As requested by one of our lovely writers, I’ll be talking about creating realistic villains at the Open Door Writing Group this Wednesday from 1-3pm at the Tyler Public Library in the 3rd floor Makerspace. Looking forward to seeing y’all then! #writingcommunity #writinglesson #writingforcontests
Category: My Writing
In April, I wrote 5629 words, which was pretty decent, given that I was really very sick the first 2/3 of the month. Of those words,
- 432 were for this blog (2 short posts),
- 28 were for my journal,
- 3528 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for the Open Door Writing Group and one for the Tyler Public Library’s Try It Tuesday Class),
- 1342 were on various social media accounts,
- 47 were poetry (1 poem),
- and 0 were in short stories (0 pieces of flash fiction).
There were 18 days that I didn’t write anything, but this month included so much illness and then also Easter, spring Holy Days, my son’s birthday, and my birthday. I also haven’t heard back from any of the submissions I’ve sent out lately, but I should hear back any time now.
As for reading, I read parts of:
- Sober on a Drunk Planet: Giving Up Alcohol by Sean Alexander (e-book; non-fiction)
- The Magic Words: Simple Poetry Prompts that Unlock the Creativity in Everyone by Joseph Fansano (e-book; non-fiction)
- Like Literally Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English by Valerie Fridland (hardcover; non-fiction)
- How to Read Poetry Like a Professor: A Quippy Guide to Sonorous Verse by Thomas C. Foster (e-book; non-fiction)
- Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper (hardcover; non-fiction)
- The Carrying: Poems by Ada Limon (e-book; poetry)
- Anti-Slavery Poems, Volume 1 by John Greenleaf Whittier (e-book; poetry)
- Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages by Gaston Dorren (hardcover; non-fiction)
…and I finished reading:
- The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle by T.L. Huchu (e-book; fantasy)
- Legacy of Arniston House by T. L. Huchu (e-book; fantasy)
- Dearly by Margaret Atwood (hardcover AND e-book; poetry)
- Wizard of Most Wicked Ways by Charlie Holmberg (audiobook; fantasy)
- The Right to Write by Julia Cameron (re-read trade paperback; non-fiction)
- Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg (re-read trade paperback; non-fiction)
- Knit-Fix: Problem Solving for Knitters by Lisa Karths (hardcover; non-fiction)
- Japanese Knitting Stitches by Yoko Hatta (oversized paperback; non-fiction)
- Sweet Romance by Carrie Cox (beta read it twice – romance)
So I have finished 26 books so far this year (and read parts of another 12, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF.).
I hesitated in posting this on April Fool’s Day, but please know that this post is in earnest. 🙂
In March, I wrote 21,346 words, which boggled the mind. Of those words,
- 473 were for this blog (5 short posts),
- 1,564 were for my journal,
- 15,562 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for East Texas Writers Guild and one for the Open Door Writing Group and one for the Tyler Public Library’s Try It Tuesday Class),
- 1,355 were on various social media accounts,
- 894 were poetry (6 poems),
- and 1,716 were in short stories (11 pieces of flash fiction).
There were 8 days that I didn’t write anything, but this month included traveling for Spring Break and two out of town Winter Guard competitions for my kid. I also haven’t heard back from any of the submissions I’ve sent out lately, but all the submitting guidelines said I probably wouldn’t hear back until mid-April or later, so I’m not worried about that yet.
As for reading, I read parts of:
- Concessions by Libby James (e-book; thriller)
- Agatha Arch is Afraid of Everything by Kristin Bair (e-book; mystery)
- The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach edited by Robin Behn and Chase Twichell
- How to Read Poetry Like a Professor: A Quippy Guide to Sonorous Poetry by Thomas Foster (paperback; non-fiction)
…and I finished reading:
- If Women Rose Rooted: The Power of the Celtic Woman by Sharon Blackie (audiobook; non-fiction)
- Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments by T. L. Huchu (e-book; fantasy)
- Such a Thing to Behold by Umar Turaki (e-book; fantasy)
- The Midwife (volume 1) by Jennifer Worth (e-book; non-fiction)
- The Truth of Me by Patricia MacLachlan (e-book; children’s lit)
- Storyteller: 100 Letter Poems by Morgan Harper Nichols (e-book; poetry)
- Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman (hardcover; poetry)
- The Poetry Home Repair Manual by Ted Kooser (paperback; non-fiction)
So I have finished 16 books so far this year (and read parts of another 8, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF.).
