Friday, September 25, 2015

How do you Track your Writing Projects?

Hey guys! I apologize for the lack of posts for over a month, nearly two months! Yikes! Just know that I've been trying to find a full time job so that has been my priority lately. I'm still trying to write and sketch but it has since been put to the side but I'm aiming to get back on that soon! Especially with Nanowrimo coming up! Going to try and get an outline finished for that!

I just wanted to thank you all so much for following me on my crazy creative journey. I noticed it's been awhile since I've posted a process post for you so I decided to do that today! This is something totally new that I started that I wanted to share with the hopes it might help someone else too! 

If you use it, let me know what you think and if you make any changes! I'd love to see what you did and if those changes to made it work better for you! My layout may not work for you and as this is a process, things will change but this is my basic layout.

Below is an example of a spreadsheet that I made on Google Sheets which is free and I can update or access it from anywhere. It's fairly self-explanatory. I list the date of month for the word count, the project name, then the completed monthly word count, the total word count, and the writing level/draft. The last column is optional which I explain below.

(Sorry, wanted to keep the projects private but I identify them by color)


I decided to keep track of my overall word count for all my projects and their series (if it is part of one). I know this is a bit late but I suppose it's better than never! I wanted to see how much I wrote for each month's project and how long it took for me to finish the project. In these cases, it's been years because I keep jumping around on projects. lol That's terrible now that I think about it. No wonder I don't finish anything. Remedying that right now!

I also realize there is a little discrepancy between my word count numbers right now. I pulled my word counts from their respective Nanowrimo spreadsheet for each month. I only kept track of my word counts in my Nanowrimo accounts or spreadsheets.

In hindsight, I wish I tracked my word counts earlier so it'd be easier to track but this is a learning process. Sometimes I edit or write in between the Nanowrimos and forget to track the changes. I ultimately decided it's not worth trying to figure out all the missed words.

Now I've created a spreadsheet that will keep track of each project's finished word count for the month. In the "Total Word Count" column, I've added the words to the previous word count to give me a better idea of where each project is in terms of word counts. The bold numbers indicates it's been updated. In this spreadsheet, it also tracks my overall word count for all the projects.

The "Multiple Projects Worked On" simply means I worked on those two projects at the same time during the month. I need to come up with a better title than that but that's what I've got for now. lol

I've also created an identical spreadsheet for a series which only tracks the word counts for the books in the series. This allows me an "at-a-glance" look at the overall series and their word counts.

I really hope that makes sense. I'm not sure if anyone is really interested in reading this. If you're confused about any of this and need clarification, feel free to let me know.

Do any of you guys track your word counts per month? Or the level/draft of writing you are on for your project? Please let me know! I love hearing about other people's writing and project tracking processes.



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