Anyone who reads this blog knows that I’m a big proponent of word counts. I started keeping a list of my word counts on Wednesday, February 20, 2013. That day I marked down 5,138 in the spreadsheet, and it looked pretty empty. A few weeks later I was still keeping up with it and the spreadsheet had grown.
The total for this picture is 205,202
I had a box system for the weeks so I could easily see the total and compare my output from one week with the next. I also began a running monthly total on the side and a grand total, or what would eventually become the yearly total, on the top.
Use a Spreadsheet for Your Word Counts
Please use spreadsheets to kept track – it’s amazingly rewarding seeing your progress. The long columns on the side of my spreadsheet were started for my blogs initially. I wanted to keep track of the date I posted an article as well as the word count. That word count was especially helpful because I was turning those blog posts into books, and I needed to get to a certain length.
I kept at it, and over the months I rarely missed a day. In fact, from February to October I only missed 31 days. That may seem like a lot, but how many days off from work have you had in the past 8 months? Just with your days off you’d have, what, 64 or something? That’s pretty good!
Anyways, I kept at it and I managed to keep that running total going. I didn’t check it that often, maybe once a month or so, but then I noticed it had passed 950,000 and I knew the million word mark wasn’t far behind. In fact, I got to 1,003,226 on October 22, just a couple days ago.
I kept at it, and over the months I rarely missed a day. In fact, from February to October I only missed 31 days. That may seem like a lot, but how many days off from work have you had in the past 8 months? Just with your days off you’d have, what, 64 or something? That’s pretty good!
Anyways, I kept at it and I managed to keep that running total going. I didn’t check it that often, maybe once a month or so, but then I noticed it had passed 950,000 and I knew the million word mark wasn’t far behind. In fact, I got to 1,003,226 on October 22, just a couple days ago.
You can kind of read the total at the top there: 1,015,355
Find Public Support for Your Word Counts
Sometimes authors have problems keeping up each day, and that’s why finding public support for your writing is important. I started posting my daily total on kboards, a forum for everything related to eBooks and self-publishing. I’ve written 239,948 words since I started posting on kboards, which was on September 1. I know this because that’s the first date I made a post on there.
Now you have to remember that people pay me to write. I’m sure they don’t pay me as much as your readers pay some of you, however. I have to write to make money, and that means a lot of copywriting, website content, press releases, eBooks for other people and businesses, editing and proofing – the works.
But I like doing it and I think it’s made me a faster writer and a better one as well. It’s certainly made me capable of setting and making deadlines.
Really, it’s all about discipline and routine. It’s boring stuff, some people can’t do it. And maybe that’s just fine. I can put out a book a month but they don’t sell that much. I have 16 titles with 5 more under a pen name and all but 2 get about 5 sales a month, if that.
I also talk to three different brick walls. Sorry, that’s pretty much what blog writing can seem like a lot. But again, I think it makes me better and will pay off long-term. Plus I like it.
Anyways, thought I’d say what works for me, and also that it’s possible.
Now you have to remember that people pay me to write. I’m sure they don’t pay me as much as your readers pay some of you, however. I have to write to make money, and that means a lot of copywriting, website content, press releases, eBooks for other people and businesses, editing and proofing – the works.
But I like doing it and I think it’s made me a faster writer and a better one as well. It’s certainly made me capable of setting and making deadlines.
Really, it’s all about discipline and routine. It’s boring stuff, some people can’t do it. And maybe that’s just fine. I can put out a book a month but they don’t sell that much. I have 16 titles with 5 more under a pen name and all but 2 get about 5 sales a month, if that.
I also talk to three different brick walls. Sorry, that’s pretty much what blog writing can seem like a lot. But again, I think it makes me better and will pay off long-term. Plus I like it.
Anyways, thought I’d say what works for me, and also that it’s possible.
RSS Feed