How you can Observe Your Writing Progress (and Why You Ought to)
How much do you write Every day? Every week? If you want to become a writer, you need to know the answers to these questions. It's time to track your writing progress.
I will be honest When I started writing, I thought it was ridiculous to watch my writing progress. How many words I wrote in a day, or how often I wrote, depended on my mood and on whether that elusive muse appeared. Plus, it just seemed like another way to waste time analyzing how much I had written in a week to hesitate and write nothing at all.
I don't say this often so listen:
I was wrong.
Authors need to track their writing progress. It's that simple. Read on for why and how to get tracking today.
3 reasons why you should track your writing progress
Keeping track of your habits, exercise, diet, goals, steps, and almost everything in your life has been a trend for a while. You may roll your eyes at this article and say, "Wow, one more thing to pursue. Give me a break!"
I hear you. Personally, it is difficult to keep up with any kind of persistence in my life. I recently tried a new diet (COVID fifteen, anyone?) And was tracking my food. I got through it a few weeks before lack of time to cook, certain food availability (again, COVID), and just plain frustration. So I stopped chasing.
I really regretted it.
Still not convinced? Here's why you need to keep track of your writing:
1. You lose momentum without tracking your progress.
I thought tracking my food wasn't a big deal. I thought I could just make good decisions and not worry about writing everything down.
Yes. . . that did not work
Without this written diary listing my food and exercise, I went back to my old habits almost immediately. Life happens. You forget what you used to eat and before you know it, you run out of willpower for the day and lie on the couch with a bag of chips. It took less than a week before I felt terrible, both physically and mentally.
The same thing happens with my writing. I think I'll write sometime in the week. I think if I miss a day, I'll make up for it later with a longer writing session.
Spoiler alert: this won't work. I have tried for years to turn this mentality into reality without success.
The key to writing is dynamism. And the key to dynamism is routine. We have a ton of posts on how to get one of these up and running, but my favorite is this one.
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The key to writing is dynamism. And the key to dynamism is routine. What's your typing routine?
2. You (and your publisher) need to know when your next book is coming.
Answer this question: How long does it take you to write a book?
Don't you know the answer? This is likely because you are in no way tracking your writing progress.
Is your answer that it depends on what is going on in your life? That won't fly.
As a writer, you need to know the answer to this question. Whether you are self-publishing or traditionally publishing, you need to know (or your agent / editor / editor needs to know) when you can expect the next draft, and most importantly, when you can expect this book to hit the shelves comes.
How should you know if you're not tracking your writing progress?
3. How much you have written is not all you need to know.
When I have a week of low productivity, I need to know why I wasn't productive. As with any other job, whenever I have difficulty achieving a goal or a task, I have to fix the problem.
Was it stress? Was there anything more urgent that took up my time? Was I just lazy and not getting up early enough to fit everything into my day? (By the way, getting up early is the number one recommended way to incorporate writing into your busy life. Just to say.)
The same goes for a productive week. Have I slept enough Was the sun shining (that's a huge one for me)? Has something big happened in other areas of my life? Did I just take a break from other chores?
The “why” is just as important as the “how much”.
4 steps to track your writing progress
Now that you are convinced that you need to track your writing (you are convinced, right?), Now let's know how to keep track of your writing progress.
1. Choose your writing tracker (almost anything will work).
Many authors use software to track their writing progress. A table is enough where you simply record the date and time of your writing session and the number of words you have written. Scrivener has a built-in counter for this. Just writing in a journal would work too.
There are many more apps and programs out there, but the simplicity of these apps is not quite enough for me. I need a little more (Just a little! This is NOT meant to be a procrastination task! Doing something related to writing doesn't count as actual writing.)
I love planners. LOVE HER. I love them so much that I buy my planner for the following year before October each year. I really want to know more about planners and how to use them, but I won't because I know you think I'm a nerd right now.
Whatever. One reason I love planners is that I like to use them as a tracker for my writing progress. It's not a boring old table full of numbers that will make your eyes swim. It's not in an app or program on my computer that I can't view it in. (I'm a very visual person and I need to see things in front of me to stay motivated.)
A planner is right in front of me where I can easily leaf through. I can enter my goals quickly and put a little check mark when I hit them. (Nerd fun to flip through and see all the check marks!)
Would you like a planner specially designed for completing a book? We just launched The Write Planner, our new planner from The Write Practice, which will guide you through our proven process to turn your idea into a finished book.
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Discover the writing planner
2. Plan for the coming week.
This is another reason I prefer planners to spreadsheets or time tracking apps: I like to plan my writing sessions based on the updated information for the week.
For most of us every day. brings a different set of responsibilities and deadlines. I have a dentist appointment tomorrow morning during the time I normally write. My schedule wasn't changed until tomorrow so I can still write something.
Something like this can keep you updated and keep you moving. Don't be the person who says, "Well, I didn't have time to write last week. I had a dentist appointment, you know, and that messed up my whole week."
3. Analyze and reflect.
I know that you've probably squeezed yourself into a writing session and want to run away to the next step. I encourage you to take a moment to reflect on how the session went. What went well What distracted you Just a short note is enough. You don't have to write a full journal entry (and I don't recommend it).
I would also recommend taking some time off at the end of each week to reflect and analyze your writing progress. Think about what went well and what didn't. What can you do differently next week? What are your writing goals for next week?
Plus, check out everything you've written this week! You rock!
4. Fix the problems. Keep what works.
There would be no point in the analysis if you did not fix the problems. If you usually write at night but have trouble staying awake, postpone your writing time. If you think you can do it on your lunch break, but your reps keep trying to talk to you, it won't work.
If you've killed it on word count for a week, find out why and try to keep it up. Do you have enough sleep Well. Get the same amount next week. The spouse took the kids outside for half an hour to give them a quiet time? Bless them and ask them to move on.
Remember, the whole purpose of tracking is to see what is working, fix bugs, and get an estimate of your productivity level. It's not just for fun.
What works for you
This entire post is about keeping track of: Track your writing progress so you can find out what works for you.
A planner, tracker app, or writing on your wall. Morning, noon, midnight. Music is booming in a café or dead silence in the middle of the forest. No matter how or where you write, or how you track your progress, the point is to find out what works best for you and your process.
So find a way to track and experiment!
Are you tracking your writing progress? As? Let me know in the comments!
WORK OUT
Set a timer for fifteen minutes and schedule the writing for the next week. Establish your writing plan and goals.
When you're done, share your plan in the comments. Let's encourage each other! Bonus if you come back in a week and give us your weekly writing reflection!
Sarah Gribble
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