Half-Way Update

I started this year with the plan to make 2021 about my writing career. There is certainly more to a writing career than just writing, though my primary goal was related to wordcount. But what kind of wordcount should a great writer be expected to reach in a year’s time? That is of course without pretention that I am a great writer, but rather that I am aspiring to be a great writer.

If I’m looking to be a household name, then I had to look at what another household name does each year to achieve fame. Stephen King writes more than 130,000 words per year to be what he is. It was that knowledge that encouraged me to set a writing goal for myself to reach 124,000 words this year. Interestingly, this very blog is me trying to stay on track as this week, so close to the chronological center of the year, has so far been the only week this year that I haven’t made significant progress in my wordcount. To date, I have managed to write more than 40,000 words. That’s about 22,000 words from where I should be for the end of June. As I’m still holding down a full-time job and spending much time outside this time of year working on my gardens and home, I anticipated that the largest volumes of my writing will be into the fall months, so I’m still confident that I will meet or exceed my writing goal for the year. Up until this week, I’ve had my 4000-word weeks and I’ve had my 800-word weeks but every week of the first 26 of 2021 have been filled with words.

There is more to my annual goals than writing. I believe it is important to hone my skill by reading other writers as well. At the start of the new year, I set a goal to read at least 15 books this year. I didn’t do much reading the first four months of the year, only reading all the way through two books, Stay, a wonderful nonfiction collection of stories related to how dogs teach us about faith by setting a great example. It was wonderfully entertaining and thought provoking. The other book was an educational manual on Personality Selling written by a client I’m taking on for my freelance marketing business.

So, 2021 got off to a slow start in the reading column, but in the last two months I’ve finished five books and several short stories or children’s books thanks to the Pubby platform that allows me to ask for reviews of my current books in exchange for reviewing other struggling writers’ books. I was very cautious about joining this group, but it has turned out to be a boost on two fronts. Plus, I've found a few new authors to follow that I never would have discovered otherwise, a couple I have even had conversation with via email. Before the end of next week, the true middle of the year, I will have finished at least three more books that I am in the middle of bringing my half-year total to 10 books read and well toward my annual goal, and I’m not including the quick reads.

I’ve been keeping up word count by continuing to write Sorrow Hollow, three parts totaling about 24,000 words so far. I took a break from Lil’s Spirits novel to start another project that first came to me early in the year. The Mad Dr. Drennan, only four chapters in so far, is a psychological thriller incorporating some of Jessica’s and my actual experiences of the last 18 months. Unfortunately, that is all I can say about The Mad Dr. Drennan now to prevent reprisal from a real-life psychopath. ,The Mad Dr. Drennan will truly be an evisceration in fiction. I stumbled onto a few contributor-copy digital magazines as well that is driving up word count. Vocal’s weekly writing challenges, some of them with quiet hefty rewards, has forced me to write out of my comfort zone, which has led to several epiphanies. I’m also on Medium and Booksie though I’m just getting started on those platforms and will likely just share stories already on Vocal. Each site is designed to earn a few pennies per read. It isn’t much, but a person could do well with plenty of content and reader volume.

My writing career and reading goals have taken the priority and is progressing nicely, but other personal goals for the year have fallen short. My faith study and Bible reading has been underwhelming. I have so far missed our financial goals and my personal education goals are almost nonexistent with the exception of a few Great Courses lectures, now called Wonderium. I listened to a special on Andrew Johnson, a 12-part lecture on the Federalist Papers and I’m still infrequently going back to a lecture on Gnostics that I started last year.

The good thing about putting this in words is that I can visualize my current position and make adjustments to better meet my personal, and family goals before the end of the year. I even have everything in spreadsheet to reference weekly, but this is really by best organizational tool putting fingers to work to carve the words. I comprehend as I go along. There is much work to be done.

Educationally – including general study, dulcimer, piano and language – I'm just not sure what to do. I have to carve out more time from work and working on our home and rental to spend on these activities. Fortunately, I took a new job in May that will soon free up more time for me, has allowed an escape from the mad doctor for Jessica and will greatly influence our financial freedom in the near future. Soon, Jessica will move part-time into the marketing position I now hold with LaFerney Commercial Roofing so I can move into sales. The sales position will be better income with more control of my work schedule. Perhaps I can carve more time for bettering my mind and body because I’ve suffered physically as well.

Lil’s Spirts: This Side of the Veil and Archibald Lindsey’s Study of Women will both get hardbacks this second half of 2021 with TSOTV hopefully getting a fully illustrated version. Additionally, both are submitted to a self-publishing contest that could bring big dividends. I will complete and publish Lil’s Spirits: Sorrow Hollow and plan to finish The Mad Dr. Drennan and submit to another contest for unpublished works. If all goes well, I'll start a sequel to A Place of Rest this year and hopefully another comedy, likely titled The Restaurant. I might be overly ambitious, but at this point in 2021 I will consider any measure of what I still plan to do as a success. Looking forward and not back.

Archibald Lindsey's Study of Women
Lil's Spirits: This Side of the Veil