December and 2009 Stats
I have my monthly writing/submission stats for both December and all of 2009.
First, December:
- 8,400 new words of fiction written this month. 1
- 21 first drafts currently in progress. 2
- 5 first drafts currently "ripening" before second draft. 3
- 3 second drafts currently in progress
- 0 second drafts currently in the hands of "trusted readers."
- 3 third drafts currently in progress.
- 0 third drafts currently awaiting polishing.
- 1 fourth draft in currently in progress.
- 2 rewrite in progress of stories previously sent out, based on comments from friends.
- 2 rewrites (at request of editors) currently in progress.
- 8 stories currently submitted to markets4
- 1,000 words in shortest story currently submitted.
- 8,700 words in longest story currently submitted.
- 1 offer of publication received this month.
- Longest current wait without response: 139 days.
1 More than usual, if far from a record. I turned out a new first draft and did about 1,500 words of arguing with myself on paper about a new story I'd like to write.
2 I always have a lot of first drafts "in progress," until one of them really grabs me and I work on it obsessively.
3 I employ a six-week "ripening" period for first drafts. The one in the incubator now is the aforementioned fantasy-horror story.
4Actually I have two more in the queue, but I'm waiting for a couple of markets to open up for submissions.
Now for the annual stats for 2009:
- 101,000 words of new fiction written.*
- 25 first drafts completed.
- 20 final drafts completed.
- Longest story written: 7,700 words.
- Shortest story written: 20 words.**
- 33 different stories submitted to magazines.
- 77 total submissions overall.
- 6 offers of publication.
- 4 stories appearing in print or online.
* Not nearly as much as I'd like, but I’m still proud of myself. I've written the equivalent of a draft of a novel in one year, same as last year. This figure excludes the 30,000 words of critique I wrote while at Clarion.
** Some of my stories (including two of the sales) were twitterfics, 140 characters long.
All in all, not a bad year, and I think I see some slow improvement.