May’s Writing Goals: a 100% Three Oranges-free blog post

I wanted to do a quick non-Three Oranges related update since it’s been the TLOTO show around here for the past few weeks with all the stuff for the launch of the new edition.

Back on April 30th, I decided to try to use May to both catch-up AND get ahead on my word count in a challenge I dorkily called, “Where there’s a will, there’s a May!” which I will totally be using every year that I can because it cracks me up. To be caught up, I needed to write 76,000 words in May but I was secretly aiming for 100,000 because that would give me a nice cushion going into the summer. This goal seemed quite possible back when I set it and I could blame all the work I have to do or my annoyingly busted hands (which were back to being really bad for a while until I triumphantly got a working wax thingie again earlier this week and can start to make baby steps back to the improved state we were at the other day) or the fact that I managed to break my mic headset so I couldn’t use the voice program but excuses are for whiners and whiners don’t get sh- done!

Point being, I’m insanely behind. I’m just about half-way to 76,000 and well beyond half-way through the month. I’d have to write over 4,500 words a day to hit the original goal of 76,000 and 100k may be a lost cause.

But, at the same time, I know I could have hit it if I’d have tried harder. I was too cocky in the beginning of the month, doing lots of non-writing work because I was confident in my ability to catch up later. I should really take my own advice and always get ahead early. So, while I think 100k for *this* May is a pipe dream, I know I can do it and I definitely want to revisit that challenge in the future. Should I make it a 100k NaNoWriMo this year? Do 100k month in June? We’ll see.

On the big plus side, however, I like the fact that I’m not finding it easy to keep up with this goal. I felt like last year’s goal of 200,000 words for the year was a little too easy which is why I upped it to 500,000. Sure, I’m struggling and it’s making me a little crazy but I feel like that is the point. A challenge is supposed to be, well, a challenge. It’s supposed to be hard. If it isn’t, well, then what’s the point of doing it? It’s forcing me to reevaluate how I fit writing into my life and how I work and stretching is always a good thing.

So, will I succeed in writing 76,000 words in May? I’m still going to try my damnedest to.

Potato is cool and logical about the whole thing.

Can I just point something out for a moment here? We established last year that 500 words a day for 365 days (a year) was 182,500 words for the year. That was my original goal for last year before I passed it with a few weeks to spare and decided to up it.

It’s May 24th and I’m a mere 8,899 words away from passing last year’s goal FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR. Behind or not, that’s pretty freaking cool.