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Entry tags:
December and 2017 wrap-up; January and 2018 goals
Days written: 20/31
Words written: 6,054
Words of fic written: 4,158
Stories worked on: Four
Stories posted: Three
Words written in 2017: 99,143
Fic words written in 2017: 41,400
Fic words posted in 2017: 46,214
December goals:
1. Write an average of five days per week. I have some work travel and maybe some personal travel this month, plus the holidays and all their assorted festivities, so that will probably mean writing most days that it's possible. Secondary goal: hit a wordcount of 100k before the end of the year. Not quite. I don't even have the traveling excuse; instead, Persona 5 wrote into what might have been good writing time. I should probably accept that taking staycation with T is just as likely to cause a productivity hit as traveling with him. I was just under a thousand words short of hitting 100k.
2. Finish and post Yuletide story (due December 17th my time). Success! I wrote a Defenders post-season team fic called Family Meal.
3. At least draft and ideally post another Ladies Bingo story. Got this one, too.
4. Write and post at least one more media review, either here or to Lady Business. Utterly failed at this one, unless my Last Jedi linkspam-with-commentary counts. I have about half of a Person of Interest review that will probably never see the light of day, alas.
5. If time left over, work on Alistair story. I did draft one scene. As I mentioned on my fic year in review post, part of me wants to hold this story until I can do another DA:I replay, and part of me thinks that's a poor excuse.
2017 goals:
1. Sign up for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
getyourwordsout with the intention of hitting the 150k goal. Yes, that's right. Yes, I know that means I have to write half-again as many the words as I wrote this year. But I wonder if giving myself a wordcount metric to meet will get me back into writing more words at a stretch. Well, we know that the answer to this one was a big fat NO. I didn't even break 100k, for the first time since I started tracking words. I did at least manage to check in every month.
2. Keep up the regular linkspam posts in my journal; write at least one, ideally two posts forladybusiness every month; and stay on top of contributing to ladybusiness anchor posts and group projects. I slowed down on the linkspam at the end of the year -- I haven't done one since November. I probably averaged more like one ladybusiness post every other month, but I did contribute to the group projects and even spearheaded a couple myself. So, one no, one yes, one kind of.
3. Participate in at least one Big Bang and two fic exchanges. Of these, at least one of these should be new to me. I didn't find any Big Bangs that appealed to me, and I feel like this is a huge reason for my productivity hit. I did, however, participate in two exchanges, and one -- Yuletide -- was new to me. The other was Remix Revival, which is a replacement/continuation of Remix Redux, which I did twice.
4. Once Wardens of Ivalice Part 2 is finished, pick a month to prioritize writing a first draft of Part 3, with a goal of getting it posted sometime in 2018. Nope. The Alistair story became my large background project instead, with mixed results.
5. Find a fic prompt community I like and participate regularly. Recommendations welcome! I didmonthlysupergo for a little while, but since not all of its challenges are fic-based, and it's not very large or active, it didn't grab me. I had more success with ladiesbingo -- I have four fics written and expect to get the fifth this month. I'd still be happy to take recommendations on this one.
A couple of interesting things to note about this year: this is the second year I posted more words of fic than I wrote; I had noted with concern in last year's wrap up that I posted very few words in 2016, but looking at the patterns now, I can see that this is largely due to having written so much on Wardens of Ivalice in 2016 but not posting it until February 2017 -- compare 2012 and 2013, when I wrote a complete draft of Justify the Means in 2012, then posted it in January. So it's at least partly an artifact of when years begin and end. One thing is new, though: for the first time ever, fic words were less than half my writing output (although 2016 comes close). Obviously, joining Lady Business has something to do with that, but I doubt it's the whole reason (especially since I'm not posting there all that much, either). It's not like I'm writing reams of journal words, either. I can point to one really obvious factor: one of my major projects of the year was a repost of an existing story; I got a few words out of that via editing, but a project like that isn't going to bump up the word count.
I've made one major change to how I think about and track my writing in 2018: as discussed here, I decided to sign up for the new Habit Pledge at GYWO, at the 240 level. It's mostly an experiment, to see if freeing myself from a word count goal but still having accountability will take off some pressure. Also, given the state of the world right now, I like the idea of having a goal that's fairly easy to hit (and I will give myself a bigger stretch goal). This year, I had 266 writing days, so I'll expand on that a bit.
