When you are a writer, the year moves fast. Each January people like us have grand designs for the next 12 months, during which time the next great American novel will spill from our fingers if only the house was just a little cleaner or after just one more episode of that show our streaming service has queued up to auto-play. We plan; life happens.

This year, I wanted to track my productivity across the days and months. You call yourself a writer, buddy, so are you actually slapping those keyboard keys? I didn’t have goals going in other than doing the dang thing, but I’m a man who loves stats, especially when they tell me the story of my own life, so any insight I’m getting is valuable. We learn; we do better.

The last time I checked in was mid-May, not quite the end of the first quarter. Now, I’m on it. I have the receipts. And they’re going to be written in pen, as all internet content is.

Month	Days in Month	Writing Days in Month	Percent Writing Days
May	31	10	32%
June	30	6	20%
July	31	19	61%
August	31	10	32%
September	30	13	43%
TOTALS	153	58	38%

So, what did I learn?

Well, turns out that June is the cruelest month. In it I wrote during a sad, small collection of six days. Blah, bad. That’s my lowest monthly count this year and lowest percent. Too much summer for me, I guess.

I made up for it in July. 19 for 31 is nothing to sneeze at, and it foreshadows a relatively strong final two months of the quarter where I hit double digit writing days each time. July and August saw final revisions on a short story that I’ve since stuffed in a drawer (which, sad), because I obviously liked working on it.

Then in September I started writing a novel and I’ve been flying ever since. I’m covering that more in my monthly diary series, but having an idea I’m excited about helps me get up and fire up the ol’ writing laptop before and after work. There’s a lesson in that, kiddos: Have an idea you like and you’ll actually write the darn thing.

Already October has been a productive month for me, and I’m going to try and hit the 50,000 word floor during November’s National Novel Writing month. I’m @epayne on there, come find me and be my friend if you like.

Until next time, friends. Go forth and write!