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.

• Writing Roundup Looking Forward While Keeping Your Feet in the PresentActress/director/writer Amber Benson posted a nice piece about staying true to yourself in a field that always wants to change you to fit their mold. Add it to your inspiration file--you never know when you need to read a quick pick-me-up.Is Immediacy......
• 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......
• Top 5 Posts With the end of the year approaching, it seemed like a good time to look back at the year and see which posts you found most useful. Here are the top 5, based on traffic and repeat visits. (Side note: The writing roundups are typically the most visited pieces, but......
• Book Review: My So-Called Freelance Life Michelle Goodman learned the hard way how to build a freelance writing business. Then she captured her wisdom in an easy-to-follow guidebook so you don't have to make the same mistakes. My So-Called Freelance Life takes you from the beginning dreams of leaving the cube farm behind to planning......
• Taking Time Off I'm going to take the rest of the week off for the holiday.I wish all of you in the U.S. a lovely holiday surrounded by those you love.Those of you in other countries, I wish you a quiet time on the Internet as we in the U.S. gorge ourselves on......

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