Weekly Word Count

What Is This?

Following the lead of my mentor, friend, and exemplar, Tami Moore,¹ this will be a weekly article to document progress in meeting my writing goals as described here. 
I set up an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up the “words” column and I’m good to go.

How Did I Do?

My weekly goal is 1500 words.

• Three blog posts comprised my entire output for the week ended January 7. They were my Goals article, the rather lengthy exposition on capitalization, and yesterday’s short article recommending Fiddly Rules.

• “Goals for 2010” – 954 words
• “Capital Ideas” – 2004 words
• “Fiddly Rules” – 278 words

I had no copyediting projects this week. I think I may get one or two items to edit this week. Or not.

Miscellaneous “Stuff”

In this section, I intend to put stuff that isn’t really germane to either the blog in general, or this post in particular. This week, I have three items I want to share.

• Twitter Name

Many of you are already aware that yesterday I changed my Twitter ID from KestrelsAerie to @_steve_hall. Increasingly, I comment on non-WoW blogs, on decidedly non-WoW topics. For several months, I’ve been using my real name, rather than “Kestrel” or “Kestrel’s Aerie.” Fortunately, most sites allow me to include a link to my blog, so if people are interested in what I have to say, they can still follow me over here.

Once again following the lead of @tami_moore(I’m not stalking you, Tami, honest!), my rationale for this move was that if I am going to (some day) parlay my interest in copyediting into an actual paying gig, it can only help to get my real name “out there.” However, I’ve maintained my “Kestrel’s Aerie” Twitter icon, so allay some of the inevitable confusion.

• Saucy Wenches Chat Room

At the start of NaNoWriMo way back in November, Bre and Tami, the Saucy Wenches, started up a Jabber-based chat room for NaNo writers and fans to meet and chat about their projects. That chat room is still alive and open every weekday. Generally, you can find me there, along with some combination of Bre, Iris Harper, Krizzlybear, and at least one Anna.

To join us, you simply need an instant message client that supports Jabber, such as Pidgin, Meebo, or Adium. The conference address is conference.jabber.org, and the room name is saucywenches. We’d love to have you join us! Just keep in mind we aren’t continually chatting, so there are periods of silence.

• Why Grammar Counts

The following item from Epic Win FTW was shared in my feed reader by the estimable Euripedes, from OutDPS:

Thanks, Rip!