The January Journals: Accountability round-up, week 5

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The January Journals: Accountability round-up, week 5

It’s the end of the fifth week of 2017, January’s in the record books, and it’s time for another round of writing accountability. Let’s begin!

Word Counts for 1/28 – 2/3

January 28: 1,708

January 29: 1,356

January 30: 770

January 31: 1,477

February 1: 1,000

February 2: 651

February 3: 770

Weekly Total: 7,732 words

No zeros this week, so I am feeling great about that! (Seriously, is there anything worse than having to write a big fat 0 on your word tracker and face the shame of being a writer who hasn’t written?)

January Total: 33,001 words

My goal was 1,000 words/day, so this means I hit my target and even beat it by 2,001 words, woohoo!

Weekly Goals

Set: Start researching and writing Careers if You Like Music, write essays #4 and 5, continue writing on a daily basis, participate in InCoWriMo – International Correspondence Writing Month.

Met: This week was kind of a bust for me, in terms of accomplishing my set goals. However, I did a lot of journaling, which means I did keep up with my goal of writing on a daily basis, and I wrote two letters for InCoWriMo, too, which is supposed to be a fun project – not a task to complete. It’s important to do things that are purely for your own joy, after all. Not all writing should be about work, and making those distinctions is a personal thing, but it’s been really important to me to figure out where to draw the line.

Missed: I did no research or writing on my music careers book. I did not write any personal essays. Indeed, I think I may have to revise my participation in the #52essays2017 challenge a bit, and simply work on more general essays, because my personal essays are really unpublishable (even in draft state) at this point. I can’t say what I’m thinking or feeling, because it’s all too in-the-moment, and while I typically use my writing to help process my thoughts and feelings, I am certainly not going to unleash the stuff I’ve been dealing with recently until a significant amount of time has passed. Those emotions are just too fresh, and there’s no insight yet because there’s no distance from the subject matter for me.

Additional Wins: Here’s a goal I totally forgot to mention in last week’s post, which I did accomplish this week: I started an actual author newsletter! Instead of just sending people my RSS feed by email, in a weekly digest, I’ve decided to write what I’m calling the Buttontapper Blotter, which will be sent out monthly. It will include links to my blog posts (of course), as well as special bonus material that only subscribers will get to read. I was inspired by the folks at Goulet Pens, who send out the perfectly titled Goulet Communiqué on a weekly basis, sharing their knowledge of fountain pens and stationery with fellow obsessives. If you haven’t yet signed up for the Blotter, click here to get the next issue at the end of this month.

Goals for Next Week

Write 30 pages for the Book In A Week monthly challenge (250 words is considered a page, so that’s a goal of 7,500 words)
Write a new “Pop Songs” essay
Catch up on InCoWriMo, and write one letter per day

What About You?

Got any goals for next week? Have you been tracking your words this year? Need some friendly advice or encouragement? Post your deepest, darkest fears – or just your goals – in the comments section!