I was looking at the numbers again. It’s a new month; it means new numbers.
Where does January sit?
Behind November and December, actually. I did finish The Memory Collector in January, and Variety Store was really close (so close that I finished it today), but the official finish count is only one book.
I think, in addition to a few issues with life in general, the main source of the lower number trend was the edits. It takes a bit to go through the stories, reading them, sometimes out loud, to make sure they make sense and are clear, and then I go back in and change whatever I notice as I read them on my phone. Yes, I do read my books on my phone. It’s portable, and it shows me how the epub format is going.
Anyway, here’s the breakdown of what I did in January:
Additions to The Monster in My Garden Shed: 15,902
Near completion of Variety Store: 62,650
Everyday posts to The Not-So-Super Superhero: 38,337
Complete total for The Memory Collector: 42,634
Start for the third Nickel and Dime, tentatively titled Five and Ten: 1,464
Shorts probably to be included later in the Nickel and Dime series: 3,844
Miscellaneous other writings: 13,106
Total: 177,937
Again, lower than the last couple months. I’m not sure if the trend is something that should worry me, if I need to make myself buckle down and accomplish more, or if it’s too soon to tell.
I did a lot of editing, I typed on an older, handwritten story, and there was chaos going on in life as well, and so there are plenty of factors going into the count. I’ll keep an eye on it, though. It should level out somewhere, and that’s really the target.
Besides, the numbers don’t matter so much. It’s quality, not quantity, so that’s part of why editing is so important. Clearly, I haven’t stopped writing, and that’s the main thing.