Time to do a quick update, here at the end of week 7.

My soul goals, the yellow ones that are primarily about creativity this year, have been the ones I have focused on so far this year. When I was sick, they took a huge hit, but not as big as the other ones. I also started off pretty strong. But I’ve also changed my approach to them a bit, so that’s going to affect my overall word totals, even though I’m not changing my target.

I started off really strong on my big scary goal of writing 500,000 words by December 31st. In the first major week for tracking, I put together over 20K words, twice the weekly goal. It was hard, but it was also fun. Since then, not so great. I was planning on that 500K being a combination of many things:

• First and foremost, my blog entries on PolyWogg.ca, and that’s still the case…while I have written 38K words on that blog, it is less than the 65K that I would have needed to write to be on track for my target.
• Second, my PolyBlog site which is a bit more professional than personal, I was expecting about 500 words per week (generally one good post), and I’ve only met that twice.
• Third, I’m pretty active on Twitter with writing reviews of individual TV show episodes. I had hoped for about 250 reviews by the end of the year and I’m already over 200 already. I’ll beat that goal before March is over. My goal is about 500 words per week, and I’ve beaten it every week except the first.

After those three, the change has been significant. For example, I put up anywhere from 1000 to 3000 words a week on Facebook. I also have letters, emails, research notes, etc. Probably an average of about 2000-2500 words per week. I’ve decided that rather than try to count every word, I’m going to round it all down to 1000 words a month. Equally, I have decided not to count curated items on my blogs — i.e. if I post articles where I excerpt 100 words from another site, those 100 words don’t count towards my total. Words on memes too are out, even when they are fully original as opposed to quoting someone. No words will be included from comment boards or newsgroups either. It basically comes down to four elements — my two blogs, reviews on Twitter (not even just simple tweets, only the reviews!), and then a rounded total for the big “other category”. While that other category will probably generate over 100K words in the year (or 20% of my total goal), I’ve decided it is all too difficult to track so I’m counting a very conservative 1000 words a week (which will still generate 50K for the year and 10% of my writing total).

However, that change is hurting. For four weeks in a row, I was above my cumulative total count, mainly buoyed by my large first week, but the last five have caught up with me, and I’m running behind. Twitter is going well, meme creation too.

And my reading goals are flying by. I’ve read The Monogram Murders (Agatha Christie-style with Hercule Poirot), a James Patterson novel, John D. MacDonald, an actual Agatha Christie, and A Game of Thrones. For the classics, I’ve started on Crime and Punishment, but I’m not really enjoying it and it is REALLY slow going.

Overall, I’d rate my progress as a nice yellow, maybe even a little green.