Hey Space Cadets, I hope everyone is doing fine!  I am doing great, though a little under the weather.  If you live in Southern Virginia (USA), then you’re likely feeling my pain.  Summer weather one day, snow the next.  Ugh, take your meds already and stop being so crazy!  Also, I finally broke the 50,000 words mark on Operation Breakout!!  If the multiple exclamation marks didn’t clue you in, I’m ecstatic to cross that line!  My original goal was to hit 90,000 words by January 31^st, which means on 56% done with 10 days to get the other 44%.  I’m still going to try for my February 1^st turnover date, but I might be a little off.  A turnover date is when I have the finished product to the next link in the assembly line of production.  If you want to check my editor, he’s here and would love for you to say hello!  

 

While taking a realistic look at the numbers, I would need 3,584 words a day to make that happen.  Not sure if I’m there yet but I hope it’s a feasible word count for me down the line.  Ultimately, if I started getting 2,500 useable words a day I will gladly call it a win!  Heck, I’d be so happy I’d throw a party!  Ideally, I’d love to reach 3000 words a day or more but I’ve learned that I can’t set unrealistic goals because it stresses me out, which is bad for my creative process.

 

Moving right along, sorry I didn’t post yesterday.  It’s the second day I’ve missed since December 1^st but it was a much-needed day off.  I was busy working my way through the Dragon Training Tutorial.  I’m not sure I’ll get all of the functionality out of the program, but if I can merely produce a usable first draft, one my editor won’t kill me over, I’ll call it a win.  I’m already getting faster with the dictation than I can currently type.  While the learning curve means less time actually working on the story, in two hours I’m getting as I did with five to six hours of typing.  If I can get more proficient, and tweak my outlining process accordingly, I can see myself finally reaching pulp speed.

 

Speaking of editing, I recently watched a video by Keystroke Medium on the subject.  I found it very informative, and wanted to share it with you.  I really think it’ll have a lot of actionable advice, most of it from the practical and less on the theoretical side.  While you’re in the video browsing mood, you should check out the other videos as well.  They’ve got loads of good stuff, seriously, just click here.  Come on, I double dog dare you!!  Anyway, in this video you’ll also see mention of a contest that benefits a worthy charity.  They’ve teamed up with Parkinson’s UK to help research towards a cure, a worthy endeavor.  They’re auctioning off 3 Tom Edwards book covers, which are amazing works of art!  Definitely worth looking into, but I don’t want to spoil it so watch the video already!

 

 

 

After watching that video, if the fine folks at Keystroke Medium seemed right up your alley, check them out on Facebook, or on YouTube. Josh and Scott, the hosts, are extremely friendly so you won’t regret it!

 

Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!  

 JR

 

–> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section or are images owned by JR Handley.