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Monitoring Your Progress as a Writer

July 6, 2020 / Motivation and the Writing Life, Uncategorized / 17 COMMENTS


Woman typing on laptop computer.

by Rafal Reyzer, @rafalreyzer

The old saying “what gets measured gets done” applies to writing as much as anything else that requires consistency and perseverance. You’re probably aware that many famous writers have writing quotas. A number that is non-negotiable. It’s in the “must-do” category on the to-do list.

For Stephen King, it’s 2000 words, for Sarah Waters, it’s 1000 words, for Anne Rice, it’s 3000. So, do you have your number or not? Somewhere I’ve read that George R. R. Martin doesn’t have a number, and that’s why he’s taking so long to write a book. Then, we have outliers like J. R. R. Tolkien, who took around fifteen years to complete his famous trilogy.

So how do you monitor your progress as a writer? Do you have to count everything? After all, you’re a creative human being, not an AI robot. Let’s take a look at different approaches, and maybe you’ll find your favorite among them.

Add up the words daily

I have a Google Sheets spreadsheet, where I log the beautiful words I write each day. Only project-related words go in there – no emails or social media posts. I put a number next to each day of the month, and this automatically contributes to the “monthly goal” cell in the spreadsheet. Each time I add up the numbers, I can feel a small burst of happy chemicals suffusing my brain. It gives me the motivation to keep on going. It also allows me to see patterns over weeks and months and figure out how to do better.

Set your monthly writing goals

At the beginning of each month, count the number of “writing days” you’ll have available for you, and set your goal based on that. Don’t fool yourself that you’ll write 50.000 words if you’re also climbing Kilimanjaro this month. Be realistic and conservative about the monthly goal. You’ll hit it all the more often!

Use a habit tracker to recognize your patterns of writerly behavior

In psychology, there’s something called the consistency principle. It states that as humans, we tend to stay consistent in our patterns of action to feel more in control of our lives. This led to the development of a motivational technique known as “don’t break the chain,” where you put an “X” below each day when you hit your quota.

After being consistent for around ten days, you start to feel uneasy about “breaking the chain,” and you keep the momentum going. This is a cool technique to try out, and you’ve guessed it – there’s an app for that.

Is it only about words? Or maybe there’s something else?

You don’t have to jump on the daily word count bandwagon if you don’t want to. Many writers feel that it stifles their creativity, or keeps them in the prison of their own making. But you need to track something to know if you’re making progress or not, right? How about the number of chapters, poems, articles, or hours you’ve spent at the keyboard? Whatever it is, keep tabs on it, and you’ll see your productivity increase over the next few months.

Never get overly fixated on your numbers

Attaching your self-esteem to your productive output is like riding downhill on a bicycle hands-free towards impending doom. Why? Because there will always be a time when you slip, and if your ego is too much into it, you’re asking for trouble. You have to learn how to let go and how to enjoy life more. Meditation is fantastic for that because it teaches you how to be happy without obtaining any external source of desire.

Maintaining this balance between achievement and peace of mind is not easy, but it’s the best way I’ve found to make progress and stay happy.

Do you use any of these methods to track your progress as a writer? Perhaps you have something else on your mind? Feel free to leave a comment below!

Rafal Reyzer is a full-time blogger, freelance writer, digital marketer, editor, and content manager. He started his blog to provide readers with great tools and strategies they can use to achieve freedom from 9-5 through online creativity. His site is a one-stop-shop for writers, bloggers, publishers, content enthusiasts, and freelance editors who want to be independent, earn more money, and create beautiful things.

Writer @RafalReyzer offers tips on monitoring your progress as a author: Click To Tweet

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  1. Hi Elizabeth and Rafal – not being a writer of books or stories … I don’t count – but I do rely on comments – so if no-one is interested I’d be very put off. Finding one’s voice – seems to be the key to me … congratulations to you both – Elizabeth … I know you’ve got your various series set … and they resonate with your readers. If I ever thought about publishing or entering competitions … then I’d hone my present abilities a little – without getting too strung up about it … and learn from the results or none – as the case may be. Stay safe during this time – Hilary

  2. Great tips. I agree that it’s important to set realistic goals and not something like write 50,000 words in a month unless a person wants to do their own NaNo month. I should set some goals like this for myself to make better progress in my writing.

    1. To me, goals are really helpful. Some folks are doing Camp Nanowrimo right now (and I applaud them because this is a tough time to do a lot of writing!) for motivation. I’m like you, though, and set very small and attainable goals and go for consistency, instead.

  3. Thanks for this good advice. I think it’s important to have, as you say, small and large goals and work towards them. It’s also important (at least it is for me) to balance trying to meet those goals with other things going on in life. We can’t do it all, and it’s healthier, I think, to know that and plan accordingly.

  4. Great advice!
    I use Scrivener and there is a way to track daily and overall word count in the program. I aim for 1000 a day when I’m drafting, but always hope for that 1667 NaNo goal :)

  5. I love the numbers game! I’ve begun a few novels during NaNoWriMo and it worked swell at getting going. Now I’m on the final revision of one and I’ve switched to a minimum of pages a day to meet my deadline to start the copy edit. So far I’m able to far succeed my minimum, but as I get further in I know it will get harder. On my second revision I did hours instead of words or pages.
    I have a meditation practice that goes strong and keep a journal to keep my progress. I need to do that for the particular practice as it is counted in hours that are then recorded with my guru. . I have sat every day for several years without breaking the chain.

    I have been largely self-employed my whole life so having systems to keep me at it are very important.
    Thanks for this reminder!

    1. I’ve always wanted to meditate, but I have a really tough time corralling my thoughts. Congratulations on your chain (for years!) I like your well-developed systems for success!

  6. Great tips. I can see where having a number goal could be very helpful, but you’d have to be careful not to become obsessed with reaching that number or your focus could easily change.

  7. I find setting a time frame works best for me. I don’t believe I’ve ever counted words, mostly because I write everything on paper first.

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