You are my Writing Mastermind group

Didn’t know that? Oops. :)

I don’t hang with writers, or readers, these days. I hang all alone in my little house (a house that’s far too big when it comes chore time) and I write as much as I can.

I have been aiming for 5,000 words a day for almost 6 months now, but I’ve yet to achieve it on more than a couple of occasions. My usual output is more in the range of 2,000 a day.

Since January (a s.l.o.w. month) I have written 68,614 new words and rewritten in some fashion or another countless more. February on the other hand, wasn’t nearly as slow and of those 68,614 words, 51,396 belonged only to February. I feel like I have hit my stride.

Here’s what it looks like in my spreadsheet.

Fri, 2/1/13 17,218
Sat, 2/2/13 17,230 12
Sun, 2/3/13 17,540 310
Mon, 2/4/13 19,973 2,433
Tue, 2/5/13 22,301 2,328
Wed, 2/6/13 24,317 2,016
Thu, 2/7/13 26,803 2,486
Fri, 2/8/13 29,161 2,358
Sat, 2/9/13 31,180 2,019
Sun, 2/10/13 33,225 2,045
Mon, 2/11/13 35,567 2,342
Tue, 2/12/13 37,944 2,377
Wed, 2/13/13 40,790 2,846
Thu, 2/14/13 43,394 2,604
Fri, 2/15/13 44,892 1,498
Sat, 2/16/13 46,040 1,148
Sun, 2/17/13 47,106 1,066
Mon, 2/18/13 48,613 1,507
Tue, 2/19/13 50,098 1,485
Wed, 2/20/13 51,329 1,231
Thu, 2/21/13 53,891 2,562
Fri, 2/22/13 55,008 1,117
Sat, 2/23/13 57,454 2,446
Sun, 2/24/13 59,045 1,591
Mon, 2/25/13 61,244 2,199
Tue, 2/26/13 62,787 1,543
Wed, 2/27/13 66,064 3,277
Thu, 2/28/13 68,614 2,550

Now, why does this matter? Because it’s the most consistent production I’ve had since I started keeping track back in August of 2012. (Not the only time in my life I’ve tracked my daily writing numbers, but the other sheets were YEARS old and out of date.)

Consistency is something I’ve needed to work on for a long time. Finally getting there has been amazing. My experience also says that the more you write, the more you’ll want to write, and the faster and better you’ll get at reaching those daily goals.

I do daily goals because I’m a natural procrastinator. If I set weekly goals, I wouldn’t reach them because the goals are so large that I couldn’t accomplish them in one day. And yes, I already know I would put them off until the last day.

Know thyself: the only way to stomp destructive habits into the ground.

So, Random Person, welcome to my writing mastermind group, whoever you are. :)