I feel like I’ve finally hit my stride with this year, so of course the next couple of months are going to be ridiculously busy in my personal life, as I have graduating high school senior in my household and another kid who’s applying to law schools and may need help moving. Wheeeeee!
In February, it felt like I had written practically nothing, so it was sort of a surprise to find out that I wrote 13,543 words. Of those words,
- 353 were for this blog (three short posts),
- 3536 were for my journal,
- 7203 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for East Texas Writers Guild and one for the Open Door Writing Group),
- 1629 were on various social media accounts,
- 421 were poetry (one short poem and one long),
- and 401 were in short stories (two pieces of flash fiction).
There were only four days that I didn’t write anything. I was sick for a lot of the month. So, I didn’t get any poems or short stories submitted anywhere.
As for reading, I read parts of:
- Sound and Form in Modern Poetry by Harvey Gross (paperback; non-fiction)
- Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman (hardcover; poetry)
- Storyteller: 100 Poem Letters by Moran Harper Nichols (e-book; poetry)
- A Poet’s Guide to Poetry by Mary Kinzie (paperback; non-fiction)
- If Women Rose Rooted: The Power of the Celtic Woman by Sharon Blackie (audiobook; non-fiction)
- The Sounds of Poetry: A Brief Guide by Robert Pinsky (paperback; non-fiction)
I finished reading:
- The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest edited by Ellen Datlow (e-book; fiction short stories)
- The Wonder Engine (Clocktaur War #2) by T. Kingfisher (audiobook; fantasy)
- Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes #1) by Travis Baldree (paperback; fantasy)
- On the Spectrum: Autism, Faith, and the Gifts of Neurodiversity by Daniel Bowman, Jr. (e-book; non-fiction)
PS. It is totally do-able to read Legends and Lattes #1 AFTER you’ve read Legends and Lattes #2 (Bookshelves and Bonedust) if, like me, you didn’t know it was a series.
In January 2025, I wrote 9,847 words. Of those words,
- 830 were for this blog (six posts)
- 3121 were journal entries
- 3149 were lessons, scripts, and slides (for one ODWG lesson)
- 2045 were on various social media accounts
- 151 were poetry (one poem)
- and 651 were short stories (three pieces of flash fiction)
I sent off three poems and three short stories for publication, but haven’t heard back from any of them.
I also read parts of these books:
- A Poet’s Guide to Poetry by Mary Kinzie (paperback; non-fiction)
- Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman (hardcover; poetry)
- The Wonder Engine (Clocktaur War #2) by T. Kingfisher (audiobook; fantasy)
- The Green Man: Tales from the Mystic Forest edited by Ellen Datlow (e-book; fiction short stories)
And finished these books:
- The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop by Fannie Flag (e-book; fiction)
- Just Dying to Glamp by April Nunn Coker (e-book; mystery)
- When She Returned by Lucinda Berry (e-book; thriller)
- Peace is a Practice by Morgan Harper Nichols (e-book; non-fiction).
January is always a tricky month, I think. The first couple weeks are still half-way holidays and then there are a few random at-home days for my school-age kiddo as well. Which means that you don’t get a full month of writing days, but I managed to write at least a little something for 26 out of 31 days in any case. I think that’s pretty good. 🙂
If you know me in real life, you know I love analyzing things. One of my favoritest things to look at is my writing data. I love seeing which months I had the most success in and in which category and then what that looks like over time. So here’s what 2024 looked like.
All Writing Combined:
140,352
Number of Words By Month:
January: 9,017
February: 19,253
March: 9,440
April: 6,562
May: 6,166
June: 9,417
July: 13,961
August: 23,215
September: 5,966
October: 13,824
November: 22,477
December: 1,054
Number of Words By Category:
Blog: 2527
Essays: 1,063
Lessons: 43,549
Lake House Mystery: 36,258
Journal: 21,503
Miscellaneous: 16,939
Short Fiction: 13,664
Poetry: 4,434
Best Month for Each Category:
Blog: January at 546
Essays: June at 487
Lessons: February at 12,031 (that surprised me – I really thought it’d be October)
Lake House Mystery: November at 18,468 (that did not surprise me)
Journal: April at 3,811
Miscellaneous: October at 2,890
Short Fiction: June at 2,494
Poetry: February at 2,157 (that poem about teeth was LONG, y’all!)
I know, I know…you almost forgot I worked here. I have the usual excuses, all tied up with string, sitting under a cat somewhere. Last year was a doozy of a year, filled with all manner of distractions, procrastinations, and other sundry explosions of my life.
