it's another month again, i guess

[quillpunk]

So. I said some stuff in my Writing Log update for October and I said even more stuff in my update for September; namely the whole "my goal is 12k words/week for the rest of the year" stuff, if you don't feel like going digging.

That didn't happen.

I am solidly in a place where I am consistently failing at hitting every achievable goal I set. I want to read a book in a week, something I can do in my sleep (once, I read 5 books in a single day—not my finest idea, I got a headache, LOL)? Nope, doesn't happen. I set the goal to study for 10 hours in a week so I can finally make some progress with how far behind I am (I am very far behind)? Nope, sucker, that doesn't happen. I say I'll write 12k words/week, something that's completely doable?

Nope. That doesn't happen either.

So. Yeah. I am tossing all my plans out the window. I have made new indefinite goals on trackbear.app (a fabulous word tracking site I highly recommend): 40k words/week, 100k words/month and a 1 million word goal for 2025.

None of that stuff is achievable. My records are the following: 20k words in a week, 59k words in a month, and 487k words in a year (that one's from this year, so it's still in progress.)

The point is that they're not doable. I gain more motivation from failing at an unreasonable, ridiculous goal than I do nearly succeeding at a reasonable goal. So, since I'm failing everything anyway, I'm going to get silly with it. Less pressure, less blame, less Seriousness™.

In November, I wrote 46k words. That's miles above what I was expecting, considering I wrote 31k words in October, and there was a whole week in November where I didn't write anything at all. I am very proud of myself! That's a great job, and I deserve exactly fourteen pats on the back :D

I also hit my weekly record in November! In the transitional week between October and November, I wrote 20k words, something I've never done before. My record before that, from... 2022, I think, was 16k words in a single week. And then later in November, I wrote 17k words in a week, which was also hella cool <3

My year-to-date word-count is now at 487k words, beating out my previous record by a landslide. (Last year, 210k words.)

I have also actually put my money where my mouth is and signed up to both getyourwordsout and inkingitout with a one million word goal for 2025. So that's set in stone now, LOL.

Comments

[apachefirecat]

Good luck!! I do NOT miss the days when I used to track my word counts!

[mistressofmuses]

That is a stunning year-to-date count! As is the weekly one - 20k in a week is amazing.

And I will give you fourteen pats on the back, haha.

I find it really interesting that you find the impossible goals more motivating, because I'm so very the opposite. If I see a goal I know I can't meet, I can't even make myself try; I'd rather do absolutely nothing than put any effort toward something I know I'll fail at. (Which is probably not always a terribly healthy mindset!)

(Though I can understand the idea that "this is so ridiculous I KNOW I won't hit it, and that means there's no pressure to actually DO it," I don't know that I could get into the mindset of it being freeing rather than demoralizing.)

[tropicsbear]

I'm tempted to sign up for TrackBear and that's 60% because I do want to write more and 40% because "It's a bear! It'll be On Brand."