Jean Wilson Murray

Keeping Track of Your Writing Progress – Why It’s Important

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How do you keep track of your writing production? You don’t? Should you?

I’ve been asking myself this question for a while now. It seemed to me that the effort of keeping track was just another time-waster, something else to distract me from my main job of in which the author showed how he keeps track of his writing output, on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis. I’m all about Excel worksheets and keeping track, so I thought I’d put together a writing “dashboard,” sort of showing myself the same thing.

Why Get and Use a Writing Tracker?

  • It engages your “habit circuitry” (Cal Newport). That is, it helps solidify and affirm the habit of writing.
  • It keeps you accountable to yourself. You know if you won’t work on your writing for a day, you’re going to see a big “O” for that day. And if you don’t make your word count, you won’t get to your goal for the month.
  • It helps you stay motivated. It’s fun to see your progress each day toward your goals.
  • And it might give you some ammunition some day if the IRS wants to know if you are a “real” writer. You can show them the spreadsheet so they can see you are taking this writing business seriously.

The Writing Tracker I Chose

Then I ran across Jamie Raintree’s website. She is the source of the writing progress spreadsheet I am using. I liked Jamie’s because it was easy, it gave me the flexibility to work on several projects at the same time, and I can see visually how my writing is progressing, both in the monthly calendar and the line graph. I can see the days I don’t work (note the “Out of Office” column, for a time when I was on a trip). I added the “notes “section at the bottom to remind myself what was going on. I don’t use it every day, just when I want to keep track of special projects.

The worksheet is set up for a year, with a tab for each month. This month, I worked for several days on an application for a writer’s workshop (Writers in Paradise, at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL, in January 2015).

If you are even mildly familiar with Excel, you can modify the tracker to fit your specific needs. If you aren’t Excel-worthy, you can just use the thing. It’s that easy. I added a writing goal for the month and used the running total so I could see how close I am to my goal for the month.

In case you are wondering, at this point I’m editing, not writing from scratch, so I use a rough estimate of word count, based on the time I’m working each day (an hour is roughly 1000 words).

If you want more information about Jamie’s writing progress spread, see this page from her website. She asks that you email her to request the file.

Which Writing Tracker Should I Use?

There are lots out there and most of them are free. Writers are great at sharing with one another. Find one that fits your needs and try it. If you don’t like it, try another one.

Here are some I found in a quick search:

  • Tia Ross has a bunch of writing progress trackers
  • iTunes has a WordTrack app you can download. This one tracks writing speed, which I’m not interested in.
  • NaNoWriMo has some word tracking spreadsheets. These are specifically to help you write 50,000 over the 30 days of November.
  • And, if you are using Scrivener, you can set daily writing goals, and track your overall progress toward your total writing goal for each project.

Why I’m Doing NaNoWriMo

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First, I should explain. NaNoWriMo is short for “National Novel Writing Month.” It’s a non-profit organization that has been around since 1999. They believe that stories matter and want to encourage writing. To date, over 250 NaNoWriMo authors have been traditionally published. (See the list of NaNoWriMo published authors here). Last year (2012), over 340,000 people all over the world participated. That’s a lot of potential novels!

Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month
Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month

So, why am I joining NaNoWriMo for the first time?

1. I need a kick in the butt. I finished the first draft of my novel They Also Serve (more about that someday) in late August and went to Ireland in September. Before I went, I was very disciplined about writing first thing every day, at least 1500-2000 words. Since I returned I lost that discipline. I need a kick to get it back.

2. Habits take 21 days to solidify. I got into the habit of daily writing easily and quickly. I got up every morning about 6 a.m., got my coffee, and sat down to write. I need to get back into that habit and 30 days in November should do it. Then, when I am done with NaNoWriMo at the end of November, I should have a good habit formed.

3. I am looking forward to the pep talks. Each year, NaNoWriMo asks published authors to give pep talks to participants. Everyone needs a pep talk to keep going, and this year should be good, with James Patterson and others to keep us motivated.

4. I’m wondering if I should join a writer’s group. Haven’t decided yet, but NaNoWriMo has some local groups and online groups I might decide to join. I would be most interested in a group focused on historical fiction or mystery writing. I figure I’ll wait and see who finishes the month with a novel. I’d rather work with and discuss with people who are disciplined.

3. I also think stories matter. I want to support NaNoWriMo, in more ways than just writing. My current novel and future novels will all have a theme of storytelling. Not just books, but oral stories and other ways to share common feelings and ideas.

Interested in writing a novel? Are you willing to commit to commit to starting or working on a novel in November? NaNoWriMo might be a way to get started. And even if you don’t get a full novel done, at least you will have attained some level of discipline. Like me. I’m determined.

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