We are back for another look at my writing log stats. If you’re not aware, I’ve been tracking my writing for the past few years in my wonderful Notion Writing Log Template. You can view my 2020 writing stats, if interested.
⚠️ An important note: I track my writing stats for pure interest. Yes, I can determine a general idea of how much I can write per hour, if needed, for estimates. However, it is important to note that I don’t create any expectations for myself. No goals derived from metrics or anything of the sort. Nor do I try to compare my word count against others. (Obviously, many, many people write more than I do.) The important thing is that I am writing.
Let’s jump into some stats.
Writing Stats for 2021
Definitions
Before you read the stats, here is the terminology:
- All Words = Unfiltered. Everything I logged.
- Words Written = items tracked with writing label.
- Words Revised = items tracked with revising label.
- Outlined = items tracked with outline label.
Stats
Here is a high-level view of the stats:
| Type | Count | Time |
| All Words | 29,926 | 5,696 minutes (94.93hrs) |
| Written | 26,694 | 3,506 minutes (58.43hrs) |
| Revised | -592 | 1,889 minutes (31.48hrs) |
| Outlined | 3,824 | 301 minutes (5.02hrs) |
| All Nonfiction | 20,495 | 3,286 minutes (54.77hrs) |
| All Fiction | 9,431 | 2,410 minutes (40.17hrs) |
Stats Breakdown
All Words: 29,926 words in 95hrs
All categories of tracked writing.
The total word count (based on the diff in my writing log) is less than 2020. Why? This year I set aside large projects, and I picked up my copyediting course, which took significant time. This affected my time spent on other projects.
Words Written: 26,694 words in 58hrs
Excludes revisions and outlines.
This excludes other categories of writing. Think of this as my first drafts.
Words Revised: -592 words in 31hrs
Excludes written and outlines.
This is the first full year in tracking revisions. It’s weird, as you can see, of the total words I’ve written (written and outline), I’ve ended up deleting 592 words. I still find this difficult to track, but I do so anyway.
Words Outlined: 3,824 words in 5hrs
Excludes revisions and written.
I have not created many new projects; thus, outlining is still new. It’s also the first full year of tracking this. Nonfiction outlines are typically headlines and bullet points. I then immediately draft. Fiction outlines are a bit more detailed and involve writing story beats.
Nonfiction: 20,495 words in 55hrs
Nonfiction would be blog posts—like this one—newsletters, personal essays, etc.
Fiction: 9,431 words in 40hrs
Fictional projects included are Waited, Project Door (re-outline), and Project Witch.
Other Fun Facts
- First Entry of 2021 was Jan 2nd
- Last Entry of 2021 was Dec 26th
- All of my writing took place at home (hello, pandemic)
- June and November are tied for the least entries at ZERO
- January had the most entries at 22
- March 19th had the largest single day positive word count at 1,494
- January 19th had the largest single day negative word count at -934
- I wrote more in 2020 than I did 2021
- I spent the most time writing for my blog, followed by the newsletter, and ApexThis podcast.
- The newsletter has the highest word count followed by the blog, and project witch.
- Chapter 2 for Project Witch had the highest word count for a single session.
On To 2022
And there we are.
I always look back, wishing I wrote more, but this year was very rewarding for me. There is always something that surprises me, and I can’t wait to be surprised by my output in the coming year.
If you want to track your writing, be sure to grab my Notion Writing Log Template.
Happy writing.