writing 26
Average words per day of writing : 575
Maximum: 1,179
Minimum: 0 (several days have been taken off at this point)

For the month of February:
411 words
Days of Writing 1
Average words per day of writing :411


Graphs and other Stats will be up later. I just realized LJ and Photobucket are conspiring to try and make me late for work and this section went POOF when i posted this post.  So I shall just redo those later when I get home after a fun evening with friends


I do want to thank tinachristopher for the fun chat on Sunday.  Skype is awesome and now I understand what story I'm attempting to tell.  The Mirror file should be to you (and a few other authorized readers ;)) Saturday sometime.  I have a to do list I have to achieve first.
( To Do List Before emailing )

Seriously just had this conversation with myself:

Axi: Mark - SLOW DOWN! Wait for the computer to load.

Mark: No! (ideas start to flood)

Axi: MARK!  Mark.... stop

Mark: (still dictating his scene)

Axi: MARCUS! WAIT!

Mark: My name isn't 'Marcus' - Its just 'Mark.'  We already covered that in the writing at a chapter ago.

Axi: I'll show you a chapter ago....

Mark (Still pushing the ideas)

Axi: FINE! I'll get the pencil and paper, even though we're on the log in screen - you jerk of an idea..........

So before I get to the numbers, i didn't get the 4K goal done.  I had a birthday and another positive development in my life besdies a busy day-job schedule vying for my time.  Having consulted with my Generous Friend (mentioned in previous posts) mid week, I received a new goal.  1.5 to 2k of words plus editing chapter 1.

So here are the numbers:

For the week:
1607 Words   -- that's 40.18% of my 4000 word goal but  107% of the 1.5k goal

For the month:
12,332 words
Days of Writing 22
Average words per day of writing : 561
Maximum: 1,179
Minimum: 0 (several days have been taken off at this point)

For the year:
12,402/150,000 = 9.3%
10,725/150,000 = 8.2% (not counting the december carryover)

So I made the special goal for my birthday weekend so that means I've just got 2 more weeks till I can order that Ipod (assuming no one takes the next announcement as padding my bet or whatever the phrase would be).

In light of recent events and developments and the fact that I'll be getting long hours at work as this is the start of peak tax season, I'm lowering my goal to 3k/week.  This'll give me the time to write meaningful words opposed to slapping half-assed phrases down and taking out a whole bunch later as i work to find a new balance in my life. 

Graphs will be up next week. 

So I am proud to announce that I'm in week 4 of the Ipod Challenge :)

Alright its been a long--albeit nice evening--after a rather long and not so pleasant day at work.  More on the future but I'm not about to jinx it here.

So here's the numbers:

For the week:
4009 Words   -- that's 100.23% of my 4000 word goal I cut it a little close but I did a train trip and had 2 long days at work

For the month:
10,725 words (I think I miss represented that last week - no one called me on that though... )
Days of Writing 17
Average words per day of writing : 631
Maximum: 1,179
Minimum: 0 (took today off last week)

For the year:
12,402/150,000 = 8.3%
10,725/150,000 = 7.2%

So that's it.  I'm heading to bed.  Next week will be a challenge as I have some personal goodness coming up as well as a 35 hr work week.

Alright, so before I get to the nitty-gritty statistics... I have a new goal to announce.

My Ipod broke (which was a 4 year old gen 2 nano that a friend gave me when i had software issues with my own 5 or so year old mp3 players).  I'll spare you the details but I'm pretty sure its dead.

So my generous friend (well, really her generous husband who is also my friend) have graciously offered to give me the other gen 2 ipod nano that they have recently replaced.  However, i have given up the illusions that that one will last for a couple more years till i have a steady income and move out of the Cardboard Cavern and... well... yeah.... I need to be able to write to the same playlist on the go much longer before any of those dreams will be accomplished.

So here's the deal I have struck with myself (and numbers decided by my Generous Friend).

7 weeks of 4k words will be rewards with a Black 16gb Ipod Nano

(my GF will also decide if situations constitute equivalent weeks counting if something should come up and cause me issues)

So I am proud to announce that I'm in week 3! YAY 3!

