H, I'm new here . I'm currently working away on a novel. I have seen on blogs and such tracking word count helps. I was just wondering how many people actually do and if so do you just use a spreadsheet? Thanks!
. I just put the word count as an auto-field in the header, so that anywhere in the document I can see what the curent count is. Don't know where a spreadsheet would come in.
Introducing a spreadsheet into the mix would completely obliterate any joy I had from writing. I don't worry about word count. However long it is is how long it is. At the end, I figure out whether it's too bloated and repetitive or too sparse.
Some people like to set word count goals for themselves. It gives them something to strive for with each individual sit-down. "I'm going to write 4,000 words today!" It's really more motivational than anything else.
I like to keep track of my word count, but I don't do it often. Its more like, 'Oh, I wrote a lot today, I wonder what my word count is.' Then I look at it, realize that I didn't really write a lot, and don't check it again for three months... But when I do, I either use the Word Count feature in Microsoft Word, or in Google Drive. They're both really easy to find. Microsoft Word 13 has is already there for you in the bottom left corner of the screen. In Google Drive, select the text you want to get a count for, then go to "Tools --> Word Count" and it brings up a box with stats for you.
I have used spreadsheets in the past. While writing a novel, I gave myself a deadline to finish the novel and an approximate word count that I wanted to reach. This gave me daily and weekly goals that were very helpful to me. That was when I was writing with Word, but now I use Scrivener and it has built in goal setting options.
I don't use spreadsheets, but I do keep track. I have a pretty simple approach. Every time I start a new novel I make a new file in Notepad. I write down the date, the time I started writing, when I took breaks, etc. At the end of each day I record word count and how much it's gone up (from the day before). I don't obsess over it, or make a huge deal about it. My reasoning for doing it is because I wanted to find the pattern as to when I'm at my best and when I'm not, how long each novel takes me, etc. For instance, the last novel took me 14 days before I could start editing. I've been working on this one for almost a week and a half (though a lot of that was interspersed with editing, formatting, promoting, etc. for the last one), and I'm only 28000 words in. Normally that would upset me, but since I also keep a time card (what I call the notepad file) for editing I can see that I wasn't an unproductive lazy bum, I just was using the bulk of my time finishing the last one. I treat this as a job (one that I really really love), and I realize a lot of people disagree with that approach. Even so, I think that knowing when you're doing well, the things that HELP you to do that, is helpful to anyone. I know that I write best in the morning, before lunch, and in the afternoons I often lag a bit (down from 1500 per hour, to only 1000 average). Today, I know I didn't get a lot of sleep and I'm lagging totally, only accomplishing 750 words per hour for the last 3 hours. I would be bummed, if I couldn't see that I usually do better and know that it's a lack of rest, and, probably food. Which is why I took a break, to go eat, so I'm going to go do that now
Yeah, this is pretty much the reason I found elsewhere. You're a really quick writer! I'm a novice and I'm pleased if I hit 750 per hour! Any tips or links you have for me boosting it would be extremely appreciated! Also, this may be going off topic a bit but I'm a little stuck in two minds. Should I stick with my story and keep writing, or should I be honing my technique? Thank you everybody for your responses. I wasn't expecting so many!
