The title of this blog post isn’t pointing fingers at anyone but myself. To say that I’ve been “bad” at setting aside time for writing over the past couple of months would be an egregious understatement. Truth be told, I’ve hardly written a single word of anything for the past several weeks, and the fault lies entirely with me.

Thankfully, I’ve been much better about working on WordKeeperAlpha on the weekends, and I’m getting ever closer to that big update that I’ve been promising for quite a while. Soon as I get all the little fiddle bits working, a few bugs ironed out and verify some security questions that I have, users will get a brand new interface for working with goals and projects, have more graphing options and should get a faster experience all around. Its still a few weeks out, but it is coming soon.

As to my writing, my lack of progress is due largely to my inability to step away from my video games for any measurable length of time. The main culprit is Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but I’m sure that Persona 5 is quickly going to start claiming more and more of my brain space. This is on top of my normally scheduled gaming time … and that leads me here. Silence on the blog for well over a month and nothing measurable to show since the start of the year.

This, my friends, will not stand. I’ve got two active projects right now, both of which could be finished and left to cool for a little while if I’d just finish them out. While I still don’t think that Impervious is right to send to publishers, due mostly to its size and my inexperience as an author, my second project, still lacking a title might serve as a nice jumping off point to get me an agent and publisher.

To that end, I’m going to be starting a strict “No writing, no gaming” policy. If I don’t hit a minimum number of words on any given day, I don’t get to save highrule and / or capture demon’s in Tokyo. That starts today, here and now. I’m going to focus on finishing my unnamed project, then smash the ending of Impervious to paste. My goal for this month is 10,000 words, to start off small, build up the habit of writing every day, and then ramp it up as the year goes on.

I may not sell a book this year, or self-publish one, but I certainly intend to finish two books and get a start on a third. My goal, at this point is to produce something that will get me representation by an agent as a first step to getting published. I’ve got several projects that will serve that purpose, and those that don’t work I’m completely open to self-publishing. Still, none of that happens if I don’t write. So, this month, the goal is 10,000 words. That’s about 500 words per day, every day, for the rest of the month. Wish me luck!

There’s only one real rule to being an author. Writers write. Its high time I got back to work.