Today was a pretty good day, all told. Just not for writing.

As with my 633-word day this week (which I think was Monday?), I had a very productive and good day over all, but didn’t get much writing accomplished. I got some writing in, but nothing Earth-shattering.

And that’s okay.

I’m sure that produced some head-scratching. But it really is okay. Yes, I set a weekly goal for this challenge at 25,000 words. And yes, even though the week isn’t over yet, I’m extremely confident I won’t hit 25k this week.

It all goes back to the goal of the challenge versus the intent of the challenge.

As I said not quiet a week ago (I think), the ultimate purpose of this challenge wasn’t to produce 25,000 words of fiction each week. That was a SMART goal: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-sensitive. The purpose of the challenge was to assist me in creating a daily writing habit.

I will be happy if two thigns happen during this challenge:

1. I write every day of the challenge–which is 77 days–and
2. I average 2,750 words per day across each week.

So, why that specific number of a daily average? Why… I’m glad you asked.

One of my professional role models–Dean Wesley Smith–came up with a scale of annual writing production that he calls Pulp Speed as a riff on Star Trek’s Warp Speed. He wrote up six levels of Pulp Speed and basically said “add 500 words per day for every level past 6.” Here’s the most recent post on his site where he explains Pulp Speed, its origins, and its feasibility.

The daily word count for Pulp Speed 1 is to average 2,750 words per day across an entire year. This challenge would be an excellent starting point for a Pulp Speed challenge… except for one thing. I’m not counting it towards my first one-million-words year; I’m going to start that run on January 1st, 2023.

This challenge will be a success as long as I write every day of the challenge. I’m not certain I’ve ever had a 77-day run where I wrote every, single day. I honestly don’t think I have. I want a good foundation of daily writing before I start the run to one million fiction words in a year.

Right, then. Here’s today’s data.

Today's Word Count: 640
Weekly Word Count: 14,862
Remaining Words to 25,000: 10,138