Jen's Writing Journey

No, I’m not going to regale you with tales about my inability to choose between the stable family man-type or the insensitive rake. But I am going to use my blog to hold myself accountable for my word count. I haven’t decided whether I’m going to go with publisher word counts or word processor word counts as a general rule (I will be consistent, though, once I make the final decision), but I will be posting my word count here weekly as a means of making myself accountable for my goals.

I ended 2008 with a respectable 10,000 words (word processor count). But I’ve added few words through the month of January, and I’ve decided that beating myself up about it is not helping me get more words written. Instead, I’m going to unapologetically give you my word count once a week. I want 3,500 words written each week, and you’ll know whether I hit that.

I’m not going to spend post after post telling you why I haven’t hit my count or why I have (well, maybe a little–self-reflection is a goal here). I’m just going to keep a running word count in my sidebar for all to see. The little gadget is courtesy of Writertopia.

• Stephen King Was My Early Muse Well, Stephen King and quite a few other authors. I was lucky, and I learned to read when I was 3. That meant the wonderful world of literature was open to me at a young age. As my reading skill grew, I began to read more and more, and at......
• Writing Roundup, Nov. 6: "Still Friday on the West Coast" Edition The Business of Writing Craft Fiction Freelancing The Business of Writing Firsts What are your goals for your writing career? Aprilynne Pike discusses her goals, other possible goals as a writer, and the ways we can achieve these goals. Choosing Your Genre Agent Jessica Faust covers the issue of......
• Outlining Redux When I started working on my novel, I was following a very Stephen King approach to the story. I let it unfold in front of me as I wrote. I had flashes of future events, which I dutifully captured on whatever medium was handy. I enjoyed the discovery process, but......
• Writing Roundup, May 8 And, another work week for the 9-5 crowd comes to a close. I wonder if this song lyric would be true of me if I did not have a day job to do in addition to this crazy writing thing: "I wake up every evening, with a big smile on......
• Blog Roundup There have been some great discussions this week on the blogs I follow. Here are a few to get you thinking. Please feel free to share any posts you have come across in the comments section.Blogger's BlockIt amazes me how I seem to stumble across exactly the words I need......

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