[A]s of yesterday, I have written for 251 out of the last 253 days. This morning, as I was glancing over my writing metrics, it occurred to me that an interesting chart could be produced by collecting my daily word counts (for fiction) in a histogram. The result for the last 253 days looks like…

[A]fter I posted my writing summary for October, I thought about two more interesting charts. These two charts illustrate two things: the power of setting a writing goal, and how writing every day can get magnified in the aggregate. I set a goal of writing 500 words of fiction every day. I have been aiming for…

[F]or those who might be interested, my article on my experience at the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop this summer, “What I Did on My Summer Vacation,” is now online in the November issue of Clarkesworld Magazine. You can read the article for free at their website, along with some great science fiction and fantasy, including…

[O]ctober is behind us, and so I present a summary look at my writing last month. For those just joining, these number are gathered automatically by a set of scripts I’ve written for Google Docs. These scripts are available on GitHub for anyone who wishes to use them. Here’s what my writing looked like in…

[L]ast night, I added about 1,200 words to the current story and that made it official: I have, for the second time this year, reached 100 consecutive days of writing. For those just tuning in, I began to try to write every day back on February 27. I wrote for 140 consecutive days before I…

[R]emember how I finished the first draft of my first novel back in September? I set it aside to work on short stories and plan to come back to it in December to begin the process of writing a second draft, which is a complete rewrite for me. Now, I realize that I am the…

[O]ver the last few years, I have settled down into a fairly standard process for writing stories. This process typically involves 2 full drafts, an edit, and a final pass. The following illustrates my process at a high level: Basically, it goes like this: In the first draft I tell myself the story. I don’t worry…

[L]ast night, I passed the 200,000 word-mark for this year. I began tracking my writing when I began attempting to write every day, back on February 27. Since February 27, I have now written 200,266 words of fiction (with a tiny fraction of that–about 5,500 words or so–being nonfiction). This does not include my blogging.…

[A]s of last night, I have written for 216 out of the last 218 days. My initial streak of writing every day lasted for 140 days. I missed 2 days while attending Launchpad, and have since built up a streak of 73 consecutive days. Writing every day has started to produce some challenges that have…

[A] little over 100 days ago, I posted my 100 Consecutive Days of Writing Infographic. On Saturday, in addition to finishing the first draft of my first novel, I also hit 200 days of writing. Note that I don’t say 200 consecutive days of writing. That is because I missed 2 days out of the 200,…

[J]ust before 12:45 pm, while sitting at a quiet table on the second floor of the Arlington Central Library, I wrote the following words: When I started this story back on February 28, I had no intention of writing a novel. It was just another story. But it kept growing. And growing. After a couple…