2013 In Review

So 2013 is nearly over.  Which means, for me, time to do that whole analysis of how the year went.  I only had 3 goals for the year:

  • I will bring more focus back to self publishing.  I definitely did this.
  • I intend to finish and release 2-3 self published titles.  Did this.  I published Riven and Whisper of Shadow in September, Be Careful, It’s My Heart in November, and Once Upon A Snow Day (the first of my Meet Cute Romances).  Very happy with this.
  • I would like to repeat my WIP500 goal of 183k (okay technically 182.5k, as this isn’t a leap year).   This year, I  racked up 240,471 words.  That’s a bit misleading, as this year I actually began tracking words related to all the plotting I do.  Nearly 68k of that total was plot-work, which left me with a little over 172.5k in actual prose.  Not quite the 183k I intended, but I’m not going to quibble.  I’ve had a distracting house guest for a month and considerable stress that has blown my productivity for the last quarter of the year, so I’ll take it.  Actually, with all the words associated with the ebook formatting class I wrote over Christmas break, I might’ve made it…

I did a lot of comparison, looking at productivity trends over the last 4 years.  I’ve gradually added in more stuff to track (I’m a data geek, so sue me).  I’ve had a 67% increase in total words of annual prose since 2010 (I deducted the plotting words to get a more accurate number).  My total number of writing days per year has gone up from 171 to 279, and non writing down (concurrently) from 194 to 77.  So I’m consistently writing way more days out of the year.  My average daily word count has gone from 605 to 862, which is a modest gain, but combined with writing more actual DAYS has translated into a really nice bump in overall number of words for the year.  Last year I started keeping track of the number of days I spent plotting.  Sometimes that was the only writing I did, and sometimes it was something I did in addition to my prose for the day.  Last year I plotted 84 days.  This year, I clocked 140.  I’m happy with all that across the board.

Productivity data makes me happy.   😀

I also finished reading 59  71 (forgot to count the old favorites I reread) of the 83 books I started this year.  Some of those I intend to go back to, some went straight onto the DNF shelf.  After several years being captivated by YA, I have finally made a transition back to adult fiction, particularly contemporary romance, which is in keeping with the changes in what I’m currently writing.

Other awesome things–I connected with a local writer and have made a marvelous new friend.  Daisy finished out the year still walking.  Not great but, given where she was after the stroke, we’re ecstatic she’s still with us.  The project from hell at the Evil Day Job ended earlier in the year.  We’re still crazy busy but with other things.  All in all, I say it’s been a good year.

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