With the final week of November now in the books (I cheated, and counted Saturday into the week), it’s time to see how I did for the month.
First, here’s the weekly stats:
Fourth Week: Saturday the 23rd to Saturday the 30th
With the coming of winter, my usual gig economy activity at night was sharply curtailed; I took that extra time to focus more on writing, a symbolic step towards my ultimate goal of combining writing and earning money.
Sunday, November 24th
After skipping Saturday as usual, the week got off to a good start with 3,268 words on Sunday night, written over the course of 3 hours. This was an entire chapter.
Monday, November 25th
A short chapter written Monday night; 1,008 words, 1 hour.
Since that didn’t take very long, I also ironed out the script for the next chapter, working on that for 2 more hours.
Tuesday, November 26th
A third consecutive day, and a productive one! Having written the chapter script the night before, I had a clear vision for this (very important) chapter, and managed to get it all out in one go: 3,481 words, 3 hours.
Thursday, November 28th
I took Wednesday off, but I was back at it Thursday night after I had recovered from the vast amount of turkey, stuffing and cheesecake I consumed.
I didn’t write particularly long, but that was okay — next up was a short chapter, only 885 words. It took about an hour.
Friday, November 29th
I’m getting better at completing chapters in one sitting, but this one got away from me. I had to stop to set up the Christmas tree. I still managed to write 2,199 words over 2 hours for a strong start to the chapter.
Saturday, November 30th
For the final night of my unofficial Novel Writing Month project, I finished off the chapter I started the previous day; 891 words, 1 hour.
Totals
And that’s it for the fourth and final week. In total, I wrote 11,732 words over six days, completing 5 chapters. In most ways, it was my most productive week to date. Back in 2014, I could take a month to write that much!
With the month now complete, here are my total stats:
Words: 39,329
Hours: 41-1/2 (that’s 947 words per hour, well above my lifetime average)
Chapters: 16
At the end of the experiment, I think it was an unqualified success. Not competing directly against anyone else’s word counts kept me from stressing about writing speed, but I still clearly managed to produce more than my usual monthly rate.
If I can carry this momentum forward, a January 2020 first draft for THE GATHERING DARKNESS is within reach. That’s the goal!