Word Count Wednesday: 3 Aug 2022

Good morning. Yes, it’s that time of the week again. How have you been getting on?

Mmm, well. Another week of leaving it to the last minute. More house stuff (switching estate agents/last few days of auction, which finishes this lunchtime!) and a (beloved’s) family gathering as well as work (crime novel editing) deadlines meant my writing week started at 9.33pm… last night!

Quality over quantity? Not sure as it took a little while to re-read (thanks, Mrs Kindle) what I’d written thus far but I did manage to put down 1,713 words in just under two hours. If only I could do that every two hours!

Do leave a comment below to share your progress, successes and otherwise, and of course anything else that’s happened to you, writing related, over the past seven days.

Word Count Wednesday: 27 July 2022

Good morning. Oh boy, it’s that time of the week again. How have you been getting on?

Another week of house stuff. Transferring things from my mum’s house to the (bigger) storage unit, the old one emptied quite quickly (so I wasn’t paying for two) and dealing with a new estate agent, a cock-up (pardon my Franglais) between my ex-mortgage bank and the Land Registry, and contractors fixing things at my mum’s house and my uncle’s (one turned up, one didn’t).

So it got to Tuesday again and it dawned on me that it was Tuesday again! So, at 16:38 I got writing. I’d had nearly 500 word written by 17:53 – the opening to a new novel (that I’d planned last week), one I feel has potential to be commercial so will either go off to agents or a select choice of publishers. I’m currently self-published (one of my 16 titles was trad pubbed to mixed reviews: a one-star review that said ‘I don’t usually leave reviews for books but this was so bad that I felt I had to’ – thanks! – but also a blogger’s (and we know how many they read) favourite of 2018 so I love the disparity) but would love to be wider read… wouldn’t we all.

With the distraction of dropping more things at my storage unit, meeting beloved (always the highlight of my day) and collecting something from Facebook Marketplace (I’m a slave to it!) – a mile apart, thankfully, I finished my writing part-day with 1,698 words (almost two chapters). Not bad for a handful of hours plus I’m very pleased with them. Hopefully it won’t be next Tuesday before I add more.

Do leave a comment below to share your progress, successes and otherwise, and of course anything else that’s happened to you, writing related, over the past seven days.

Word Count Wednesday: 20 July 2022

Good morning. Yes, it’s that time of the week again. How have you been getting on?

I’ve been staying with beloved for the last few days so had no excuse (while he was building his shed on the hottest days of the year so far!) not to do some writing. And I did! Kind of. I did have some work to do (and distractions) but finally got to it. I have two recent WIPs (works in progress) so started with the most recent and added 611 to that.

I toyed with doing some to the other but had come up with a couple of new ideas (one being a Terry Pratchett-type alternate world, a departure for me but inspired by beloved’s love of SFF) so did some planning for those. 353 words for one, 276 for the other. Enough to be cracking on with for next WCW. Not actual story words here as yet but definitely progress.

Do leave a comment below to share your progress, successes and otherwise, and of course anything else that’s happened to you, writing related, over the past seven days.

Word Count Wednesday: 13 July 2022

Good morning. Yes, it’s that time of the week again. How have you been getting on?

A busy week for me securing new storage (bigger for the same price) so moving possessions from one side of town to another. And work, always work.

Crazy as this sounds but I only realised Word Count Wednesday was looming because my wonderful iMac reminded me to ‘edit blog post with WCW’ as it does at 5pm every Tuesday. Always handy when I have a word count to share but even handier when I’ve not written anything. Which was the case this week.

I’d planned to finish some work and get cracking but as it got past 7pm, I debated whether to write something, anything, or cut my losses and continue with work, or neither and perhaps do another storage run.

As the latest two projects I was working on were novels I decided I’d rather have a longer chunk of time (plus with a looming estate agent visit I had the house to prepare). Maybe not the best for a guilt-free option but I will have more time when everything’s in the new storage unit. Tomorrow is another day (WCW week) I thought…

But then it got to 8pm and guilt took over. With two weeks with actual figures I didn’t want to have a third as zero so I went back to last week’s and re-read (or rather got my computer to read) what I’d written thus far. I knew where the story was going so continued for a while and ended up with 241 – better than zero for sure. Plus I realised the story wasn’t starting in the right place so moved the chapters down and wrote a new chapter one (never a prologue… urgh!) opening. Quality over quantity.

