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Word count: 32898. That's half of my peak monthly output, so obviously I succeeded in my goal of writing a lot less this month. For the first part of the month I did an anal job of staying at or below 1000 words; six of my entries were exactly 1000 words. However, I found this to be dissatisfying at times; there were some entries (WE GOT DRACULA, IMF Chief Escapes) that were natural at a short length, but there were some (Kon-Tiki, Star of Stage and Screen) that really wanted to be longer, in some cases a lot longer, but what I wound up with felt chopped and incomplete.

It felt good to write less. I had more time with family, and I could feel my brain decompressing. On the other hand, there were often times when I pushed back from the keyboard after writing for only 45 minutes and said "That's it?" Often it felt like cheating. Indeed, for the latter half of the month, my entries crept up in length. I've basically decided that limits like the 1000 word thing should be like the Pirate Code in that they're more guidelines than rules.

I like occasionally writing Jackpot and Lopez stories because they're pure cheez-wiz. They're all cheap laughs and cardboard-cutout science fiction, and they're easy to write. However, I don't think they help me develop any writing skills, apart from helping acclimatize me to writing regularly and on extended projects. I must ensure I limit how much of such things that I write.

After a month of shorter writing I feel somewhat refreshed and ready to write some more story-length stuff. Don't hate writing yet. Keeping on keeping on.

This month: 62833 words. Not as much as January, but creeping back up there. I feel I am writing more than I ought to be writing. I'm doing a better job of taking advantage of odd bits of time to write (i.e. soccer practice, waiting for a conference call to start, etc.) but I'm doing worse at avoiding staying up late to do pre-writing. If I could master the art of dictation while driving I could recapture a lot of that time, but I am so very much NOT a speak-out-loud writer, I don't even know if that's possible.

This month's extended writing project, Pestle, came in at 24677 words, or roughly half a full-length novel. I find that I like the result and its density; if it were novel length, a subject as light as this would get boring. I suspect what I am learning is that my 'natural' writing niche is definitely more short subject than long subject, and I lean far more toward episodic stories than towards overarching epics. I see no GIANT FANTASY TRILOGIES in my future. I may, however, stray from F/SF.

I think I wrote several good pieces this month, including The Sun Must Feed and The First Funeral. I appreciate all the praise for Most Blessed of Boys but I share drelmo's opinion that something is missing. If I were to edit it, I'd add a third tier of experiences at the end. There were several bits that are so obviously mailings-in that I'm embarrassed about it and I shan't name them here.

Interesting note from February: I found that at least one Black History aggregator blog linked to Spotlight On: Harriet Tubman, unaware that it wasn't a straight-ahead piece, and those blogs got comments on how horrible it is that malicious people should be making fun of Black History. Part of me wants to protest, but in a way I really am poking fun, so I guess I should shut up. It's not malice, though; I just think that everything has the potential to be hilarious.

Thanks for your support and comments, everybody! Still not hating the writing!

Word Count: 66565.

Jesus. I do not recall promising that I would write, at this rate, 16 NaNoWriMo's over 2011. That is a lot of fucking words.

Some of the stories I quite like. I am probably unreasonably fond of The Colophon. Some of them I already hate. I did not achieve what I was trying for with Suspicious White Powder.

I discovered how hard it is to write when you have something else big going on. I also discovered how committing to anything for a couple hours out of your already generally busy day has the potential to screw up your life, work, relationships and sanity. Must write smart.

I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that I am not a bad capacity writer. I still do not see myself as having the stamina/patience/whatever to write long fiction, but perhaps writing these stories-by-chapter will change that by the end of the year. I do have the ability to write a decent number of words per hour.

I have also been happy to find that my store of writing ideas has not immediately been exhausted. After an initial burst of idea-creation to give myself a buffer, I have for the last half of the month been able to cook up an idea and write it within the 24 hour period of that day. Thus far everything I have written has been written that day.

I do not yet hate to write.

Thanks for reading my stuff and keeping me honest.