Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Novel Writing Update

I like to keep track of my writing and I use a spreadsheet to do this.
On the first page I record my daily word count, with horizontal columns for the months and vertical comments for the days. At the end of each month I tally the words and divide them by the number of days I have written to get an average daily total.
On the second page I record the number of books I've read, by month, including the start and finish dates and my overall rating.
On the third page I list the short stories I have submitted to markets, the date they went out, the number of words, the date I received a response and the payment and publication date if any. I also colour code all stories that have been responded to (red for rejection, green for acceptance) so I can tell at a glance which markets I haven't heard back from (they remain black).
So far this month the second and third pages of my spreadsheet aren't getting much use, but I am pleased to say that the first one is. I love to see the word count rising at the bottom of the page. It gives me a thrill.

6 comments:

DNOTY2007 said...

What's your average daily word count then, Inky???

Anonymous said...

Very impressive!! I'm glad someone has found a good use for spread sheets!!

Anonymous said...

Very impressive!! I'm glad someone has found a good use for spread sheets!!

SSQuo said...

Well, pages 1 slowly facilitate Page 3, and when you get decent no. of Page 3 fill in's Page 2 will happen as well. :)

I love your little notes about a writers life, I would never have known this. Thanks for sharing.

Casey Freeland said...

You know they have pills for OCD these days, right?

;)

I'm very happy for your work on page #1 actually, and your commitment to organization. Great stuff.

Unknown said...

I always fail to plan...