Me Neither

Bleh bleh bleh.

I did, however finish another novel, CANCELED.
Still cranking along with my 500 words a day - haven't missed in over six months.
Still submitting stories and queries left and right.

And still haven't sold a thing.

Bleh, indeed.

2010

Haven't posted lately.

Bleh.

Ode to the Discouraged Writer

A writer with a broken heart, too sad to pen his stories
Is like a bank account overdrawn, with steep penalties
When checks start bouncing back to you like rejections left and right
When pushing forward with this dream brings cold sweats in the night
When the coffers are empty and all the loans have been called in
The writer who ceases to believe has let the naysayers win
A starving artist with no dough must persevere regardless
The uphill struggle 'gainst competition and writer myths
Your world may be dark right now with no light within your reach
But forage blindly on and you'll eventually succeed
You knew it wouldn't be easy, only worth it in the end
So quit your whining, get to writing, there's more stories to send!

December Numbers - David

Score - 1048

Well, 2009 has ended and 2010 is here. Overall, 2009 was a good year highlighted by the birth of my son on October 29th.

Writing-wise, it was also a good year. I completed four novels (though I know the last one will need a revision to fix a few things but it is complete) and wrote several short stories. I also sent out queries on one of the novels I finished and had two requests for full manuscripts.

I finished December with a word count of 39,358 giving it a fourth place finish on my top months of writing. I missed on my goal of having all top ten months in this year by two, hopefully I can fix that next year. I ended the year with 439,418 total words for the year. Not bad.

Not totally sure on my goals for 2010 yet even though it's already January 1. I think I'm going to aim for another four novels but also more short stories.

Here's looking forward to an awesome 2010!!!

Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010

December was a rockin' month, as I wrote over 40,000 words (total TBD as the day ain't over yet). This is a new record for me. The month included two weeks over 10k, including a new record week of 10,575.

I also just completed three straight months of writing 500 words minimum per day (Sundays excluded).

My current novel, CANCELED, is at 50k words and rolling along.

I'd like to report exact stats for the year, but I only started tracking in March, so my stats would be incomplete. BUT, I can say that I have written well over a quarter million words for the year. I also have submitted short stories 122 times this year, with over 100 rejections (19 stories are still in the mail). I also sent out 75 novel queries.

Thanks to that blitz of novel queries for UNCLE SAM and ASSASSINWARE, I now have 1042 points.

Also this year (in November) I started my own website - www.michaeldbritton.com. However, it is not much more than a parking space right now. One day I'll open a store there, but don't want to spend the money for shopping cart functionality right now.

And now: my goals for 2010.

• Write 250,000 words (probably three novels and twenty short stories, but any combination will do).
• Submit short stories 100 times or more.
• Make 200 or more novel queries.
• Make it to at least one workshop in Oregon (dependent on finances)
  

Short and sweet.

2010 is going to be a great year!

November Numbers - David

Score - 974

November was good, I guess. It's amazing to watch a baby grow and Kaden is growing well (thankfully). The downside is that October caught up with me this month and my numbers fell. I didn't make much progress at all on the novel (I've GOT to finish it in December to make my goal of 4 novels in one year). Even though I had way too many days under 1,000 words, I pulled a 3,766 word day on November 30th to save this month from not making my top ten - it came in ninth.

On the down side, I now can not make 2009 contain all of my top ten months. :( At best, it will hold the top eight. *shrugs* Oh well, now it's a goal for 2010.

I also sold my second short story this month (Yay!), a nice little Christmas story titled "Paper Snowflakes" which tied for thrid place in an online contest at The Cynic Online Magazine. I only made $25 for it (well well below pro rate) but it's nice to see it out there and I've recieved some nice feedback about it. That story is one I wrote in one day two or three years ago (I wrote it at the day job that day - so technically I already got paid to write it *snickersnicker*) and I originally intended it to be the first part of a short Christmas novel. I started the novel long ago but have never gotten back to it (which is why I don't take breaks from my novels now). Who knows, maybe I'll go back and write the novel one day. I sure am fond of that story.

Also in November, I sent out close to 70 queries (to editors and agents) for my novel NEW WORLD WAR. I've recieved several rejections (some form letters, some not) but I also had one editor respond the very next day asking to see the entire manuscript. She emailed me several times about it that Sunday morning before ever actually reading it. Haven't heard from her since (almost two weeks) so who knows.

So here are some numbers:
Total Words for November - 32,442
Total Words for 2009 - 400,060 (December still to come)
Total Short Stories Completed - 41
Total # of Short Story Rejections - 120
Total # of Short Story Sales - 2

I don't plan on sending any queries out during December (since New York publishing apparently all but shuts down during December) but I do plan on getting queries ready for the rest of my novels so I can send them all out in January and February.

Think that's it. Looking forward to December 2009 and all of 2010!

I did it

Wrote 2,497 tonight (in about an hour and a half) bringing me up to 25,453 for November. Wahoo!