Book 2 Word Count: 5,463 / 90,000 (6.1%)
I’ve been thinking about the format of my blog posts / monthly updates. They are a little haphazard and I want to rein them in a bit. What information do I want to share with you in months where I have little content to add? How can I add more content if I spend most of my free time on Glaive: Broken Blade (free time has also been limited because we added a doggo to our family. Pictures to follow.)
I used to wear a Fitbit pedometer to track my steps. My boss at my day job linked it to the saying “what gets measured gets done” and that it was a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) on how active I was each day. Because I had a fancy app and dashboard to see my daily/weekly/monthly activity, I was more conscious about it and walked more. It was a way to keep me focused on my goal and keep progress moving in the right direction.
One thing I’ll add to each post going forward is a current word count and the target for book 2; my KPI. Right now I am at 5,463. I think I’ll end book 2 at around 90,000. Any larger than that will probably be too expensive for me to edit and print in 2019, but we’ll see how the story develops. I’ll see if there are any good dashboard widgets out there to present it in a way that is aesthetically pleasing, but for now, it will just be a fraction at the top of the page followed by percent complete.
What is a reasonable goal for me? NaNoWriMo is 50k words in a month. That’s a little too crazy for me. I thought I was in a writing frenzy when I wrote Blade of a Flower and that was 83k words in about 3 months (almost 7k words each week). 4k words each week (about 600 words/night) seems doable for me based on my schedule of when I can write. If I can keep up that pace, Broken Blade should be done in less than 6 months. I feel good about that timeline. As I mentioned in a previous post, the target is still Q4 2019.
What about my website content and short stories? Halo and the Frigid Range was around 4.3k words and Whisper’s Folly was 4.4k words. I don’t really like the idea of shifting my focus from book 2, but it might be helpful to do so if I hit the dreaded block. I asked my good friend/editor/writer, Eric, to help with content, and it sounds like he is willing to contribute on occasion. He is currently working on a short story to add to the mix. I cannot wait to read it!
I’ll have to consider how my blog posts are organized. I am not a web designer by any means. The short stories are getting buried in the mix of updates. When it’s not 4am and I have all my wits, I’ll explore the categorizing function of WordPress and how I can pull these out to make them more accessible.
I’m glad I hammered out these words in this early hour. I think it’s what woke me to begin with. Now that my plans are a little more concrete I feel I can start making better progress on this incredible journey to write the Keen Blade Chronicle.
Thanks for reading!
Oh, I almost forgot. Meet Comet! He’s an awesome doggo and another companion that kept me company during my last 600 words.
(Learn more about Glaive: Blade of a Flower! (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Apple iBooks, BookBaby)