I got a bit stuck so at 9.22pm called it a day (especially as I was boiling so a good excuse to take the dog out to cool down).

Do leave a comment below to share your progress, successes and otherwise, and of course anything else that’s happened to you, writing related, over the past seven days.

Word Count Wednesday: 6 July 2022

Good morning. Yes, it’s that time of the week again. How have you been getting on?

Having finished working at midnight Monday/Tuesday, I was going to continue last week’s novel yesterday but got an idea for another one on Monday so I started planning that. I ended up writing some of it yesterday (as well as planning more) and got 1,360 actual bone fide story words down, interrupted only by dogs walks and viewing a rental property (wish me luck on that one!).

Do leave a comment below to share your progress, successes and otherwise, and of course anything else that’s happened to you, writing related, over the past seven days.

Word Count Wednesday: 29 June 2022

Good morning. Yes, it’s that time of the week again. How have you been getting on?

I must admit I’d forgotten about WCW yesterday until my trusty computer reminder flashed up at 5pm. Oops. I’d come up with a new idea a day or two earlier so thought I’d jot some notes – that’s a word count of sorts. So I did just that. Then felt inspired to write the opening (rather than the editing I’d planned). And did that too.

I ended up writing until 9pm and had a final total (plan and actual story) of 1,325. Hopefully at least the same by this time next week – two deadlines though so I’ll let you know.

Do leave a comment below to share your progress, successes and otherwise, and of course anything else that’s happened to you, writing related, over the past seven days.

Word Count Wednesday: 22 June 2022

Good morning. Yes, it’s that time of the week again. How have you been getting on?

I had high hopes for this week, being all settled in but two viewings (actually the same person but they didn’t show for the first one!) meant two gettings of the house ready – as there’d been time in between – and a minor disaster (plumbing problems leading to water coming through into the hall from the bathroom above it) and two work deadlines meant I finished the latter late last night.

I’ve treated myself to a Tassimo (other coffee machines are available) which thankfully produces other delights than coffee as I’m not a fan. I know! I’d like to be but mixed ones (especially those with chocolate) are a good introduction so I’m hoping this new gadget will help. Therefore, with work done and the next deadline over two weeks away, my hopes can still flutter overhead reminding me that part of my move south was for a better quality of life (more writing). I’ll let you know next Wednesday. That said, I am editing a novel I’d written ages ago so it might be a minus figure but that’s okay. 🙂

Do leave a comment below to share your progress, successes and otherwise, and of course anything else that’s happened to you, writing related, over the past seven days.

Word Count Wednesday: 15 June 2022

Good morning. Yes, it’s that time of the week again. How have you been getting on?

It was moving day yesterday so unpacking for the rest of the week. Hopefully thereafter I’ll have time for writing although I do have a couple of deadlines for next week so it may not be impressive. Something would be nice. 🙂

Do leave a comment below to share your progress, successes and otherwise, and of course anything else that’s happened to you, writing related, over the past seven days.

Word Count Wednesday: 8 June 2022

Good morning. Yes, it’s that time of the week again. How have you been getting on?

Now six days until I move. As you can imagine the last week has been mostly (work and) packing so no writing but that’s okay.

It’s unlikely I’ll be moving again for at least three months (waiting for probate and someone to buy my mum’s house) so plenty of time to get chunks of writing done (keep me to that!).

I may not have much in the way of word count next Wednesday but I’m hoping it’ll be at least three figures (and not 000!).

Do leave a comment below to share your progress, successes and otherwise, and of course anything else that’s happened to you, writing related, over the past seven days.

Word Count Wednesday: 1 June 2022

Good morning. Yes, it’s that time of the week again. How have you been getting on?

I’ve been working mostly but have continued a scene I started last week (<1,000 words). I’ve written some notes for the rest of the story so potentially a new novel. I’ve also had an inspired thought of writing for a particular publisher so watch this space.

I’m moving in a couple of weeks but already taking things to the other (my mum’s) house so should have everything in place really quickly so I’m optimistic that I will get much more writing time thereafter.

Do leave a comment below to share your progress, successes and otherwise, and of course anything else that’s happened to you, writing related, over the past seven days.