Another kind of successful week — 3,237 new words, bringing the years total to 10,404.

A new short story and a flash fiction drafted, and a second short story underway. Over 7,500 new words this year, with my average rising to 509 words/day.  The Honorable Mention nod and a personal rejection also came in. The year is off to a good start.

When I started out following Booklife and documenting my writing progress, I suspected the first few weeks would either be really easy or really hard. Establishing a habit takes times and it’s easy to make excuses to skip writing. We all hear or use them — I’m too busy, too much day job work, kids/family, etc. Then there’s the Resolutionists, who make a bunch of goals at the beginning of the year and waver after a few weeks. Also guilty as charged.

On the heels of yesterdays post about Booklife and my personal mission statement, I have added My Booklife to the sidebar. From here, I have posted and will keep updated my public weekly, monthly, 1 year and 5 year goals. I’ve also included my list of career achievements.

I am horrible with deadlines. In high school I was forced to take a special class on time management because I never turned anything in on time. It’s one of those things that I struggle with on a daily basis. Occasionally I discover something useful that helps, like Things, that help me keep track of the things I need to be doing. The most recent one was Jeff VanderMeer‘s Booklife.