Day 4 of the 2026 in 2026

So far, I am a little behind in word count, but I expect to make that up tomorrow as I have a short story to write for a magazine submission, followed by another story the following day to enter a writing contest.

On plus side, I have been writing fiction more regularly and this challenge is a great excuse to get some work done.

I have three novel ideas that are waiting to be started. It's my belief that starting one of them is my best bet for making it through the January and February portions of the challenge. The difficulty with short stories the constant starting from scratch. New characters, settings and plots.

Of course, writing short stories will still be part of my strategy to get to the end of the 2026 words average for each day of 2026. To put that into perspective, that is a little over 739,490 words for the year. The equivalent to writing 7 to 10 novels. There are plenty of writers who can put out a book every two weeks. Yup every two weeks. And no, they aren’t filled with poor writing. These authors have loyal fan bases that gobble up every word they write. When asked many of their fans wish they could write faster.

Why? Because these readers consume a book a day and sometimes read even faster than that.

I know it can be done. And once you know you kind of have to work towards it yourself just for the fun of it. Just for the challenge.

For now I’ll focus on what I can handle day to day.