60,000 Words Again, But Still Not Publishing (Most Of) Them · 11:15pm Feb 15th, 2018
Blog Number 36: "Explaining the Radio Silence" Edition
On the to-do list at the moment is Ceffyl Dwr's Pinkie Pie Collaboration. It really is his project, since he's worked so hard to keep it going (and to keep us going, into the bargain).
So sadly, shamefully, I must report that, after a promising planning stage, I've stalled on both my chapters. Their current status is: planned but unwritten.
Sooner or later, these will be revisited. But frankly I can kiss punctuality goodbye.
In fact, and at the moment, the project as a whole seems uncertain. So many have dropped out or simply not followed up on it since January that the collaboration is entering a hiatus.
On top of that, Ceffyl Dwr's facing complications: nothing life-threatening, thank goodness, but enough to prevent him from doing some of what he wants to do, including running the collaboration.
Grimly put: not a good start to the year, or to my latest account of how things have gone on the writing front. Here's hoping we can muddle our way through this and still provide something good, but I predict a shaky few weeks (or even months) yet.
That seems to have been a general theme of the last few weeks too. That back burner is getting crowded again.
One blog post aside, I'm not being silent on purpose, believe me.
Since the last blog entry didn't focus much on my current written work, (whoops!), and now that I have half of the month behind me, I suppose it's time to hand in a progress report. After all, I did talk about writing 60,000 words a month minimum in two blogs within the last three months.*
* Specifically, December's From the Other Side of the Gauntlet: A Conclusion to NaPoWriMo 2017 and January's 2018: The (Hopefully Superior) Sequel to 2017.
The summary: since my NaPoWriMo attempt in November, I've raised a target every month of writing at least 60,000 words, which averages out as about a couple of hours of work a day.** So far, I've met that target every month, with January providing a personal best of 68,300. February is proving no different, though far more hours are usually spent trying to figure out what to write than are actually spent writing.
** Averages, mind. The actual output is a mish-mash of hills and valleys, and a devil to walk across if you like a steady pace.
During the same amount of time, I certainly haven't published that amount; virtually every story posted in January was a project mostly tackled months before, and none of them contributed much to the final word count of that month. Given that, whence the discrepancy?
Simple: some of the projects behind the scenes are really damn big.
Seriously, I'm about an eighth of the way through one novel threatening to turn into a doorstopper, maybe two-fifths of the way through a novella threatening to turn into a novel, and halfway through a short story that's by now threatening to turn into a novella. Or, to put concrete numbers on those claims: the first has surpassed 50,000 words, the second has surpassed 30,000 words, and the third has surpassed 20,000 words.
EDIT 16/02/2018: Turns out I miscounted the second one. Both have surpassed 20,000 words. This is why it's very important to double-check before you publish, kids!
Admittedly, a lot of that will have to be edited, but I'm trying not to run and tie shoelaces at the same time.
Good news, then, or bad news? Well, in some respects, this makes me smile. I literally cannot remember a run of writing this productive, not even when I was starting out on MLP:FiM fanfiction over seventy five months ago. Post-2014, when I've got actual records keeping track of my productivity, the last time I had it this good was during NaPoWriMo 2016, when I managed to write Hive Versus Hive in less than two weeks.
However, a counter: to publish any of those stories right now would be an extremely bad move, considering 20 of my 67 stories are already either unfinished or cancelled. That's not a good ratio, and I don't intend to let said ratio skew so far that a third of my output is incomplete. Frankly, my to-do list is long enough without adding more pressure onto it.
I've also noticed that, far from encouraging me to finish them, publishing flagging projects tends to make me less likely to revisit them in the future. I get slightly more tense just thinking about the really old stuff, and not just because it'd mean digging up lots of buried story notes. Currently, I seem to have this strong surge of enthusiasm whenever I start a major project, but then get increasingly uncertain the more material there actually is. Cross-referencing plot points, keeping regular features of the prose consistent, trying not to make a character act oddly...
On that note: Apologies for those of you looking at, say, Dame Trixie and the Countess of Wyrd with eyebrows raised and foot tapping meaningfully. I truly regret not being able to tackle these efficiently and quickly, especially as more ideas keep competing for my attention. All I can say without being dishonest is mea culpa. My optimism exceeds my grasp, and that's not professional enough.
At the moment, the machine's stuck. For now, it's regrettably a matter of patience. No point rushing any of this.
I'm keeping to the target of 60,000 words until the end of the month, and I'm confident February will prove successful. Hopefully, soon enough I might actually start publishing evidence of all this writing.
Lastly, Dame Trixie and the Countess of Wyrd ended up in the featured box for a blink. When on earth did that happen?
That's all for now. Impossible Numbers, out.
Statistics
NEW: List of Reviews
Nothing to add.
Fics Accepted By Equestria DailyStrangely, I've just noticed I never received a confirmatory email for Raven Night School when I submitted it. I could've sworn it was there, but when I went to check recently, it definitely wasn't. Don't have any obvious way of checking to see if it actually got through, so I think I'll give it a couple of weeks and then submit it again, just in case.
It's very worrying, though. I could've sworn it went through OK at the time.
EDIT 16/02/2018: Just heard back from Pascoite. It is in the queue; the confirmatory email simply didn't get to my account, and I either misremembered this or forgot to check at the time. Problem solved.
New Stories? Nothing to add. See above for why.
New Updates: No.
Story Count: 67.
3 in 2018.
26 in 2017.
16 in 2016.
2 in 2015.
0 in 2014.
8 in 2013.
9 in 2012.
3 in 2011.
My Total Story View Count: Rendered obsolete due to new site changes.
Age: 2,256 days, or 322 weeks and 2 days.
Working: 19 days in December 2011, 2x366 days for 2012 and 2016 leap years, and 4x365 days for 2013 and 2014 and 2015 and 2017, and 45 days for 2018 so far combined.
My Follower Count: 159.
My Followed Count: 135.
