Master List of Progress Reports - 2016

2016: Year In Review

January marked the start of a complete overhaul of my writing life. As I wrote in my review for 2015, I took a productivity course towards the end of that year and though I didn't get much out of the actual content of the course, it sparked me to have an epiphany regarding how I thought about my writing and more specifically a daily word goal.

On January 9, while I was still recovering from having bronchitis over the holidays, I started a daily writing routine. I tested out several different approaches and eventually determined I worked best when the rules were flexible or else I'd start to cave under the pressure.

Over the course of the year, I figured out the following guidelines:

1. I have to come up with something new every day, whether that's simply brainstorming on a story problem and getting a little further in solving it or actually writing a scene. Blog posts and working on my website don't count towards my word count, which keeps the focus specifically on being creative with my stories rather than on the more administrative tasks involved in my writing.

2. I try to maintain an average daily word count of 500, but that doesn't mean I have to write 500 words every day. If I have a bad day and only write 10 words, it just means I have to make up those words on subsequent days to maintain the average (or already have some excess words built up to offset the shortfall).

Those guidelines kept me writing every day for the rest of 2016 (and all of 2017 and beyond).

Another noteworthy thing about 2016 was that I turned 40 in February, which felt really cool to reach that milestone (with my fucked up childhood, I can't say I really expected to get there).

I also got back into working on my fan fiction during the summer and that included not only continuing my unfinished stories but also playing in a new fandom (Supergirl).

After spending the first half of the year focused on outlining and brainstorming, I found myself jonesing to write actual story text, sex scenes in particular (my favorite). That led to me making some major breakthroughs on A Bondage Primer that allowed me to start writing the scenes I'd been brainstorming the previous few months.

July and August ended up being two of my best writing months with the majority of the words going into actual story text rather than simply outlining or brainstorming.

I slowed down after that, mostly because I was distracted by having ABP in beta (waiting for critiques can be a little nerve-wracking).

Of course, after several months, it became clear my beta-readers were MIA, so I sort of let go of the idea of posting the new chapters I'd written for ABP until after the holidays (turned out to be the holidays of 2017, but I digress).

Even though I didn't post anything, this was the first year in quite some time that I felt like I'd really found my way where my writing was concerned. I wrote almost 340,000 words, which was just insane. I don't think I wrote that much even in 2000, when I posted 60 chapters.

Moral of the Story

It's the journey, not the destination.

I might not have posted anything, but damn did I get a lot of writing done. And I created a system that set me up to keep that momentum going, which I did (more on that in the archive for 2017).

I finally figured out how to live what I wrote way back in 2005's Year In Review where I talked about focusing on the joy I find in writing rather than only letting myself be happy when I post something.

I want to be happy every day. I don't want to wait to be happy only when I achieve a certain milestone.

For me, that means enjoying the process just as much as the result. I love brainstorming, outlining, writing, editing... Hell, I love just talking about my stories. It always gets me hyped up to write, which is why I'm so grateful Corene is supportive of my writing (she's my #1 fan :) ). We talk about my stories all the time, which has kept me motivated to write every day, even when I haven't been feeling very good or all that creative.

I've made enjoying my life a priority, which means carving out the time and space to play in my worlds every day. By focusing on that daily goal, the journey, it's actually brought me closer to having new chapters to post, which is what I consider to be the destination.

Funny how that worked out. :)