It’s been a bit since I considered what I do when I’m not (and to be honest, most often when I am1) writing. I feel like I have been entertaining myself with electronic devices and non-electric devices most of my life. My generation (Generation X) straddled the line between the world before and after the Internet. I grew up without any exposure to life online, but I’ve spent more of my life online than offline.

After two bad months of writing in a row, I felt good about having a decent month and a great last week to October. However, how far behind am I with trying to write 225,000 words this year? Time to find out. Here's the stats for last week and for the month of October: Writing statistics for the week ending…

It's already November? Last month just flew by, but thank goodness we finally have fall weather in Iowa. I remember a year ago still waking up to 80 degree afternoons and wondering if I'd ever feel cool again. However, it feels lovely outside now. This month, I'm going to discuss a big change with my writing focus that happened this past weekend, some thank yous go out to some great hosts of author events over the past month or so, as well as all the normal odds and ends.

Fall finally comes to Iowa, and I consider both my goals for this year and what my writing priorities are.

It just feels like I'm having the same stupid week every week for the past three weeks at least. Here's the stats for last week: Writing statistics for the week ending 25 October 2025:Words: 3,247Days writing: 5 of 7.Days revising or planning: 2 of 7 for 120 minutes.Daily Writing Goals Met (500+ words or 30 minutes of planning/revisions): 5 of 7 days.

Welcome to a Sunday night edition of Poetry Night, where I produce some original poetry usually inspired by the territory and lands I live in or my day to day experiences and musings. Tonight will be a mix of both of those ideas. I managed to get out onto the Mississippi River again today, thanks very much to my wife. It was especially lovely in October when you can see the leaves changing and you don’t start sweating five minutes after you step outside like you do in July.

Back to the river and other thoughts.

Look up "doldrums" and you'll get the reason I went with the featured photo with this story. That's how I feel about how much I've been writing recently. Here's the stats for last week: Writing statistics for the week ending 18 October 2025:Words: 3,224Days writing: 5 of 7.Days revising or planning: 2 of 7 for 240 minutes.

Prewriting/worldbuilding, 3/?

I thought I would need a big long explanation for why my raw word count was garbage again, but I thought the meme pic I used as the featured photo for this post covered the basics. Here's the stats for last week: Writing statistics for the week ending 11 October 2025:Words: 3,468Days writing: 5 of 7.Days revising or planning: 3 of 7 for 360 minutes.

Prose Night at the Writing Life, 11 October 2025