The Sheet Never Lies
One of the writing tips I’d read about previously was to keep track of my writing activities so that I could gauge not only how the overall project was going, but also how productive I was being. So I have set up a spreadsheet to do just this and the results are very interesting.
I put a notes section in there so that I could quantify the conditions in which I’ve been writing and to no surprise, I’m more productive without any other distractions. When I’m writing with something else going on in the background, my word count per hour is not as high. True that I can tune out the background noise, but I haven’t really been able to schedule secluded writing time only yet. I have found time in couch potato mode, though, which has given me some good progress on the novel. I guess that’s a sad commentary in and of itself, but that unproductive time is being transformed, so that makes me feel a little better about it.
Now to the results. Although I was hoping it would show my average word count per hour would be somewhere around a thousand words, it’s actually been in the 450 to 760 word range. The spreadsheet has been a good tool as it shows me as well, at this rate how many hours I have ahead to get to my 85,000 word novel goal. Given the results, it’s also showing me that I’d be more productive, most likely, writing in a quiet time with no distractions. That alone may prove to be the best observational value of the spreadsheet, if it proves to be true.
So based on the spreadsheet, I’ll make this a goal to grab that quiet time to write and with God’s help and my trusty spreadsheet as well, I’ll be able to hopefully reach my goal sooner. It’s also helped, oddly enough, to encourage me, as I made a formula to tell me what percentage of the overall goal I’ve reached so far. Currently it shows me as 16.8% complete towards my first draft novel goal. I have 70,705 words to go. That might not sound too encouraging to you, but I know where I was before, so for me, it’s quite encouraging.
So for you other aspiring novelist out there, I will attest to this being a good motivator as well as a general tool to help you gauge your normal productivity. It’s even funny how I seemed to have developed a competition with myself to be more productive in my writing time. I’m happy when I see my numbers at a greater level and the percentage done is a wonderful thing to see climb higher. Here’s hoping I’ll have much better progress to report next time.
March 9th, 2014:
Current Novel Word Count: 14,295 Words
Percentage towards 1st Draft Goal: 16.8%