Solid day today. I’ve already hit my quota for the day and I’m going to keep charging forward, but man, this novel is inching to the end.
For data analysis and marketing, I did some competitive research for a new book I’m going to be writing soon. This book kind of came out of nowhere, and I’ll probably start it in the next week or so. Can’t say much about it yet other than that it’s going to be a lot of fun, and should be a quick write. So, as with all my nonfiction, books, I did some competition analysis to figure out:
- Primary comps (books that are exactly like the one I’m planning on writing). I read the primary comps.
- Secondary comps (books that are not exactly like the one I’m writing, but similar in some way). I will usually skim the secondary comps but read the sections that are closest to what I want to write.
- Table of Contents. With nonfiction, table of contents are everything. Often, you can win readers over just by having a comprehensive table of contents that addresses their key pain points.
- Notes on prices, formats, book descriptions, BISAC categories, what’s on the covers, etc.
Anyway, that was enough data analysis and marketing for the day.
For production, I’m sitting at 3400 words today so far, which negates any misses I had Saturday and Sunday.
The final battle is in full swing. I should be able to finish tonight. That should leave tomorrow for a clear and clean finish. I broke the 71K mark today, so all signals point toward somewhere between 75K and 77K. It’s funny how I am almost always wrong when it comes to guessing how long my novels will be. It’s almost so bad I could make a game out of it.
I thought my last novel would clock in at around 50K, but it ended up being around 45K. I thought there was no way this current one would exceed 60K, but boy was I wrong by about 10K-15K. Sometimes you never can tell.
ANOTHER WAY TO THINK ABOUT MY WORD COUNTS AND PROGRESS
I’m setting some goals for myself. One goal that I want to be more intentional about is my yearly word count. I am working with a mentor and need to show some progress when I have my check-ins.
I do a great job of tracking my daily word count, but not my weekly, monthly, or annual word count.
I shifted my perspective about my word counts today, and it was really eye-opening.
I’m sitting at about 321,000 words for the year so far, including my current book. That is about 8 books. Some are longer, some are shorter.
That is equating to about 45,000 words per month so far this year. Put another way, that’s about 1500 words per day. Remember, I don’t necessarily write every day, though I do most days. Also keep in mind that when I’m not writing, I’m still creating IP. YouTube videos, podcast interviews, speaking engagements, etc. So it’s not like I’m sitting around knitting (no offense to knitters LOL).
My daily quota is 2200 words. So clearly, I am not writing every day. But still, I have pretty good results to show for my progress.
If I keep with the current numbers, that will net me an additional 175,000 words, which means I’ll end the year somewhere around 496,000 words. It’ll probably shake out to somewhere between 12-15 books. Again, not bad by ANY stretch of the imagination, and many people would literally and figuratively MURDER someone to get those kind of numbers.
But how do I feel about the numbers?
Eh, I think I can do better. I know I can do better.
If I have a quota of 2200 words per day (which will soon be increasing to 2500 per day with the advent of Beast Mode 2022), that should (in a perfect week), result in a minimum of 17,500 words per week, 70,000 words per month, and 840,000 words per year. The reality is that some weeks will be higher than that average and some weeks will be lower. That’s just the nature of the beast.
What if, instead of focusing so much on daily word counts, I focused instead on the real number that matters, which is 840,000? Okay, make that 850,000.
When I think about it like that, then the daily quota really isn’t that important. Sure, I need to hit it so I can produce new words every day, but it gives me a bigger goal to race toward that puts things in perspective.
My ultimate goal is to surpass 1 million words per year. I can get there with somewhere between 2700-2800 words per day, but that’s doing 2800 words per day every single day, no mistakes. A lot harder than it looks. I’m happy with 850,000 words or 12-15 books. Honesty, I’m happy with 500,000. Any goals I set are aspirational to help me get better.
But humor me for a moment.
In a decade, 850,000 words per year is 8.5 million words.
In a decade, 12-15 books per year is 120-150 books.
In twenty years, that’s, 17 million words and 240-300 books.
Now, think about all those books out there earning money, reaching readers and building a platform for me…while I sleep.
Yeah, I like those numbers. Even if I fall short of them by even half of that, that’s the fodder for a fantastic career.
Anyway, I’m going to start putting my yearly word count and goal at the bottom of my posts (if I can remember to do so) which will help me keep sight of where I need to be. The goal will be a bit goofy until the 1st of the year when I can reset, but it’ll help me keep things in perspective.
Have a good night.
Words Written This Year: 321,000 / 850,000 Goal
