Why I Like To Track My Writing

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Photo credit: gever tulley / Foter / CC BY-NC

One of the things I love most about NaNoWriMo, apart from the constant state of panic, the tight deadlines, and the company of other crazy writers, is that lovely little chart on the stats page. The simple line graph depicts your progress throughout the month, showing your accumulating word count in a way that gladdens the heart. Quite frankly, I adore that chart. Every time I look at it, I’m sorely tempted to see how big a spike in word count I can make. It’s a huge motivator.

Certainly there is a fair amount of satisfaction to be gained from knowing that I have a great streak of writing, and that I’ve made good progress, but for me, the mere knowledge of knowing how well I’ve done is not enough. I need to see it. And that’s why I love the graph so much. Being able to see what I’ve done, how many days in a row I’ve written, and being able to gaze at my amazing work, makes it more concrete, more real.

For me, being able to see my awesome progress spurs my inner competitor on. I am a highly competitive person, and I always want to beat the best result I can see. I want larger spikes, more of a certain colour, more days over a certain word count. And if I can see that in a handy little chart that gives me all the information in a glance, it’s even more motivating. There’s great power in tracking how much you’ve written.

Another important part about tracking my work is being able to set and achieve consistent goals. A goal forces me to work, and, being such a terribly competitive person, I do like the challenge of trying to beat my goal. By a lot. But at the same time, on those days I’m not quite feeling it, I have a nice easy number to aim for. Because a visual reminder of a day wasted is a terrible thing in my opinion. It stares at me. It knows.

This is how I like to motivate myself. But I’m interested to know. What motivates you? Do you like to track your work? If so, how do you track it?

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8 comments

  1. I love keeping track of my word counts! One GREAT way of doing this all year round and setting up mini NaNos for yourself is MyWriteClub.( https://www.mywriteclub.com/beta/Home ) I use it all the time. You can even add to-do items, chapters, pages, and not just words. So if you get an account, you should add me. :P

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    1. Thank you for sharing that link! I've been needing something like that for several years! XD

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    2. What a great idea for a website! I like the look of it already. Thanks so much for sharing that link Katie. It looks so good!

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  2. Omg, I relate to this on a SPIRITUAL LEVEL I TELL YOU. *hugs little charts* I love charts and goals and colourful things that tell me I wrote a lot of words. xD I love how it counts your word count so exactly and, yesss...it's so motivating. I'm hugely competitive with myself too. ;) Eeen in non-NaNo time I write down how many words I wrote on my calendar. But I nearly wish there was an all-year-round NaNo site!??!

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    1. Yay! Another person who loves the little charts. Here's a secret. I've made myself an Excel spreadsheet in addition to the NaNo word count chart, just so I can try and make streaks of colour as well as make the bars jump as high as they can. There's something so satisfying about seeing how huge a spike you can make, isn't there?

      Oh yes! If someone invented a year-round NaNo I would be there in a heartbeat. That would be simply the best. Someone tell the NaNo guys! Let's make this happen.

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  3. I love tracking my progress. I do it year round, but it's especially handy with NaNo since it does that handy dandy graph for you. I'm so pumped for NaNo!!!! :D :D :D

    storitorigrace.blogspot.com

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    1. Me too! Only a few days to wait now. I've almost got my outlines finished at long last so I can almost count myself as ready. Pfft. What am I saying? There's not way to be completely ready for NaNo. Ever. Still, it's so close!

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  4. Like others have said, I personally love MyWriteClub for the same reason. November isn't the best month for me to write a novel, but at the same time, I do like the graph. MyWriteClub is the best way to track my stuff, and I also like seeing what other people are doing! :D

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