(Week 2: January 6 – 12)
Having looked at my annual totals in last week’s post, this week I want to focus specifically (and briefly) on my stats for 2018.
| Written | avg. | Edited | Total | |
| Totals: | 91,589 | 640 | 93,770 | 185,359 |
| Jan | 17,603 | 1035 | 11,313 | 28,916 |
| Feb | 7,986 | 532 | 1,443 | 9,429 |
| Mar | 5,849 | 418 | 10,691 | 16,540 |
| Apr | 9,801 | 545 | 2,815 | 12,616 |
| May | 9,703 | 746 | 10,165 | 19,868 |
| Jun | 2,155 | 539 | 15,461 | 15,461 |
| Jul | 10,934 | 911 | 9,551 | 9,551 |
| Aug | 3,319 | 664 | 890 | 4,209 |
| Sep | 9,067 | 567 | 7,200 | 7,200 |
| Oct | 9,633 | 507 | 5,820 | 5,820 |
| Nov | 9,633 | 615 | 12,107 | 12,107 |
| Dec | 1,231 | 410 | 6,314 | 7,545 |
Having looked at my annual totals in last week’s post, this week I want to focus specifically (and briefly) on my stats for 2018.
Overall last year was pretty good writing-wise; far more consistent than the preceding few years. Thanks, in part, to my cosy writing corner (which I set up in my bedroom halfway through 2017) I managed to more or less avoid the winter slump that has hit me in previous years. I suspect those low August figures are more to do with me being particularly poor at recording my daily word counts during that month than anything else. In fact, if there has been any single ongoing issue during last year, it’s my lax attitude to properly recording my writing output. That’s something I plan to improve on this year.
Going briefly through the rest of the year … the high word count in January is down to two things: some fairly chunky blog posts, and a couple of epic sessions on a story that I was clearly very motivated to write. I did a further draft of that same story in March, partly accounting for that month’s high editing count, but also started work on a sci-fi novella; progress on which helped keep my word counts healthy over much of the year. November saw me revisiting a few stories I’d started earlier in the year, with some bumper editing sessions. December, perhaps predictably, ended up being largely overtaken by Christmas.
In total, I started ten new stories in 2018; 7 of those are now complete, and 3 still need work. I wrote 52 blog posts, of varying length. I also managed to write somewhere in the region 30,000 words towards a sci-fi novella (which, given I’m only halfway though, may well end up being a novel).
So, yeah, pretty happy with 2018.
Watching
I watched little of note this week, so let’s skip ahead to the next section.
Reading
Just before Christmas I bought an anthology of Richard Matheson adaptations from ComiXology. For some reason, I Am Legend had been on my mind over the last month, so I started with that story. It turned out to be an immensely detailed—and very lengthy—adaptation. I haven’t read the original novel, but I get the feeling this retelling crams as many of the original words in as possible. It was very similar, in fact, to the graphic novel of Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? which I read last year, and which very much felt like the novel being retold with imagery (as opposed to the rushed Cliff’s Notes version which many adaptations end up being).
It took me several nights to read, and left me with the sense that I’d been on a journey with the main character—which is exactly what you want from a novel. The stark black and white design conveyed the desolation of the story beautifully, without ever distracting from it.
Overall, definitely recommended; though I’m highly tempted to read to novel now to see if it really does compare as closely as I suspect.