Everyday when I was a boy, I'd run outside our house in Grand Terrace, California and grab the newspaper off the driveway. I'd open the sports section, read the wins and losses of every baseball team, then I'd focus in on the players' stats. Who hit home runs, who stole bases, who struck out the most batters.

On top of obsessing over big league statistics, I also kept meticulous stats on my own personal little league career.  And I still have them, starting at eight years old and spanning into my adult baseball days.


I love stats. 
Stats show me how I am doing. They motivate me, give me goals to shoot for. And now that I'm a writer, I've decided to start keeping stats all over again for the same purposes. But now, instead of batting averages and ERA's, I'm keeping track of Writing Time and Word Counts (WC's)

Here's what they look like:



Date Wake Writing Time Type of Writing Total(WC) Daily(WC)                     


5/24/14
3:45am- 8:45am
26,647
5/26/14
4:50am-7:00 Editing

5/27/14
4:10am-7:10  editing 26,791
5/28/14
6am-6:35 editing 26,822
5/30/14
5:20am-7pm Notes

5:31/14
3:29am-7:20 plus 3 more pages of Magena’s rules 27,937
6/2/14
5:11am-7am  removed magena’s rules to new folder 27,610
6/4/14
5:02am-7am
28,181
6/5/14
5:03am-7:02am
28, 634
6/6/14
4:57am-7:07am
29,028
6/7/14
3:55am-6:30
29,565
6/8/14
5:22am-7am
29,727
6/9/14
5:42am-7am Outlining

6/10/14
4:40am-7:09 Editing 29,778
6/11/14
5:30am-6:59am Editing 29,773
6/12/14
5:18am-7:15am Editing 30,179
6/13/14
4:39am-7:07 Editing 30,298
6/15/14
6:27am-8:30 Editing 30,683
6/16/14
4:27am-6:48 Editing 30,850
6/18-14
4:52am-7:10 Editing/writing 31,366
6/19/14
4:22am-7:17 Editing 31,651
6/23/14
5:48am-7am Editing 31,890
6/24/14
5:39am-6:59 Editing 31,941
6/25/14
5:10am-7:05 Outlining/writing 32,192
6/26/14
4:32am-7:06 Writing 32,847
6/27/14
5:28am-7/8:20-10:53 Writing 33,613
6/28-6/30 2014
Various Wrote at HS camp 33,994
7/1/14
5:01-6:30 Writing 34,172
7/2/14
5:39-7:05 Writing 34,383
7/3/14
4:24-6:56 Writing 35,309
7/5/14
10:15am-1pm Editing 35,260
7/6/14
4:45am-7 Editing 35,145
7/10/14
4:09am-6:30 Outlining/writing 35,540
7/11/14
5:12am-7 Writing/editing 35,814
7/12/14
4:57am-7am Writing/editing 36,151
7/13/14
6:10am-7am Writing 36,387
7/15/14
4:00am-6:59am Writing 37,033 823 7/16/14
3:56am-7:05am Editing/writing 37,555 634 7/17/14
5:24am-7-10am Writing 38,075 520 7/18/14
6:09am-6:25 Editing 38,097 22 7/19/14
4:32am-7:05am Writing 38,726 629 7/23/14
4:52-7:05am Writing/editing 38,979 374 7/24/14
4:35am-7:15 Writing 39,749 770 7/25/14
5:47am-7:11 Writing 39,977 228 7/26/14
4:10am-7:01 Writing/editing 40,577 662 7/27/14
5:58am-7:21 Writing 40,882 305 7/28/14
4:07am-7:05 Writing 41,583 826 7/29/14
4:30am-7:02 Writing 42,270 687 7/30/14
4:08am-6:37 Writing 43,032 762 7/31/14
5:38am-6:508:26am-10:58am Editing/WritingWriting 43,23143,602 238639 8/1/14
4:44am-7:16am Writing/editing 44,201 615 8/2/14
5:30am-6:20 Editing 44,180 -19 8/4/14
4:05am-6:43 Editing/writing 44,754 574 8/5/14
4:13am-6:53 Writing 45,481 816 8/6/14
5:30am-7:00 Writing/editing 45,739 309 8/7/14
3:49am-6:59 Writing 46,509 770 8/8/14
5:03am-7:03 Writing 47,070 561 8/9/14 4:47 5:00am-7:13 Writing/ kids 47,606 594 8/10/14
6:35am-7:05 Plotting 47,615 9 8/11/14
6:05am-7:06 A short story

8/12/14 4:19 4:38am-7:04 Editing/Writing 48,146 531 8/13/14 5:22 5:33am-7:10 Editing 48,204 58 8/14/14 3:21 3:33am-6:59 Writing 49,766 1562 8/15/14 5:05 5:21am-7am Writing 50,084 318 8/16/14 3:45 4:00am-7:32 Editing/Writing 50,413 329 8/17/14 5:12 5:27am-7:04 Writing 50,761 398 8/18/14 4:14 4:28am-7:05 Writing/editing 51,181 575 8/19/14 3:20 3:38am-7:00 Writing 51,952 946 8/20/14 4:11 4:30am-5:53 Plotting
312 8/21/14 4:12 4:30am-7:05 Writing/editing 52,289 394 8/22/14 4:02 4:18am-6:58 Writing 52,963 691 8/23/14 5:13 5:26am-6:28 Plotting/writing 53,161 198 8/24/14 4:28 4:40am-7:30 Writing 53,807 646 8/25/14 5:22 5:38am-7:09 Editing 53,827 20 8/26/14 5:48 5:54am-7:04 Editing 53,946 119 8/27/14 5:10 5:28am-6:59 Writing 54,329 383 8/28/14 4:57 5:18am-7:00 Writing 54,784 455 8/29/14 3:46 3:58am-6:58 Writing 54,453 543 8/30/14 4:32 4:52am-6:45 Writing 54773 624 8/31/14 4:18 4:35am-8:18 Writing 55,668 895 9/1/14 5:22 5:40am-7:14 Writing 56,131 463


As you can see above, I added more categories as I realized  them, thus the blank spaces for "Wake Time" and "Daily WC" for the earlier dates.


Now, what do I plan to do with these stats?
I can do petty things like check out the average time it takes between waking up in the morning and getting started writing. I can look at differences between those stats in interesting ways. Does it take longer to start writing if I wake up before 4am compared to when I wake up before 5am?

Or I can check if I write better on the weekends verses weekdays.

What about more important stats, like finding out my average WCOPH (Word Count Output Per Hour) when writing for one hour verses two hours? Or verses three hours? Does my overall WCOPH increase if given a longer amount of time to write? I suspect it will. But how significant is the increase?

Or I might find that waking up before 4am actually hinders my overall WCOPH despite having extra time. Maybe extra sleep is more important. (I don't think so!)

Well, with all this talk of stats, you may be wondering . . . have I crunched the numbers yet?

No, I'm in the middle of writing a deliciously enthralling novel (my own opinion). I can only waste so much time...








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