August was yet another slow month on the writing front, but I feel like a lot happened this month. I was in Chicago for two days, which seems like several months ago, and we traveled basically every other weekend we had.

Still, I came to some interesting / pertinent decisions regarding my authorly life.

We’ll get to the goals in a minute, because frankly, I don’t think they’re changing that much from last month. Here are some of those decisions I made over the course of this month with regards to my writing:

1. No more Facebook. I limit myself to checking it about twice per week, because it’s just a steaming pile of shit. Everything about Facebook is annoying, and I don’t trust them as a company, and the crap that idiots spew there is just toxic. So I will never be returning to Facebook for an author page or anything of the sort.
2. I want to pursue two new writing projects over the next year+. One will be an actual published story. The other will be my next Wattpad adventure after “The Grand Mythos of Úr’Dan, Volume One” is completed.
3. I really like Wattpad, and I intend to keep using it both as a reader and a writer. I’ve gotten into a pretty good cadence of checking the forums 2-3 times per week and trying to participate, and I’ve had some good interactions with other readers/writers there.
4. And I’ll explain my fourth decision in a bit.

So, while my word count for August was low, I managed to be mentally productive last month, which has to count for something.

Last Month’s Goals

1. Write 10,000 words for The Warden of Everfeld: Legacy.
2. Get more sleep.
3. Look forward to vacation.

Write 10,000 words?

Nooooooooooope. I wrote 3,721 words in August.

This was in part because I was thinking a lot about these other two projects which will remain vague. That’s generally a sign that I should do something about them.

I managed to rearrange the early sections of WoEL, however, and I like the new organization. I also plotted out the next few chapters.

I also decided that I need to rethink my word count goals. 10k words is definitely still the goal for the month, but my daily goals need to change. At first, I was aiming for 350 words every day. That’s just not realistic. Then, I wanted to just write at least 15 days out of the month. Well, in August I wrote eight days, so… that didn’t work.

Looking back at my progress for the year — and this is going to hurt — I’ve written 33,145 words in eighty writing days through August. That’s 414 words per day on average, just on days that I’ve actually written something.

To achieve 10,000 words, I’d need to average 414 words per day for 24 days. We all know that that’s not feasible at the moment, at least in a single month. 15 writing days probably is, in which case I need to average 667 words each time I sit down to write.

That’s a loftier goal per writing session, but I think aiming for that will get me to 10,000 on the month. I’m trying it out, either way.

Get More Sleep?

I’ve been better the last week or so about getting to bed around 10:30. Enforcing that bedtime has also spurred me to be a bit more productive in the evenings, because I’m not staying up an extra hour+.

So naturally, I’m adding a new wrinkle for myself. I want to get in the habit of going to the gym before work. Right now, We all wake up around 6:30-7, I get the baby ready and feed him, take him to daycare around 7:30, and get down to my office around 8:30-9, which is about as late as I want to get in.

This week, I started setting my first alarm for 5:45. I haven’t managed to will myself out of bed at that time, but it’s going to happen. I want to get to the gym before 6, work out for 30-40 minutes, get home, and then start my normal routine.

I have to do this in order to keep up a regular workout schedule and stay healthy. I haven’t gone to the gym in two weeks, and my evenings are already pretty full. I have to make this work.

Look Forward to Vacation?

I knocked this one out of the park. I looked forward to vacation so hard, and I’m still going strong.

We spent a weekend in Rehoboth last month, which was pretty nice, but I didn’t get any solid beach time. Nor did I get a lot of lake time on our Labor Day holiday. With Hurricane Dorian sweeping up the east coast and about six more storms brewing in the Atlantic, I’m hoping that our week-long vacation to the Outer Banks will still happen. My PTO will be used in any event.

I realize it’s cynical to watch massive storm systems for the purpose of ensuring my vacation plans don’t change, but there it is. Either way, I hope the damage to the coastal states is minimal.

Goals for September

1. Write 10,000 words for The Warden of Everfeld: Legacy. I haven’t fully committed mentally to these other projects, but I may divert some of my writing time to those this month. We’ll see.
2. Get to bed early and go to the gym in the mornings. This will probably be tough for a bit, but worth it.
3. Enjoy my week-long vacation, whatever form it takes. I’d love to spend it at the beach as planned, but honestly, a week at home with the family would also be nice. And we could always pick somewhere else to go last minute.