Speaking of goals. For January:
1. Write 6 days per week.
2. Write and post the fifthladiesbingo story. Look for another potential line, or perhaps a postage stamp (combining four prompts that form a square on the card).
3. Complete my 2017 Media Review post, with 2018 reading goals, and post toladybusiness. Also work on and ideally post my Hugo nomination recommendations.
4. Research and outline Part 3 of Wardens of Ivalice.
And for 2018:
1. Complete the Journeyman Habit Pledge (240 writing days) forgetyourwordsout. Stretch goal: 288 writing days, which is about halfway between writing 5 days/week and 6 days/week. That's 24 days/month, which shouldn't be a problem most months, and I can push past it in months where I'm not traveling etc. to make up the difference. I'll continue to track word count, but I may not keep reporting it; we'll see. My definition of a writing day is at least 15 minutes of drafting, editing, or outlining fiction or a substantive review or essay; writing up my portion of a Sidetracks, Favorite Media, or other collected review post on Lady Business; and/or writing and posting a substantial post on my journal (at least 300 words).
2. Complete and post Wardens of Ivalice, Part 3. I am officially putting the Alistair story on hiatus for now, so as to only have one epic Dragon Age story in my head at once.
3. Participate in at least two fic exchanges and one Big Bang. I'd appreciate any Big Bang pointers or recommendations, especially if anyone knows of a good Reverse Bang coming up in the first half of the year.
4. Two media reviews or other substantial articles each month for Lady Business. (I'm probably going to tie this one to my reading goals.) Set a schedule for one political linkspam every two weeks, and stick to it.
5. Finish every new story I start in 2018. (Exception: if I sign up for a challenge late in the year that has a posting deadline in 2019.) The minute I set this goal in text, I was hit by a wave of terror, which is why I know it's a good choice. Allowing stories to languish and die has been a huge problem for me over the last few years, and it's a habit I want to break. Let's see how this goes.
Words written: 6,054
Words of fic written: 4,158
Stories worked on: Four
Stories posted: Three
Words written in 2017: 99,143
Fic words written in 2017: 41,400
Fic words posted in 2017: 46,214
December goals:
1. Write an average of five days per week. I have some work travel and maybe some personal travel this month, plus the holidays and all their assorted festivities, so that will probably mean writing most days that it's possible. Secondary goal: hit a wordcount of 100k before the end of the year. Not quite. I don't even have the traveling excuse; instead, Persona 5 wrote into what might have been good writing time. I should probably accept that taking staycation with T is just as likely to cause a productivity hit as traveling with him. I was just under a thousand words short of hitting 100k.
2. Finish and post Yuletide story (due December 17th my time). Success! I wrote a Defenders post-season team fic called Family Meal.
3. At least draft and ideally post another Ladies Bingo story. Got this one, too.
4. Write and post at least one more media review, either here or to Lady Business. Utterly failed at this one, unless my Last Jedi linkspam-with-commentary counts. I have about half of a Person of Interest review that will probably never see the light of day, alas.
5. If time left over, work on Alistair story. I did draft one scene. As I mentioned on my fic year in review post, part of me wants to hold this story until I can do another DA:I replay, and part of me thinks that's a poor excuse.
2017 goals:
1. Sign up for
getyourwordsout with the intention of hitting the 150k goal. Yes, that's right. Yes, I know that means I have to write half-again as many the words as I wrote this year. But I wonder if giving myself a wordcount metric to meet will get me back into writing more words at a stretch. Well, we know that the answer to this one was a big fat NO. I didn't even break 100k, for the first time since I started tracking words. I did at least manage to check in every month.2. Keep up the regular linkspam posts in my journal; write at least one, ideally two posts for
ladybusiness every month; and stay on top of contributing to ladybusiness anchor posts and group projects. I slowed down on the linkspam at the end of the year -- I haven't done one since November. I probably averaged more like one ladybusiness post every other month, but I did contribute to the group projects and even spearheaded a couple myself. So, one no, one yes, one kind of.3. Participate in at least one Big Bang and two fic exchanges. Of these, at least one of these should be new to me. I didn't find any Big Bangs that appealed to me, and I feel like this is a huge reason for my productivity hit. I did, however, participate in two exchanges, and one -- Yuletide -- was new to me. The other was Remix Revival, which is a replacement/continuation of Remix Redux, which I did twice.