So here's the numbers:

For the week:
4,220 Words   -- that's 105.5% of my 4000 word goal

For the month:
2,496 words
Days of Writing 11
Average words per day of writing : 611
Maximum: 1,179
Minimum: 0 (took today off)

For the year:
8,393/150,000 = 5.6%
6,716/150,000 = 4.5%

So here's the numbers:

For the week:
4,173 Words   -- that's 104.3% of my 4000 word goal

For the month:
2,496 words
Days of Writing 5 (muse won't let me take a day off)
Average words per day of writing : 499
Maximum: 1,012
Minimum: 40

For the year:
4,173/150,000 = 2.8%
2,496/150,000 = 1.7%

Seems a little dry, but I think it's a good start to the year.  I have a December roll over for the Tuesday to Tuesday thing :)

So for 2009:

I have written 33,294 words since I started my Tuesday to Done's on September 15th.

Yup--that is an average of 311 words written during those 107 days. If I had written 311 days everyday for the whole year--113,573 words for the year.

Clobbering together notes from throughout the year, I actually wrote 64,003 words at a minimum.  I don't have data for about 5 or 6 months of the year.

( Graphs seen here )
The rest of the year was rather depressing so I'm not even going to attempt to dwell on that.  I have a couple of other things to announce too.

I have a job again -- a Temp Job (just really for tax season) being an IT person.  It amuses me greatly that I'm doing it with what little I know, but I guess that's enough and I'm really eager to learn more.  I'm just sad that I might be missing my yoga retreat on Saturday to go to orientation, but I'll have a job and I'll have something new to put on my resume. WOOT! Just got the call! I get to go to my Yoga Retreat, as long as my dad (who is part of the orientation I'd have to go to) instructs me properly on all the rules.  I'm sacrificing a day of pay to go relax.  that sounds like a better trade off to me though since I'll have many days of stress ahead.

I would also like to announce that I have already reached my word count goal for this week, so I'm going to focus on getting Tina back her story and to read a little before working kicks in... but I'm going to hold off the Tuesday post just in case of added inspiration.

So yup--that it... I'll post my weekly count tomorrow.  I just needed to feel productive so I opted to make this post today :)

So the week in review (I  know there is still more Tuesday but I'm taking a break for the rest of the day and nothing written will count towards the last week)

I have written OVER my goal for the week.  I wrote 4300 words (yes--even... weird, huh?) as well as finished my 2010 spreadsheet and diving in to a novel by friend tinachristopher(which I'm going to be doing some of during my "time off today" as well as gaming and reading some FROSTBITTEN  )

I'll post graphs and such later--like the end of the year later.

I just wanted to get this up.  Then i can make it my 750th tweet!

So... I wrote 4300 words, above my 4k goal.  I wrote more words this past week than I did the previous 3 weeks combined.  Go team Me!

I'll catch any of you few interested parties later.  Now to the relaxin' :)

So this is where I am right now in my story.  (See that Round Peg for that Square hole?)
 
I'm trying to get all the right characters going to this one scene so I can have this important story altering battle and move on to the next stage of the the story.  There's one problem.  I'm not much of a plotter (or else I'd be able to get everyone to play nice and I'd know how everyone is going to react to the scene and it would not cause me any anxiety about trying to make it to that plot point).

I've tried plotting before.... Here's a super recent example:

Last night... I figured out this beautiful plot point that even I thought was a little weak... but I figured I'd go with it and hope that it turned out to be better than I imagined.  So I'm working through and I get this idea in my head that the bad guys tagged the female lead in the back story and another character told her about it for her own protection.  (Mark--he's undergoing his own sort of transformation through the book too... which was very unexpected... as was the narrative importance of the girl he's doing that for).  I tried writing Xann (the female lead) reacting the way I needed her to make the scene work to get her where I needed her to go.  I even tried writing the scene without the tag.

Both just felt super awkward.

