We’re into the second half of the month, and I’ve met my word goal every day. So far, so good.

If I’d been thinking, I’d have noted how many words of this book I’d already written before I started this challenge so I could know exactly how far I’ve come. As of tonight, the first draft is 20,523 words. I know I’ve written at least 16,000 words this month, but the truth is that I routinely go at least a little bit over the 1K daily minimum. So all I know right now is that if I continue to meet my daily goal, I’ll have another 15,000 words written by the end of the month, for a total of just over 35,000 words of my first draft.

Sounds impressive, doesn’t it?

Of course, there are a few little catches. The first is that I tend to write long books. I don’t plan them that way. That’s just how long it takes for me to tell the story, to create the various problems and make them worse and worse before the characters can tunnel out of whatever cave I’ve thrown them into, only to emerge at last, dirty-faced and triumphant. My first novel, State v. Claus, was approximately 130,000 words, while my second novel, Becoming Mrs. Claus, was a bit shorter, coming in around 127,000 words. In both cases, a lot of words came out during the editing process, which means I actually wrote a lot more words for each book than readers ended up seeing. So 35,000 (unedited) words, while a decent start, is just over a quarter of a book for me.

Even so, I like tracking the numbers. It’s fun to have some sort of tangible signpost telling me I’m making progress. I don’t usually write to a word count except during #1000wordsofsummer, so this is different for me. Usually when I’m drafting, I’ll write for an hour, and however many words I end up with, that’s my day’s work. In this early stage, when I’m discovering the story, and I’m not yet worrying about making the sentences tight and choosing the most vivid words, I can knock out 1,000 words in under an hour. Once the draft exists, I can shift to putting in time instead of piling up words.

Recently, I was talking with someone who said she wants to write “someday.” I told her what I’d found to be true for myself:

Someday is today. Today is someday.

You don’t have to write 1,000 words every day (although you certainly can). Start with something you can manage. Maybe your schedule is insane and you can only manage 100 words a week. Okay, do that. Just do it consistently. Make it a part of your daily life, just like brushing your teeth. The words will take longer to pile up, to turn into a story or memoir, but you’ll be so much closer. As some famous person whose name I can’t recall said, “You lose 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Ditto with writing: you lose 100% of the stories you don’t write.

So don’t wait for someday to start that book you were always going to write. Don’t wait until the kids go off to college or the spouse retires or the dog dies. Today is someday. Get to work.