dukeenchiladas

Dear Future Duke,

Clearly I need to set a reminder on my phone or something to do this, haha. Anyways, happy Valentine's Day- I hope you have fun with the husband tonight! Onto the weekly check-in:

I've only written a few times this month, maybe once in the last week. I did finish a chapter and need to get started on another soon, but that'll be a you thing, maybe tomorrow after the gym.

I have spent the past several days DoorDashing and reading. I finished reading Snowglobe by Soyoung Park the other day- amazing. I can't wait to read the sequel when it's released (in English). Snowglobe, for those of you lurkers who don't engage with current YA stories, is about a post-apocalyptic Earth in which most of the world lives in -50 degree weather and work at power plants that basically act like giant hamsterwheels. These plants power everything, including the city of wealthy, elite "actors" who live in Snowglobe. In exchange for the wealth and luxury experienced in Snowglobe, it's "actors" are basically broadcasting their entire lives for everyone outside of Snowglobe. Think of it like 1984 meets 2012 Ice Age meets The Hunger Games. I strongly urge people to go and read it if they haven't already- maybe next month I'll finally get my hands on a copy of The Inheritance Games (and knock off another TBR).

That's right, I'm doing something that most book buyers readers only dream of: I'm finally reading the stuff that I've bought over the years. Currently I've got Holy Rollers by Rob Byrnes on my desk to read! I'll have more to report on it when I get more through it!

Anyways, we definitely need to spend just a little bit of time each day writing- it's a habit tracker after all. I'd love to reach 10 more days this month so I can stay on pace and not need to try playing catch up in March. In my defense, though, February is notoriously and unnecessarily short- we should adopt a new calendar where every month has 30 days and we have 5/6 days that stand apart from any given month.

Anyways, I think we're still only about halfway to the word count goal for the month, so yeah, we should get more story on the page. Alrighty, time to head out!

Sincerely,
Past Duke

Duke's Personal Progress Tracker (02/14/2025):

Days 10/120
Words 9,300/40,000
WIP 1 53,500/85,000

Dear February 2025 Duke,

As the first month of what will undoubtedly be a trying year for the both of us ends, I would like to commemorate a couple of milestones regarding our writing goals (as well as our reading goals!):

First: I averaged nearly 200 words per day this month. This may not sound like much, but with WIP 1 having been mostly written during November 2023, it had been well over a year since I properly touched WIP 1. For 13 months I averaged 0 words per day on this project. After just a few short weeks since starting to work on this goal, I jumped to 193 words per day when counting from January 1st.

Second: I have written at least 7 days (or contributed work relating to WIPs 1 and/or 2) out of the 120 I pledged to complete for GYWO. I realize that we're technically behind on this pacing, as I should attempt a minimum of 10 days per month to reach 120 days by the end of the challenge, but again we also started this pledge a week into the year instead at the first, and by technicality I am on-track to complete my pledge at this rate!

Third: I SURPASSED FIFTY-THOUSAND WORDS! WIP 1 has 50,001 words of writing, and that accounts for chapter titles and other notes that will not be part of the final narrative! This may be the farthest I've gotten on any of my attempted (and long-since abandoned) writing projects, which I think calls for a mini celebration.

With the writing goals out of the way, I feel like I can take a moment to shed light on our reading-related goals. As anyone on this site can agree, good writers should also be good readers. Furthermore, I feel like we haven't utilized our local public libraries nearly enough recently. As a tutor we often host sessions in meeting rooms at different library branches, but we need to get into the habit of using the library in other ways. We also have a good TBR pile of books that we've purchased in the past.

Reading Goal 1: Use each of the three library systems I live near once per month. So far, so good. I've checked out material from all 3 this month- a couple of movies and a couple of books. As a once-voracious reader as a child turned into a burnout adult who couldn't be bothered to actively read in their free time, this is a huge step up for me. Though I'm still only partway through the last book.

Reading Goal 2: My next reading goal is to not need to use the renewal feature on checked-out material. I want to get back into the groove of finishing a book within 3 weeks, or at least saying "this isn't for me, goodbye." by the time the book comes due. So far, mostly good. Remember that partly-finished book from Reading Goal 1? Yeah, that's due in like five days and I have a LOT of it to go still.

While there is a "secret" Reading Goal 3, it's not really something that can be easily quantified. However, I can share that it is to eventually be reading something everyday- whether it's an academic paper or the chapter of a book. Otherwise, that wraps up my writing milestone celebrations and reading goal updates for January. Hopefully next month sees even more progress!

Sincerely,
January 2025 Duke

Duke's Personal Progress Tracker (01/30/2025):

Days 7/120
Words 5,800/40,000
WIP 1 50,000/85,000