Coorlim’s Guide to NaNoWriMo 4: Keeping Track

Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month

Coorlim’s Guide to NaNoWriMo is a multi-part series on writing, creativity, and the work-life balance throughout the month of November. This week we cover the pre-writing topic of keeping good records.

It is imperative to take good notes while you write. It will save you so much grief and heart-ache later on.

Record your invention

“But Michael,” I hear you ask. “Didn’t you plan everything out ahead of time?”

Yeah, sure, but there’s no way to totally cover everything. Some you’ll leave out, some you’ll forget about. Even planners end up making up some details as they go. Minor characters’ names. What exactly you decided to call a given street. Whatever.

Write it down. You don’t want to waste time scrolling back a dozen pages trying to remember what you named some tertiary character. That’s writing time.

I have a spreadsheet where I record not only character names, but who invented what, what year different events occurred in (birthdays, etc), and which books which characters were introduced in. It’s been a tremendous help.

Track your habits

Even more vital is tracking your work habits. This may seem like it’ll just slow you down, but if you can figure out when and how you work best, you can build your writing time around that. Maybe you work best in the morning, or at night. Maybe you work best on the couch. Or at your desk. Or a coffee shop.

Track your progress. Start now. Make a spreadsheet, with the days of NaNoWriMo down the left column, and the hours of the day along the top row.

Every hour track your productivity in words per hour. Maybe note when lunch is, or when you wake up, or go to bed, or what you do when you’re not writing.

Over the course of the month you’ll see patterns emerge. Take advantage of them to maximize your writing time and eliminate problem habits that sap away your productivity.

Next Time: I’m going to try and make some kind of video, but either way, Monday expect a post on wordcount.

Questions? You are invited to either leave a comment below, or ask directly through the comment form.

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