The Celtic triskelion symbol (at right) represents completion and progress, and a sense of advancement. A fitting metaphor for reviewing the past year and looking toward the next one, I think.

There’s something to be said for accountability. Writing down how much I spend, eat, or write makes me more likely to stick to my goals.

In 2010, I only tracked my word count, but that didn’t tell the whole story. Some months I had almost no words, but I’d still been working hard. So for 2011, I tracked all of the hours that I deemed directly contributed toward publication or making money: revising, researching, reading craft books, preparing query letters and contest entries, taking workshops, and teaching Scrivener classes.

Because you wouldn’t expect anything less, here’s a snapshot of my productivity for 2011.

• Total (net) words written: 173,617 (14,468 words/month average)
• Total writing/revising hours worked: 377.25 (31.5 hours/month average)
• Total hours worked on all writing-related activities: 736.25 (61 hours/month average)

Words by Month - 2011

(Note: Word counts are net. During NaNo my manuscript contained 50,200+ words.)

Hours per Month (blue=writing/revs, red=total) - 2011

May and August have a low writing/total ratio because I was teaching classes. June was similar because of the RWA conference.

What’s not included is the time I spent on writing-related activities that don’t directly contribute to more words, better writing, or making money in some way: blogging, tweeting, checking my Facebook author page, reading/answering emails, volunteering for RWA groups/events, and Citizens Police Academy classes.

Hits:

• Golden Heart final, The Sandy Contest win, Between the Sheets Contest 2^nd place
• Attended RWA National Conference and pitched to an agent and editor, both of whom requested
• Received eight full requests and four partial requests
• Received four rejections with specific feedback, including one request for my next project
• Won NaNoWriMo
• Proposed and taught two Scrivener online classes, and figured out how to host the class myself in 2012

Misses:

• Only met hours-worked goals in four of 12 months
• Didn’t meet manuscript completion goals

Plans for 2012:

• 1500 words/day, 5 days/week when writing
• Two hours of revisions/day, 5 days/week when revising
• Complete and polish current manuscript, and one additional MS
• Stay off email, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs until writing/revising goals met
• Teach two Scrivener online classes
• Attend RWA National Conference and WRW Retreat
• Win NaNoWriMo

Photo credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Triskele-Symbol-spiral.svg