How I Write: Tracking Word Count

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One thing that keeps me going while writing is keeping track of my word count! Having a production goal–whether it’s for words, scenes, chapters, or pages–keeps me more accountable to myself.

Because let’s face it–we can tell everyone in the world that we’re writing a book, but nobody can actually make us sit down and do it.

For me, having a daily goal and a place to record it can help immensely. If I can make it into a chart and make it colorful, even better! I love seeing the chart change with new colors after every time I check in.

While charting scenes worked for me this time, I also like tracking word counts even by doing something as simple as writing down the number of words each day in my calendar. It’s not as pretty, but still effective.

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And…I just searched through my entire bedroom and every other notebook-hiding area (book cases in the basement, little buffet table in the dining room, poetry shelf, closets) looking for that notebook pictured above so that I can show you the completed chart, but it’s nowhere. It might be in my daughter’s room because it contains the handwritten portion of Hollow Wishes and she likes to read it…and if it’s in my daughter’s bedroom, we might never see that notebook again. If I ever find it, I’ll take a new picture of the chart and update this post. 🙂

If you’re a writer, do you track your progress? What’s your method?

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