One Amazing Month of Work – The Count

Very randomly I’ll look at what I’m accomplishing and I just did that for the period between January 20th and February 20th. I had this notion that I’d done a lot, and I finally got curious enough to actually check it out.

To say I was shocked would be a total understatement. I actually went over it again because I thought it had to be wrong. Nope, not wrong.

I decided to post about it because I think it demonstrates what can actually be accomplished in a short period of time when someone is dedicated to getting it done and doesn’t mind working way too much, even from the comfort of home.

Here’s the short list:

• -Started and finished TWO entire novels (in first draft) of 60K each. (Those are for a different pen name, not yet launched.)
• -Added to and ran a first pass edit on the first of those two novels.
• -Tried to make my own covers for that pen name, spent too much time, realized I couldn’t, then worked with an amazing cover artist to get the first three covers done.
• -Created my launch plan, with a whole lot of details
• -Outlined and got 10K into the third novel for that pen name.
• -Last review and publishing of Corrections (PePr, Inc. #5)
• -Wrote, edited, and published Hope/Less (PePr, Inc. #6)
• -Outlined and created covers for Mercy (PePr, Inc. #7) and The Protector (or maybe The Guardian, PePr, Inc. #8)
• -Wrote 45K words of Strikers: Eastlands
• -Edited and turned in an 11K short story for an anthology
• -Wrote an 8K short story just because I had the idea
• -Wrote a wicked 500 word flash fiction that is as tight as I have ever written in my life
• -Collated, then formatted for print and ebook the first of the PePr Collections. Again, I tried to make covers and must have spent 30 hours trying. Now I’m putting all that hot mess together to go back to that wonderful cover artist.

And that’s just with writing! My average word count over those days…including counting days off as writing days…is 6,700 words per day. Holy macaroni on a hot plate!

So, what was the point of that? What did it get me and what did I give up to do it?

This is where it gets interesting, because it turns out that I had absolutely zero work/life balance there. I still cooked for my family and got things done, but my floors should have been vacuumed far more than they were and there was extra dust I should have gotten rid of. We did do about 50% of the redecorating for the first room we’re re-doing, which took a great deal of time, but regular maintenance was somewhat lacking.

I also didn’t go the gym even once and this is the worst one. I do need to keep working out. I need to do it for my longevity and that wasn’t good. But it turns out I can write like a demon between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. when others start getting up. Too bad that’s also my best time for the gym. I’ll need to figure that out somehow. And no, I definitely can’t do them at the same time. No way.

So, that’s my month! I may not be able to do another one of those, but this one was amazing for work. Now, if only I could get bookbub to like me again I might even get paid for all the work!