I always plan to write over winter break, but somehow it never happens. I work at a University that closes for almost two whole weeks the end of December. Perfect time to get some writing done, right? Apparently not!
So then January came along, and I buckled in and started writing regularly. I have been scheduling it into my day, but not giving myself too much grief if I occasionally get off track. And I must say, it has been going pretty well for me. I am writing at least three days a week (while working a full-time job and single-momming two rowdy boys in the process) and hacking out the first draft of book two of my Valley of the Bees series a few pages (and sometimes a few sentences) at a time.
My goal was 20,000 words by the end of January. Of course, that didn’t happen, but I did get close. And today – three days into February – I ALMOST made it finally. Of course, I typed the final word of the chapter I was working on, looked down at my word count, and saw this:
Of course! I was one word shy of my goal! Seriously?
Well, I needed to move on from writing and get on with the rest of my day. I don’t have an infinite amount of writing time, after all. There were kids to get off to school, and I needed to also get myself off to work on time.
So, what did I do? I hit my goal, that’s what:
Who says every single word you write must necessarily make it into your final draft?
On the bright side, at this rate, I think I might actually finish the first draft of this novel by the end of March. And even if I miss that goal by a couple of days, who cares? As long as I keep writing, it’ll get done, right?
Eventually.
Write on the World 
Absolutely the important thing is to keep writing. I set a goal for myself to finish the short story I began last year. I’m almost done with the first draft. I’m getting much better at carving out time for writing fiction.