December 3, 2010

I need to get a lot of writing done this month, despite the holidays. We’re advised to keep a record of words written each day, so as I was dividing up what needed to be done, I was thinking of ways to keep track of the revision words.

It’s much easier to track rough draft words. You can count 2,000 new words done today because you wrote eight new pages. With revision, it’s harder to measure.

Not an Exact Science

I might revise two chapters, but do I say I revised 5,000 words? Only 1,000 of those words might have needed fixing, since the pages had been revised many times already. Tomorrow I might hit a very rough chapter or one that needs extensive changes, and so I’d only be able to say I revised 1,000 words, even though I actually worked twice as long.

How do you track your writing? Daily words written? Daily words revised? Hours written, regardless of the word count? Do you use scraps of paper or a spreadsheet to tally your word count?

Keeping track is encouraging, showing that you’ve made progress, but I haven’t found a system yet that truly works for me. For one writer’s view on this subject, see Rob Parnell’s “How Many Words Do You Write?” posted on his Easy Way to Write blog.

 Non-Writing Writing Time

Another angle on this subject asks: Is learning about writing a good substitute for writing? On Mary DeMuth’s blog, someone said, “I’d be published but … I’m too busy learning how to write instead of just writing.” That takes time too, right?

On her “So You Want to be Published” blog, Mary’s answer was in part: “There is a balance between the two. You do need to study the craft by reading excellent writing books and magazines. Perusing classics or exceptionally-written modern book helps too. Listening to teachers, attending conferences, doing online courses, and putting your stuff out there for critique will help tremendously. But truly? The secret to my publishing success lies most in volume. I’ve simply written and written and written and written. Lots of writing. Gobs of it. For years and years. To become proficient and compelling, there’s no simple formula other than to exercise your fingers across the keyboard over and over and over again.”

I am a better writer when I write nearly every day. But I can also fool myself about how much I’m writing unless I keep track with some system. I need both accountability and encouragement.

Anybody got a great system for tracking word counts for rough drafts and also revisions? Let me hear from you!