I've always felt that i work better when i have a target or goal to work towards. I'm pretty sure this is the case for many people. We need some form of motivation to get anything meaningful done. This is definitely the case when it comes to my writing. However much I might have a desire to tell another story, I most-often simply don't have any motivation to just get on with it.
So, when I reached that point, in 2023, where I was getting tired of writing my books about my journeys to Africa and the whole premise of writing non-fiction purely for my own pleasure, I took an early decision to set a target for myself. I'd no idea at the time whether it was a reasonable target or not, but it was something that seemed like a good idea.
So, that target was to write 1,000 words a day. Not exactly 1,000 words every day, not even some words every day, but a target that I could keep in mind and check as I went along. Let's think of it more as a goal of 360,000 words a year - a third of a million in round numbers.
Well, as you can see from this spreadsheet, I'm not exactly smashing it. Still, for a couple of years it has kept me in that 300,000 word per year zone that I'm really pleased with.
As for 2025? Not so much.
This year has been difficult. Losing Dad was harder than it appeared. There's been the total upheaval of moving house and a bit more stress about it than I may have hitherto admitted. Then there was our Trip to India. It was worth the effort to get those tiger photos that I have wanted for so many years, but I found it very difficult and exhausting. I did write most of 51 Frames during the trip, but didn't find the time or the inclination to write much of anything else, causing me to fall behind on my novels at the time.
Even so, Star of the North and Another Star were both finally completed this year and I'm working on that next one with a reasonable amount of commitment. Having concentrated on two sequels, it is nice to be writing a completely stand-alone story that allows a change of focus.
With just a month to go until the end of the year, I know that I'm not going to make it to anywhere near 300,000 words. - I'll do well to get above 250,000 I think. Still, I can use that total figure at the bottom to push on and try and make it to 1,000,000 words in total, can't I?
All the titles shown above are available online in one form or several. Most are available in serialised formats on tapas.io and most in hardback, paperback and Kindle formats on Amazon.
