Remember how I set a modest goal of 100,000 words for the year for my first year as a mother? Remember how I hit it early? Then remember how I increased it to 150,000 and hit that too?
Oh, sorry, did I not tell you about that last part?
Well, check it:
150,086 words
Boom! But before you ask, no, I’m not upping it again. I almost never get any writing done over the Christmas holiday and I feel like I deserve a break. I’ll keep writing, of course, but not with any specific stretch goal beyond the usual “write as much as possible.”
It’s satisfying enough to know that I accomplished as much as I did. I also got a nice royalty check in the mail recently which went a long way to making me feel like I’m still in this game! When you consider my very first word count goal back in 2010 that I struggled to hit without having another human being to care for was only 182,500, I managed to end up only a couple of thousand words shy of that on a year when I had very low expectations for myself. So while I ‘m still a little worried about the future and how to make myself work more with ever decreasing time in which to do said work, for now, I’m glad to be coasting into the New Year happy with what I’ve accomplished.
The lesson? Push yourself even when the odds against seem impossible. You may be pleasantly surprised what you’re capable of.
How did your writing year turn out? Are you kicking yourself for falling short or celebrating going above and beyond?
Discover more from Hillary DePiano
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Hillary DePiano is a playwright, fiction and non-fiction writer who loves writing of all kinds except for writing bios like this.
