7:12pm

I have already finished my writing for the day. Yeah… I know. I’m kinda surprised, too. I’m not used to saying or writing that, let alone so early in the “day.”

After the massive word counts and writing time of the past two days, I decided that the plan for today would be just hitting my 1,500 words. Where I should be for January 7th (in terms of word count) is 10,500 words. Where I actually am is 16,290 words. So, even though I’ve missed two out of the seven potential writing days this month (so far), I’m still 5,790 words ahead of the word count portion of my goal.

And that’s okay. I’m really digging the ‘no pressure’ feeling I’m having right now. Always before, I felt like there was a huge mountain of words hanging over me that absolutely had to be written, and I think–more than anything else–that feeling was what made me hit walls with my writing. Which is why I tried such an absurdly low daily word count goal. This also means that I can easily pull back a little bit and put my attention to other things that need to happen.

As soon as I post this, I’ll hop over to focus on proofing audio for The Shepherd. I want to get that published soon, and I’d like for the audio to go live on KFP’s store at the same time the eBook does.

I’ve already spoken with my Go-To Reader, and it’s sounding like I’ll get Hyperion back later this month, which will be perfect to publish it in February (pre-order in April for everywhere else). By that point, I should have new covers for the Primogenitor Saga, so I should probably hop over and resume writing on Tempus, but I won’t do that until I finish Colfyr. I want Colfyr finished. I’m having a blast writing the story, and I can’t wait to see how it ends.

I honestly don’t know how it will end, either. I’m not an outliner, and the sudden bolt of understanding hasn’t struck me yet. If I had to guess, it will hit me somewhen within the next five-ish chapters… maybe. I don’t know if I remember whether a bolt of understanding struck me when I was writing The Shepherd, or if I just wrote up to the end and hit a point where it just felt right to stop.

Come to think of it, I should probably spend a little time on the back cover copy for The Shepherd. I told my cover designer I’d do that today, and that’s just as necessary to the publishing process as proofing the audio.

In other news…

I don’t know whether it’s the rainy, dreary weather we’ve had lately or something else, but today has been… well… I’ve felt just a little bit tired most of the day. I’d love to tell the audio that needs proofing to go jump in the creek outside and curl up for a nap, but my sleep schedule is crazy enough that I don’t want to antagonize it. It seems to be pretty stable right now, as I’m consistently getting sleepy around 4am, and that works for me. It’s not always ideal for interacting with the rest of the world, but it is what it is. If this is indeed the best schedule for my writing, then that’s the schedule I shall have.

All right. I’ve yammered on enough for now, I’d say.

I hope the days treat you and yours well. Stay safe out there.

Daily Word Count: 1,658
January Word Count: 16,290
2024 Word Count: 16,290
Writing Days: 5
Total Days: 7
Days Remaining: 359