So I took a step back and stopped getting in the way.  The scene seems very natural... only it ended up going the completely opposite way it was supposed to and instead of sending Xann off with Mark, she kicked out his knee and ran away.  Then I tried to write the next scene from Mark's POV... yeah... someone else took over and when I stepped back it got so much better and even made me squeal like the girl that I am.

But it makes my confidence quite a bit shaky... 

Also my concentration (can you tell?)

Here's I'm actually pantser that likes to plan.  But sometimes it feels like I am a bad plotter who likes to wing it.

So here's my dilemma.  And I the peg... or the hole?



Am I going to be able to get my characters in the right place at the right time for the battle?  Lordy I hope so--and I hope so soon or this book is going to go into multiple books or characters are going to get cut....

You hear that characters?  Get in line or get lined out!

Merry Christmas LJ!

I managed to somehow write 813 words. I really wanted to write more, but it just wasn't in me (the energy that is).

I'm going snuggle up with a nice non-fuzzy chapter 11 of another author's story (and 2 very fuzzy kitty cats) and then head off to the land of slumber.

Night LJ! I hope today went well for you!

Another week has come and my word count has gone up.

I wrote 2201 words this week. Def up from the 230 and the 272 of the past 2 weeks. I'm reading a great story from a fellow author. I need to finish converting my narrator to 3rd person and get some hand written stuff typed up and then I'm going to send that on to her (hopefully in exchange for more of her chapters ;) )

Anyways--its super late in my Time Zone so I am going to read a few more pages and pack it up for sleep. I had been hoping to get more writing done after game night but being social was a whole lot of fun (and i discovered I'm far from the biggest book geek in that group) and just worked on some hand editing (yes, I go to social function w/ a notebook, clipboard and print outs to work on--that group has come to expect it and are very supportive).

anyway--again-- night for me. Happy Holidays to all if I don't put something up on the 25th :)

--Axi

So I'm really not ready for Christmas to come. I'm just not in the spirit and it feels like I won't be fore another couple of months.

However.... I'm super excited about a new year starting. I have just put the finishing touches on my excel sheet to track my progress for next year. It is set up to calculate all the information on my Tuesday-to-Done's, graph each total for day for a month graph, another graph so i can do a "year to date" graph, as well as a full year graph, and graph the totals for each tuesday-to-done total.

I still need to decide if I want to (and then figure out doing it) a year-to-date graph for each story. My reluctance is that I really work in spurts, and what do i do when a story is complete?

I want to be about March right now so I can test how all the parts of it work and trouble shoot it. I know i could just import that data from what I'm already tracking since last September when I started tracking it but... I want real data.

Anyways... there's time to work out the spreadsheet. I just hope that I find my xmas spirit before that.

I still need to make a list of 2010 goals (beyond "get a job" "find someone to date" "finish Power Novel 1" "submit Power novel 1 for..." hmmmm)

2010 Goals:
1. Get a Job and keep it
2. Find someone to date, even if it isn't serious
3. Finish Power Novel #1 (writing and revising)
4. Submit Power Novel #1 to an agent or publishing house
5. Finish Short Story and Submit to mag or contest
6. Move out of parents basement again (will probably be in the last few months of 2010)
7. Finish Mirror story (even if it doesn't get to the revision stage)
8. Get 2 more dragon paintings done
9. Come up with a 10th goal
10. Accomplish list of goals? (woot! already have #9 done)

So I've revised most of what I've written during the month of November. It feels a little draggy in some spots and a little ADHD in others (but I can't tell if that's me and my ADHD or its how it really is. I figure there's ways of working that out later--like asking other to read over it and let me know).

There are 230 new words that have been added. I am going to rewrite a scene that feels super over-worked that I've decided to scrap and just rewrite it. Same events--just reorder how they fall out and stop trying to be super clever.

I have re-read Kelley Armstrong's THE SUMMONING (it was in audio format and just want I needed for family bonding time this weekend.) I also read all off THE AWAKENING (the next one in that series)--all of it yesterday and the 4 sample chapters of THE RECKONING that were online.

I'm currently in the first quarter or so of Devon Monk's MAGIC IN THE BONE and I'm really enjoying it... but it (all of that reading--really) has made me realize something.