4. Once Wardens of Ivalice Part 2 is finished, pick a month to prioritize writing a first draft of Part 3, with a goal of getting it posted sometime in 2018. Nope. The Alistair story became my large background project instead, with mixed results.
5. Find a fic prompt community I like and participate regularly. Recommendations welcome! I did
monthlysupergo for a little while, but since not all of its challenges are fic-based, and it's not very large or active, it didn't grab me. I had more success with ladiesbingo -- I have four fics written and expect to get the fifth this month. I'd still be happy to take recommendations on this one.A couple of interesting things to note about this year: this is the second year I posted more words of fic than I wrote; I had noted with concern in last year's wrap up that I posted very few words in 2016, but looking at the patterns now, I can see that this is largely due to having written so much on Wardens of Ivalice in 2016 but not posting it until February 2017 -- compare 2012 and 2013, when I wrote a complete draft of Justify the Means in 2012, then posted it in January. So it's at least partly an artifact of when years begin and end. One thing is new, though: for the first time ever, fic words were less than half my writing output (although 2016 comes close). Obviously, joining Lady Business has something to do with that, but I doubt it's the whole reason (especially since I'm not posting there all that much, either). It's not like I'm writing reams of journal words, either. I can point to one really obvious factor: one of my major projects of the year was a repost of an existing story; I got a few words out of that via editing, but a project like that isn't going to bump up the word count.
I've made one major change to how I think about and track my writing in 2018: as discussed here, I decided to sign up for the new Habit Pledge at GYWO, at the 240 level. It's mostly an experiment, to see if freeing myself from a word count goal but still having accountability will take off some pressure. Also, given the state of the world right now, I like the idea of having a goal that's fairly easy to hit (and I will give myself a bigger stretch goal). This year, I had 266 writing days, so I'll expand on that a bit.
Speaking of goals. For January:
1. Write 6 days per week.
2. Write and post the fifth
ladiesbingo story. Look for another potential line, or perhaps a postage stamp (combining four prompts that form a square on the card). 3. Complete my 2017 Media Review post, with 2018 reading goals, and post to
ladybusiness. Also work on and ideally post my Hugo nomination recommendations.4. Research and outline Part 3 of Wardens of Ivalice.
And for 2018:
1. Complete the Journeyman Habit Pledge (240 writing days) for
getyourwordsout. Stretch goal: 288 writing days, which is about halfway between writing 5 days/week and 6 days/week. That's 24 days/month, which shouldn't be a problem most months, and I can push past it in months where I'm not traveling etc. to make up the difference. I'll continue to track word count, but I may not keep reporting it; we'll see. My definition of a writing day is at least 15 minutes of drafting, editing, or outlining fiction or a substantive review or essay; writing up my portion of a Sidetracks, Favorite Media, or other collected review post on Lady Business; and/or writing and posting a substantial post on my journal (at least 300 words). 2. Complete and post Wardens of Ivalice, Part 3. I am officially putting the Alistair story on hiatus for now, so as to only have one epic Dragon Age story in my head at once.
3. Participate in at least two fic exchanges and one Big Bang. I'd appreciate any Big Bang pointers or recommendations, especially if anyone knows of a good Reverse Bang coming up in the first half of the year.
4. Two media reviews or other substantial articles each month for Lady Business. (I'm probably going to tie this one to my reading goals.) Set a schedule for one political linkspam every two weeks, and stick to it.
5. Finish every new story I start in 2018. (Exception: if I sign up for a challenge late in the year that has a posting deadline in 2019.) The minute I set this goal in text, I was hit by a wave of terror, which is why I know it's a good choice. Allowing stories to languish and die has been a huge problem for me over the last few years, and it's a habit I want to break. Let's see how this goes.
no subject
Let's do the thing! (I am foreseeing a lot of Persona 5 fic in my future...)