I’ve spent the last couple of days thinking about what my writing goals are for this year. One is to make my usual chart of what all I wrote last year, but that isn’t done yet because the transcribing isn’t done. So no numbers today. Maybe tomorrow. After I’ve written, of course.
I’m on the schedule with an editor for September, so my big goal is to finish the latest draft of my big epic fantasy novel and polish it up. This is the novel y’all have heard me refer to as Caro’s Quest in the past. I still need a better name for it, but that will come. 🙂
Smaller goals include finding homes for my poetry and short stories, finishing putting together my first poetry anthology, finishing my research on the best time to release it, and then publishing that anthology. I’m aiming for sending off at least one poem and one short story a week. We’ll see if that’s a manageable goal as time goes on and reassess after the first quarter is over.
I’m no longer on the board for the East Texas Writing Guild, nor my UU church board. Those were positive decisions for me, based on me needing more time to write. I’m continuing on as a moderator for the Open Door Writing Group at the Tyler Public Library for the foreseeable future, which means writing and giving a presentation for a monthly lesson about writing.
That’s about it, y’all. It’s my first day back at the writing desk. I’m planning on starting off all my weekdays from here on out at my writing desk, working on stories or poetry for the first half of every day before moving on to social media, lesson writing, and marketing in the afternoons.
Yay 2025! I hope this year will be so much better than the last. 🙂
How is it already September? The summer went by so quickly and I’ve spent so much of it rushed off my feet with all the background, real-life stuff that is hard to cover in a blog post.
Here’s an update on my word counts from the last few months:
June: 8,880
July: 12,807
August: 22,434
Look at how I’ve improved! I’ve triple-checked that last one, but it is correct.
June’s improvement mainly came from writing more short stories. I stayed pretty busy with all the behind the scenes stuff from the other house, getting my eldest ready to go spend a month in China, teaching at both the ODWG writing groups, etc.
July’s word count bump came from not only more writing days in front of the computer on short story work, but also in the category I call “Lessons”, which I write for my local area writing groups. I was trying to get ahead for the busier times of the year when I’d have less time to prepare a lesson. It’s wild to me that I had any kind of improvement at all, really, because my spouse and I spent two weeks flat out with Covid.
August’s giant improvement came in the form of a road trip with my husband. For our anniversary last month, he surprised me with a trip to a little town in the middle of nowhere, which had a fantastic vibe, lots of fun things to tour, and quirky town oddities. Well, that tied in to the long-neglected Lake House Mystery in my brain. So I pulled out that old manuscript, updated a few bits here and there, and then started adding some fun stuff that popped into my head during the trip. After six days of adding little bits here, there, and everywhere, I had an extra 16,000-ish words added, all easy-peasy, which was amazing because that literally doubled the size of this manuscript.
I’m not done there, though. This mystery needs about 30,000 more words before it’ll be done. I’m wanting to finish that this month, while the mood is still is the air, so to speak. Crossing my fingers and hoping real hard.
-L
This month, word count was down again, at 8,833 words, nearly all lessons for ODWG again. Spring Break always throws things off, especially when friends and family have the other week off for their spring break.
I also tried to design a new closet for my writing/craft studio, which would have gone better if my closet had enough studs in the wall. But mostly I started the month sick, did a bunch of stuff with other people, then ended the month sicker than I started (flu, bronchitis, sinus infection, walking pneumonia). We decided not to do Easter with family because I was just so sick.
All I managed to do really was work on a crocheted blanket for a friend’s kid/kid’s friend that is very special to our family and is very sick herself right now.
This month, I eked out 8,749 words, but a lot of it was poetry, so when I think about it that way, that’s a LOT.
I prepared and presented two lessons at ODWG. I also worked some more on the Lake House Mystery and made a whole new system for tracking my poetry and short story submissions.
I also rearranged my entire writing studio again because it turned out that one of my bookshelves could not stand up without the support of the two on either side and books were everywhere.
In real life, one of my kids had an MRI for migraines and also sliced open his foot badly, all in one month. My dad visited for a long while. I started crocheting the Pineapple Peacock shawl, took it apart and restarted it twice more, then finally gave up. Knitted a scarf for my spouse instead.
We had a polar vortex hit and had several “ice days” I started reading “Barbara and Susan Talk About Empty Nests” once a week as a kind of devotional for therapy homework. I also read “Shadow and Bone” and “Lessons in Chemistry”.
Lisa Holcomb 