I don't need a man to make me happy... but I wouldn't turn one down either ;)

Also--great contest over at Bitten by books for Yasmine Galenorn's new book BONE MAGIC that comes out next month. It ends tonight so go check it out quick! http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=14480

Well, sort of.

I've opened the document and I'm going through and doing fine detail tweaking as I figure out where the heck I am in the story--but its a start.

I'm not going to go into the details of what has lit a fire under me. I'm pretty sure it'll never come to fruition--but hey, it got me to start writing again, right?

Anyway--back to the doc!

Alright. I'm just going to get this over with.

I wrote a measly 269 words this past week. All but 12 of them were before I got the call that I had lost my job. It took me a couple days to even remember when I had written the words in my notebook that I needed to type up.

( What I (mostly) did manage to do )
So I'm going to go play games with friends tonight. Pound the pavement (or internet) more tomorrow. Bang keys and try to bring that word count back up--or bring up the quality of what I wrote last month, at least.

( Personal Data and Graphs )
( IndyWriMo November stats )

Now all that is over, I have some sad news too. While working on this project, I got news that I am now unemployed. It really sucks. I'm really sad about it. The only silver lining I can come up with now is that it does give me time to rework everything that I wrote while I was working those almost 7 weeks.

If I go hermit crab for a little bit and my wordcount drops, at last you now know why. I'm hoping that keeping up w/ Tuesday-to-Done and IndyWriMo will help me keep going.

So my new "realistic" writing goal is 800 words/week day for 4k words per week. This gives me the weekend to catch up if i get behind or relax if I have managed to get my goal accomplished. In the 2 days I've been trying this, i've hit over 1k and over 900. I guess its working well?

Anyway--for November, I am at 12,770 words. that puts me at over 53% of my Indywrimo goal and 76% of my 4k/week goal.

I'll post november graphics next Monday. :)

Side note--since I started the Tuesday-to-Done back on 9-15-09, I have written 21,596 words. Still not a IndyWriMo total and far from a Nano total, though most are in November.

There has also been a noticeable positive trend for my word count since i started working 2nd shift too.

anyways--off to bed w/ me!

Just going to make this quick. Just got home and typed up the words I wrote at lunch (which most would call dinner as it was at ~20:00). The 15:15 to 23:45 shift is going to take a smidget of adjustment.

I'm woefully behind in my 30k goal for the month. I'm at just under 50% of where i should be (46.45%) but I'm really hoping to start pulling that around soon.

I have repaired my tower so now i'll have more structure to where I work (no more parking in front of the DVR) and less people at home also does make the writing easier (and I can blare the play-lists). Here's hoping for some strong 1k+ days!

I'll post tomorrow where the IndyWriMo people are currently too ^^

Night all!

--Axi

Hi everyone who is interested in my Status updates. If you noticed I'm a bit behind.... well I have several excuses (mostly work being busy ad having barely any time between it and the one time I get to go to that particular social engagement until after the gods of employment choose to remove me from 2nd shift (which I start next week)).

I'm at 6377 words for the month of November (suffering a major decline over the last couple of days as I start to fight to figure out where I am in the plot and how to get to the next section as well as converting a story from 1st person to 3rd person (not as easy as one might imagine)).

<-IndyWri
<-NaNoWriMo

I am really hoping to boost that wordcount starting next week when I work 2nd shift and will be able to write before my QC jobs zaps all my creativity from me. I will also be home alone (with the 2 cats) so I won't suddenly get called to do something else at home or feel obligated to be social.

( For Indy Wri Mo Folks )

This is going to be quick. I'm just going to report my November Progress for this month as I'm doing a mini-NaNoWriMo (30K words instead of 50k) with IndyWriMo (where I'm also going to keep track of everyone's progress there as I did the last 6 weeks for me).

So since Sunday, I have managed to write 2191 words. I need to pick up the pace though because if I keep my current rate I'll only get 73.03% of my goal... and that's not counting the disruption the holidays will bring.

Alright--Time to make the file and send if off to lilifae

If more people want to join, I'll be happy to add more rows to the spreadsheet :)