Stats
Average Daily Wordcount for This Week: 3,628
Week Total Wordcount: 25,396
October Total Wordcount: 61,296
Year Total Wordcount: 161,366
Words to go:
Month: 22,038
Year: 838,634
I’m beginning to feel that the Milwordy habit has actually started to solidify in my brain.
Don’t get me wrong here, I’m well aware that at any moment I could slip and let the habit fall to pieces. It’s still delicate and relatively new. But there were several days this week when I would have liked to simply stay in bed and sleep in.
You know what I did?
I got up early, every single day and wrote. And it wasn’t so much a matter of forcing myself to do it. I did it almost compulsively.
There are a lot of opinions out there about how long it takes a habit to form (or to be broken). You’ve probably heard 28 days or 66 or a full 365. I don’t know what the exact answer is—I’m pretty certain there isn’t one—but I will tell you that half-way into my second month, it’s beginning to happen. Yet I know, that to keep it up, I will continue to have to nurture that habit. Probably for the full year. Beyond that if I want to keep writing every single day (and I do). Even well-formed habits can be broken.
Another interesting thing that happened this week is that I began to realize just how many words I can get through outlining alone. I spent a lot of time outlining this week. Specifically, I worked on my outline for the Regency Romance I’m planning to write for NaNoWriMo, as well as the outline for a Halloween short story I came up with. I was really shocked at how many words I was able to rack up with just plotting alone.
This, frankly, is a relief. Trying to get all of my words through drafting alone is pretty exhausting and I like being able to switch my brain into a different gear every once in a while. I think this will be super helpful as I continue on this Milwordy journey.
One more thing I learned this week is that using dictation software is also pretty awesome. I tried out Dragon Anywhere this week, and though I don’t foresee giving up typing to use dictation all the time, I can definitely see how it can be a nice change of pace, and a break for my poor wrists. Plus, I can be up and moving while still writing, which is great. The accuracy isn’t perfect, but then, when I’m attempting to type fast, my accuracy is a little off anyway. It is expensive for more than the free trial though, so that’s definitely another thing to consider. If I were making money from my writing, that’s definitely a business expense I would consider worthwhile.
So that was my 7th week of Milwordy. How has Milwordy been treating you so far? Are you starting to feel the habit forming? If you’re not doing Milwordy, do you have a solid writing habit? Did you find it difficult to form, or did it come naturally?
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-Robin
Rambling Robin 