Q’s Q1
The first quarter of the year has come and gone, so I thought it’d be good to take stock of how my writing habits and productivity have been so far for 2025. This whole year of being so focused on writing aspirations is an experiment of a sort, and, though there are still many months between now and December, I’m already gathering take-aways and lessons.
In a previous blog, I mentioned I’ve established a routine of working on the weekdays and that each day’s word goal is 1,500 words. That comes out to 7,500 words per week. I track this on a simple spreadsheet, and I find the data interesting. I think this next quarter will be insightful in identifying trends in productivity, though I do already have a feel of the cadence of my weeks.
A few quick stats are:
Of the 12 weeks in Q1, I reached 7,500 words or more in 9 of them. 75% strikes me as a solid place to be, initially.
If there’s a weekday that consistently seems to be below the goal, it’s Friday, which appears to be because I write over 1,500 words in previous days so don’t have to reach that number to attain the overall weekly goal. I can’t decide if I should still push myself to reach 1,500 or if that’s a natural indicator of a day that’s better used for planning/organization. The nice thing is that, either way, it’s a positive place to be.
Between this blog and my fiction work, I wrote 86,565 words over the course of Q1. The break down of that is 75,415 words toward my fiction projects and 11,150 toward my blog.
Here’s the lovely thing about tracking these things and reflecting on them: I can see room for growth while also acknowledging that I’ve been hard at work. If you’re a goal or New Year’s Resolution person, I hope you’re giving yourself time to see both of these things, too. Because you should allow yourself space to pat yourself on the back and be proud. It’s an important step of the process and serves to reinvigorate the original energy you started out with.
It can be a challenging piece of the process, though, which is one of the things I’ve been learning over the last few months. Too often I look at my spreadsheet and think about how I should have tried harder to reach a daily goal. I feel bad when I have an unfocused, unmotivated day. Some days it feels like I get too much in my own way.
Thank goodness for those outside voices cheering me on, when my own inner-voice is pessimistic or unkind. Boysy is so good about pointing out my productivity, reminding me it’s not about perfection. Reminding me that I’m living a full life, not chained to a desk with the sole purpose of word production.
Which is another lesson Q1 is giving me. Life ebbs and flows. There are days, weeks, when nothing out of the ordinary demands my time, I’m on top of all the housework, and I’m satisfied with my efforts. And then there are weeks when we have visitors or I’m under the weather or my brain is telling me it needs rest. It’s not always the best decision to push through and force myself to write anyway just as it’s not always best to totally step back from all writing productivity. I’m working on finding that balance.
I’m working on being okay with a day’s word count only clocking in at 500 sometimes. I’m working on being a touch more flexible and listening to what my body seems to need. These are things I intend to keep in mind in Q2.
Keeping my Commonplace notebook with me is another absolute for this second quarter. My little notebook is a tangible reminder to be always on the look-out for ideas and to jot them down so I don’t forget them. It fits so easily in my bag, and there’s something about physically writing descriptions or observations in the moment that I can return to later that helps me soak up the world better. Like when we visit an old, beautiful church, which is turning into one of our favorite things here in Germany. Sitting in a pew, drinking in all the details and art, and selecting just the right words to help me recall the instances and emotions serves as an immersive experience. I highly recommend getting a little notebook of your own to do this in your own way, if you don’t have one already.
The last observation from Q1 is that I’ve had more of a spirit for poetry than I have in recent seasons. As I think about the mundane moments that make up life and the ways I might capture them—like everyday treasures I’m storing up—my mind gravitates to simple verse. I’m writing stories, getting mentally lost in a vibrant, fictional world of my own making, when I sit down at my desk—but when I look up at the world around me, this life is presenting itself to me as poetry. I don’t mind that at all. Don’t mind it in the least.
If Q2 gives me more poems and more words, I’d be delighted. I’m forever learning there’s so much that comes to you unplanned, though, so maybe, if Q2 gives me more grace, that’ll be enough.