I maintain meticulous statistics of my writing in two separate files. One focuses on the number of words written per year, while the other concentrates on the yearly flow of addenda. I update both files about once a fortnight. Although I am not concerned about small deviations from recent yearly averages, I do try to keep close to them from year to year. As the first half of the year is almost over, I just updated my two files. Doubling the numbers would give me a rough idea of where they will be at the end of the year. This time around I am especially interested in these statistics because the Residua website came alive in mid-February, and I have a feeling that the direct contact with my readers affects my writing to a considerable extent.

Several things stand out in the mid-year statistics. First, the number of pieces is, as it were, on target. The last few years my output has been hovering just above six-hundred pieces a year. At the moment, I have just over three-hundred pieces, which means that everything is as before. Second, the average number of words per piece has dropped below one-hundred and fifty, the minimum I have been maintaining for several years now. This makes me a bit uncomfortable, I must say, but not too much. Third, the number of addenda written so far is nearly the same as the yearly average for recent years. At this time I have nearly sixty of them spread over a good number of years. For me, this is great news, as the weaving of my Residua over the years by means of the addenda is central to the whole project (see, for example, “Production of Residua by Means of Residua,” May 7, 1983).

It will take a few more years to be sure about any of this, but it seems to me that my new site is changing my writing in the right direction. The ease with which I can “publish” everything I write is most important here. And this is so especially with respect to the addenda. While my site was in someone else’s hands, the incentive to add to pieces already published was considerably less than now. I knew it would take months or maybe even years before the addenda would eventually appear on the World Wide Web. All this was quite painful at times, I should add. In the future I would like to shift the emphasis of my writing on the addenda rather than new pieces. I would like to add layer upon layer of interpretation on everything I have already written, and my new site allows me to do that with the greatest ease. At any rate, my mid-year statistics give me a feeling I am on the right track.

Addendum (September 25, 2016)

My statistics look rather different at present than when this piece was written some eight years ago. So far this year, I have written just over four-hundred pieces and nearly four-hundred and fifty addenda spreading over most of the years. Actually, only two years have not been blessed by them so far. For the first time in forty-one year, the number of addenda surpasses that of the pieces of writing, and by quite a margin. Amazing! I am on the right track for sure! In the years to come, I expect the number of addenda to lead the roost year after year. And ever more prominently, too. The weaving of my Residua by means of the addenda is indeed central to the whole project. As of late, the addenda are buttressed by citata, as well (“Addenda, Citata,” July 15, 2014). The relentless weaving now goes both ways. Hooray!