2019, Gone In A Blink

Ah, 2019... Here today, gone tomorrow! At least that's what it feels like to me. This year, it firmly feels like time ran away due to my productivity, so that's good. I mean, I didn't accomplish everything I set out to do, and some plans shifted, but I do feel I've run many miles (in other words, written a lot of words).

Is it time for numbers yet? Remember, I love numbers. No, not yet? OK, I'll wait patiently. Sits on hands. Wait, I can't type up this blog post if I do that...

Anyway, first I'll go over the publications for the year, and then I'll list my progress, including some numbers.

2019 Publications

❦ Born of Blood and Souls: 13 Dark Fantasy Stories & Poems

❦ Thorns Entwine the Blade (Trinity Torn, 2)

So, two publications this year, and I honestly think this is a good goal for the next couple years ahead (Spring and Fall releases?). But more importantly, finally publishing Thorns lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. I hate it that it took so long, but it's finally out there! And I almost forgot to mention - you can get the paperback version now on Amazon, too!

2019 Progress

❦ Completed the revision and three edits of Thorns Entwine the Blade.

❦ Completed the rough draft of Well of Solitude (Fortunes of Fate, 7), which came in at over 15,000 words, and may hit 20,000 during revision.

❦ Wrote almost 5,000 words for the rough draft of Downward Spiral (Urban Unicorn, 1).

❦ A bunch of job requests for Haunted Unicorn Publishing!

❦ Wrote 19,554 words of rough draft material.

❦ Revised 48,690 words.

❦ Edited 205,439 words (this excludes my third edit of Thorns, since that was a quicker edit, applying my editor's suggestions).

❦ 30 blog posts (including this one).

❦ Spent 171.58 hours writing, revising, and editing.

❦ Spent 45.62 hours formatting, working on cover art, and publishing.

❦ In total, spent 344.05 hours on writing and writing related tasks (up to this post, and not including my Haunted Unicorn work or reading, aka market research, this time).

I think those numbers look a lot better than the ones from 2018. Don't you? No, I'm not linking to the embarrassing 2018 post. Let's just forget 2018 ever existed. Yes.

However, I will leave the link to my goals post from the beginning of the year: 2019 - Determination.

You can compare those goals with what I actually accomplished. The initial planned schedule didn't quite work out, but I have adjusted things so I can fit in 3 hours of writing/writing tasks on school days (unless other crazy things crop up). I'm pretty comfortable with the schedules and routines now in place!

Here's hoping 2020 will be even more productive. I'll post my goals in a couple of weeks! Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful rest of 2019. I'll leave you a pic of this year's new ornament on our Yule tree!

Oh, 2017, Where Have You Gone?

Delayed post again -- sorry about that. Still getting over sickness and the to do list for December has been crazy (I still haven't sent out my holiday cards yet...).

It's time for me, though, to take a look at all that I've accomplished in 2017. While I didn't publish as much as I did in 2016, I've still been making a lot of forward progress with my goals. This year I think I'll even throw some numbers out, just for fun. I love numbers. Don't you love numbers? OK, just another thing that makes me weird then. I own up to my weirdness.

First, the publication list for 2017!

2017 Publications

❦ Edge of Sorrow (Fortunes of Fate, 6)

❦ Dreams in Shadow (Fortunes of Fate, 1) - Paperback Edition

❦ Hell On Wheels (Devil Made Me, 2)

Short, but sweet. I had so much fun writing both new titles I released this year. It should always be that way, right? If I feel the joy of writing, I hope readers get that same joy while reading!

Now, of course the publications aren't the only thing I have to show for in 2017. Writing is like a play -- tons of stuff goes on back stage. Here's where some of the numbers come in. And since I have handy charts to track everything each year, I didn't have to do some extra number crunching for this post.

2017 Progress

❦ Completed the rough draft and 20% through a revision of Thorns Entwine the Blade (Trinity Torn, 2)

❦ Added over 5,000 words to the rough draft of GSD vs. Everything

❦ Set up and posted several stories on Patreon

❦ Set up and started beta reading and developmental editing under Haunted Unicorn Publishing

❦ Wrote 93,444 words of first draft material

❦ Revised 53,039 words

❦ Posted 38 blog posts (including this one)

❦ Spent 165.63 hours writing, revising, and editing

❦ Spent 49.1 hours either writing blog posts or updating my website

❦ Spent 36.95 hours formatting, creating cover art, and uploading titles to be published

❦ In totality, including the hours above, I spent 490.43 hours total on writing related tasks (up to the date of this post -- still have a couple more hours to put in before the end of the month)

Whew. That seems like a lot more when I type it all up. I know for some writers the numbers might seem low, but remember I'm not doing this full-time right now (kids, kids, oh the kids). Though I didn't hit all of my hopeful goals (if you want to compare to what my initial goals for the year were, look back at Setting My Sights on 2017), I am proud of myself for making so much progress and keeping at it.

Next year, I'm going to make my goals more realistic and base them on my productivity from this year. But that's my post for next week!

I hope you all had a productive 2017!