Inkpunks

There’s a lot of attention paid these days to personal metrics. I’m talking about the practice of recording the numbers of our daily lives and measuring progress towards our goals by examining those numbers. Diet and exercise are probably the most common metrics people measure: maybe we’re counting calories towards a desired weight loss. We might be tracking miles biked or run in preparation for a race or just to beat last year’s record.

There’re apps for all kinds of metric tracking now, from fitness to calorie counters to custom-made spreadsheets. We have access to unprecedented ways to record and track “how’re we’re doing,” and the Getting Things Done (GTD) crowd is coming up with dozens of new ways every day, it seems. Of course, paper and pen works great for some folks, too.

As writers, the goal we’re often most concerned with is measuring word count (for some of us, page count, especially when we’re editing). Still others may set aside time — 10 minutes of writing a day, 10 hours a week, etc. There are endless possibilities, and I find myself setting different goals based on the work I’m trying to get done. A busy day? Then I promise myself a half-hour to write, any word count is acceptable as long as I’m focused for that half-hour on telling the best story I can. Maybe my goal for the day is to strengthen  the voice in 3 chapters. I gleefully check it off my daily to-do list even if my Scrivener project doesn’t show a big net-change in overall word count.

(So maybe I should call it Work Count?)

I have to admit, I don’t tend to track my writing trends beyond what I need to finish that day, that week, that month. I’m not really a GTD’er. I make a lot of short and mid-range goals (and I’m usually great about nailing them). I’m planning to have this revision draft done on my novel by March, and I’m pretty much on track (holidays, help me…) My friend Jamie Todd Rubin tracks his writing trends in great and glorious detail. Inkpunks’ very own Christie Yant made this groovy spreadsheet so you, too, can see how you’re doing. (And I have it on good authority she’s working on a 2015 edition coming very soon!)

I have long term goals, too, of course. More words nearly every day. More time in the chair on the writing days. Maybe a more thorough examination of my own trends would help me get there faster, but for now, I’m content to inch along.

We’re sidling up to the New Year, and I’m sure many of you are starting to think about your writing goals for 2015. How do you set your goals? How do you track your progress?

What’s your Work Count?

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