Writing Progress: Week Ending June 16, 2012

I’m late to post, this week, but let’s cut to the chase, first:

Book of M:

• Background Notes Wordcount: 0 words
• First Draft Wordcount: 750 words

Grand Total: 750 words

It should probably come as no surprise that last week was not terribly productive after a pretty amazing (for me) wordcount in the week prior.  I have a track record of following up high-wordcount weeks with crashes.  (I just did a quick tally for this year.  Of those weeks where I met or exceeded my wordcount goal, over 60% of them were followed by weeks where I was considerably below my goal.  That seems statistically notable.)

Anyway, a partial explanation for last week encompasses both the low wordcount and the lateness of my progress report: the latter half of last week was largely taken up with preparations for a family trip to beach-land.  Said trip lasted through Monday, and we didn’t get back until late.  While readying for the trip, I didn’t have much time for writing.  While on the trip I was mostly unplugged.  (More and more often when the family and I take a trip, I stay pretty unplugged throughout.)  After returning from the trip, Dear Wife and I were exhausted, and had unpacking and whatnot to do, so there was no opportunity to check my stats from the prior week (though I was pretty sure it was around 750-ish words, I couldn’t remember exactly.)

And since this week now is already half over, I expect this week will be similarly poor on the wordcount.  Of course, each week that passes with such poor performance puts me further and further behind on my goals for the year.  There’s not much to be done for it.

In the weeks ahead, I expect to be similarly short on wordcounts, as Home Project Phase III begins to ramp up soon throughout most of July.  After Phase III comes to an end sometime in Late July or Early August, things on the Home front should calm down.  Thereafter, I’m certain, there will be ongoing home improvement project needs – there will continue to be more to do for the foreseeable future.  But the high-intensity and time-sensitive and physically and mentally exhaustive work will largely, and hopefully finally, be done.  It’s been a huge undertaking for Dear Wife and I, but at the end of the it all, I think we’ll both say it was worth it.

Once that normalizes, I’m hopeful that things will settle in such a way as to better allow me to write on a more consistent and regular basis.

Anyway, there’s not much else I can say about the writing front.  The novel continues.  I remain excited about it.  And I’m striving to reach a place where I feel the book will be able to sustain its own momentum.  At that point, I may feel comfortable introducing another, new project to the mix.  I’ve got a few short stories simmering on the back burner of my mind, and one of them is pretty much ready for some extra attention, and should be a nice and true short story.  Another has taken on a few additional ingredients and looks to be a budding novelette on the somewhat long-side.  So far this year I haven’t participated in the Writers of the Future contest (as I did in the prior two years) nor have I marketed any other work, and I’d like to change that by year’s end (notwithstanding the caveats and complicated feelings I have toward the WotF contest).

So, how was your week?