I’m doing a writing challenge to write 2024 words per day, on average, in 2024. I got behind at the beginning of July and stayed behind the entire month up until the last day of the month. I ended the month with an average for July of 2025 words. I am still about three and a half days behind where I need to be for the year. If I can pull ahead this month, it will give me some cushion going into the fall.

I finished half a dozen short stories and a novella, plus I started another novella. I need to carve out time to publsih the novellas. The short stories are under submission.

I posted a couple of days ago about starting a new academic job. Classes start two weeks from tomorrow. I don’t have a schedule yet of when I’ll be teaching, other than it will be in the afternoons and probably only three days a week. Visiitng faculty, which is what this position is, don’t have to serve on committees, do public outreach, or other such activities.

What does this mean for the writing?

It means I am going to have to manage my time a lot better than I am now. I not only can do it, I need to do a better job of not wasting time. I am going to double down on writing. I will still have some time in the day to write. I just need to make sure I reserve that time for writing.