CAPTAIN’S LOG – WEEK 2

How did you all do this week?

Me?  I did a little better this week as far as keeping track of my time.  I suspect there’s still several hours missing, but I’m happy with the progress.  I notice I have a tendency to forget to write the stop time when I get interrupted…which is a lot.

I can tell it was a good week, though, because the log spans more pages than usual to accommodate all the ideas that kept tapping on my window.  Got lots of brands in the fire, which always makes me glad.

Again, the biggest obstacle was the Toddler and her terrific allergy to sleeping.  However, this past week saw a vast improvement in her going to sleep faster and with less shenanigans, and sleeping for longer stretches of time.  Our next goal is getting her to fall asleep on her own.  Sigh.  I am mentally preparing myself for this project…but oh, man, won’t it be so wonderful?  For both of us?  (I like to dream big.)

Needless to say, most of my work is getting done in the wee hours, whenever she is asleep and I am awake.  This has resulted in quite a sleep deficit for me, and I ended up paying for it by losing two blog days this week.  I think eventually I’m going to have to commit to a regular sleep schedule, something that goes against every chromosome in my body.

Overall, though, I’m happy with how the past week went…especially the blog post I got out with my brother’s painting.  He did such a wonderful job, I keep pulling it up to look at it.  Hopefully, we’ll have more from him very soon.

On the fiction front, I have a writer’s meeting this coming Sunday.  As the Japanese noir is still giving me pains — more on that later this week, probably, as far as what never to do — I started a new story Saturday that I’m busy working on.

I’m terribly behind with the Write1Sub1 challenge as well, so I am going to attempt to be more succinct in my blog posts so as to accommodate the fiction this week.  I refuse to give up on this one.

My original goal, as you might remember, is to develop a 3,000-word-a-day habit.  The idea is that 16 consecutive 3,000-word days will be a good start towards developing that habit.  Right now the goal is to have one 3,000-word day.  So far this year, my highest word count for fiction in a day is 1,912 words.  “Slowly but surely I will break the speed of story,” says my tortoise to your hare.

All right.  Here are my stats for this week:

1.  Hours spent writing:  22.8

2.  Blog Word Count:  4,635

3.  Fiction Word Count:  1,912

Holy smokes!  The end of February is nigh, and with my word counts (plus my wonderful friend Marian, who submitted to me via text message her 2,722 glorious words from her fantastic new blog), the total word count this month is 20,110. This is a fantastic number…but it’s a far cry from the 50,000 words we need to be allowed with our cameras into the Secret Dinosaur Celebratory Ritual.  I hope I don’t have to dig out my journal word counts.  Don’t think I won’t.  I am not ashamed.  😉

Anyway, if you follow this blog and you wanna see what the dinosaurs do in secret to celebrate, help us get to 50,000 words!  If you know me in “real life,” but don’t want to come out of skulking to post it in the comments, text me.  Word counts from stories, novels, and poems are great, but if you’re writing in your journal every day about how much you hate your neighbor’s dog, those will work just fine too.  Tally those bad boys up and send them our way!  Anybody contributing will, of course, be hailed and applauded right here at My Blue Screen along with a lovely linky-link to your blog or website.

Right.  Back to the word mines then.  Happy writing!

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0 thoughts on “CAPTAIN’S LOG – WEEK 2

  1. Heather says:

    “I think eventually I’m going to have to commit to a regular sleep schedule, something that goes against every chromosome in my body.”

    Me too, babe, me too. ;P I’ve been pulling weird things like sleeping from 5:30 AM to 7:30 AM one night, 2 AM to 8 AM the next, and then suddenly I have a day off and I will sleep from midnight to noon. It’s a problem. And even worse, it’s almost almost a sort of lopsided cycle. You know, like when the washer at the laundromat is kind of broken and it goes “pla-dum squid-oosh ba-ruh”. Or like taking a shower and reading the shampoo bottle. Lather, rinse, repeat. Only sometimes I don’t repeat, and sometimes I do.

    And I completely didn’t realize I could include my blog count. HUZZAH!

    Published Blog Posts for February Word Count: 6,034
    Blog Post Drafts for February Word Count: 558

    And just for good measure, if we end up desperate, I counted the words in my journal for this month so far. And the letter I just wrote. The combination of those totaled to be 2,367.

    THE PART YOU NEED TO KNOW: 8,959 words in February that aren’t a part of my “first draft” thing from the last comment I posted on your blog. 😛

    Is that good? XD

    Man, I feel like such a bad writer… ha ha…

    • mybluescreen says:

      Honestly, I think I inherited this reluctance to have a regular sleep schedule from my mom. Even though I’ve always been this way, I think having a young one really drives me to my desk to make the most of the “quiet hours.” It’s a crazy way to live. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been giving some serious thought to trying to go to bed at the same time every day for a week and see what happens. Seems so unnatural. If I do, of course, I’ll let you know how it goes. 🙂

      And yay for more words! Thankyouthankyouthankyou! I think you and Kathyrn have this one wrapped up! Maybe next month we go for 60,000?

      • Heather says:

        Oh yes, I have thought about that… but it is just so HARD. Some days my shift starts at 9AM, other days it starts at 2PM. I have class until 10PM some nights a week, and on Fridays I have voice lessons rather early. And I have to drive an hour just to get there.

        I do declare that we should go for 60,000 next month.

        I have probably written as much in comments on other blogs as I have in the content of my own… ha! I am just so long-winded.

  2. sparksinshadow says:

    I didn’t even think to time myself while I wrote today’s fiction post. I kind of approached it like a bat out of hell! I know it didn’t take all day, as it feels like, but maybe I was sitting and thinking and composing and editing for about four hours? It sounds kinda crappy for just 625 words, but I’ve been known since first grade for being slow as cold molasses. I’ve got to get to bed now because it’s so late (are we all having this problem?) but I’ll try to remember tomorrow to count up my February blog post word counts for you. Sweet dreams everybody — no matter when you get to bed!

    • mybluescreen says:

      I think the bat-out-of-hell approach is the most effective personally. Much better than a chicken-sneaking-up-on-the-fox approach. 😉 I don’t think your progress sounds crappy at all. You are 625 words and four hours more experienced, I say. And if you think you’re slow, consider Oscar Wilde: “I have spent most of the day putting in a comma and the rest of the day taking it out.”

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