Jeremy C Kester

Since I missed the “what I wrote” post for May, I had to make sure I get this one up. June was an interesting month for me in writing to say the least…

Before I go any further, June saw an end to the writing streak I had started when reinstituting my daily writing goal back in February. I made it 121 days since that goal was put in, ending on a day that I did not get a single chance to write. It was a big family day, and it was a great lesson in being OK with days like that. Because then, two days later, I got too sick to finish my writing goal, having to go up and lay down as I couldn’t even sit up any longer to write.

It was another important lesson in being OK with setbacks… to not let them derail progress.

And speaking of progress, June was a fantastic month for a couple of reasons: mainly the TWO projects that I completed the first drafts on. 1, the very long (171,118 word) sci-fi epic, Of Earth and Ice, and 2, the much shorter (17,750 word) novella, Antlers.

Each were projects I’ve struggled to complete over the last few years. Without the focus I placed on them over the course of this year, I would never have finished them in any decent amount of time. Now I’ve moved onto another short project, a middle-grade chapter book (10,000 to 20,000 words) I am calling Soar, and I should finish that in mid-July. Once I am done that, I am thinking of diving into book 2 for whatever I am calling the Agnes Pyle saga, but I might go to one of two other projects I had started some time ago and are each in the 20,000 word count range already.

Anyway, I am babbling. So here’s what I did last month (and in May):

As you can see, my total word count was the highest so far this year at 41,260 words. That’s with missing a day too. That’s writing two less days than in May.

In total words, that’s a novel, if you count 40,000 words as the minimum (for argument’s sake, many consider 50,000 words the minimum, but I’ve seen many sources also say 40,000 – NaNoWriMo considers it 50,000).

On the fiction side of it, I wrote 34,743 words, a drop since May, however, again due to missing a day thusly having 2 fewer days of writing than in May.

On the blogging side, it was the highest word count since January. This is with me writing less often for that. Many of the posts I started, I didn’t finish, which is in itself a bit of an issue. But I’ve made no qualms in that I am pushing hard on fiction, not blogging. My ratio decreased however, writing less fiction compared to blogging/non-fiction.

After the two missed days, I averaged 1289 words per day, which is a good average to be working off. In other words, my ability to put more words out each day is growing, little by little. And the more often I work at this, the more it should grow.

Another thing also happened in June: I opened a Patreon account. Part of my daily writing habits became also dedicating 100 words a day to a short story for the site, maxing out at 3000 words. (You should click here to get some exclusive monthly content for as little as $1 a month.)

Besides the short stories going out for Patreon, I do now have four projects that are in the review phase. But that is four more things than I have published so far. Two more chapters in the Gravity Saga, Of Earth and Ice (in its entirety), and Antlers. At least two should be released by September/October, if all goes according to planning.

Anyway, that’s it for me on this post. I am going to get back to writing some fiction so that I can make July my most productive month yet!