What I Wrote In February 2020

Hello and welcome! You’re very lucky, because this is my first monthly update to feature my new and swanky word tracker chart. There’s no hiding for me: every single word I wrote (and didn’t write) is recorded on the graph below.

Oh, and if you’re interested in what I wrote last month, here’s that post.

Full disclosure: I’m writing this on the 27th, so those words at the end of the month have yet to be written.

I’m doing this because I want other people to see how other writers write – which will hopefully make you feel less lonely, because we all know how isolating writing can be. But I’m also doing it because I love data: I wanted to see what a month of my writing would look like in a graph.

Unfortunately, I haven’t come up with a good way to show time spent editing – because writing isn’t just about getting words on the page, as I’m sure you know. Hopefully I’ll think of one!

So let’s go through it.

Week 1

I spent the first week of February writing articles for the internets, so each of those 1700-word-ish columns was one of those. I had a break around the 3rd to celebrate my birthday, but otherwise that’s what I was doing all week.

Week 2

I don’t remember much about this week. I spent much of it tinkering with a fantasy short story, occasionally adding bits to it. It felt more productive at the time, because looking back on it now all I think is “where are the words?!”

Week 3

This was the big one. I found an anthology I really wanted to submit to. The deadline was the 22nd – I had a week to write it. But I had an idea so I started writing, knowing I had to be fast to get it done by Saturday. I got 3,100 words done in a single day, which is more than I’ve written for a loong time. That set me back on track! I got it finished and spent the 20th and 21st desperately getting feedback and implementing edits before managing to submit in time. Phew. The story came in at around 6,300 words, making it one of my longer ones, too.

Week 4

Sprinting that story drained my creativity, so I took a few days off after submission to do other things. I went through and edited a piece of flash from last month and submitted it, then got back to writing on the 26th, writing a piece of flash set in a high school, starting a new sci-fi short story and carrying on the fantasy short story I dropped in week 2. Today I’m typing this up (you bet it’s going on my word tracker) and carrying on with that fantasy story. Wish me luck!

I’ll see you again at the end of March 🙂

Total words written: 16,625 (and counting).