As of Thursday night, I've written 5875 words, give or take a small rounding error. That means I'm averaging a little under 850 words per day. I'm not destroying that 500 words daily goal, but I am meeting it. In reality, the word count is a lot more variable than the average suggests. Some days I write almost exactly 500 words. Yesterday, I wrote close to 1500 words. I took one day off. All in all, though, the experiment is working. I've churned out nearly 6000 words worth of novel that didn't exist last week. I'm also about 2400 words ahead of my target. There's a fair to midland chance some of the words are even good. Fingers crossed.
Now, to put that in context, I've been working exclusively on the space opera, which we're tentatively calling Rinn's Run. At present, here's where that stands.
Total word count: 14,150
Complete chapters: 11
Percentage complete: Approximately 14%, based on a completely hypothetical 100,000 words for a complete draft.
If you're wondering how I do it, this is the best explanation I can muster. First, I always start from the basic assumption that I can find 500 words to write that will forward the story. I might have to work for the words, but they are there for the finding. Second, I decide that I'll do it. I think the decision to sit down and write is just as important as believing that I've got the words inside me to put on the page. It's been my experience that once you sit down at the computer, open the file, and make yourself start writing, the process moves along pretty smoothly. You might write a couple of bad sentences before your imagination and hard-won writing skills really kick in, but they will kick in.
I hope this helps inspire anyone who's struggling with getting the words on the page. You can do it. It might be a struggle some days, but you can do it. Now, to shamelessly crib from Stan Lee:
"Excelsior!"
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