As September draws to a close, there's just about a month left before NaNoWriMo kicks into gear and thousands of writers around the world will do their best to write a novel during the month of November.
Different writers accomplish this in different ways. Some will do their daily writing all at once every day. Others will split their writing into multiple sessions. Some track their progress religiously, others just enough to know whether they're on track or not.
I tend spread my writing out, if I can. I write a little before work, some during lunch (if I can) and then a little at night, just before bed. For me, spreading out the writing makes each chunk more manageable. Dividing the daily 1,667 words into three chunks of 555 words makes it much more achievable as several short term goals.
To this point, I've used word trackers almost every year, in one way or another, to help me understand how I'm doing. I created the Writing Log 2 and 3 partially for this reason. However, I've also been wanting to create a more purposeful tracker specifically for NaNoWriMo that includes not only the tracking, but a few items that can help with the story creation process itself.
That's where The NaNoWriMo Tracker or, as I affectionately call it, TNT.
The NaNoWriMo Tracker is more than just a word tracker. It also contains some basic story planning tools to help you plan your story ahead of time, and to help keep you on track while you write. Let's take a closer look.
First of all, when you setup your spreadsheet in the Configuration sheet, you can obviously enter the name of your project, but you can also enter the name of your characters and the primary locations of your story. These are both used later to help you track how you're doing.
The Story Planning sheet is your classic three-act story structure in a format that can be filled out and printed, or printed out and filled out with a pen or pencil. It's the perfect companion for November. Jot down the main elements of your story and keep it nearby as you write as a guide to help you stay on track.
The Writing Log sheet, well, if you're at all familiar with my other writing logs, you know what to expect here. But, not only can you record date, word count and duration of your writing session, you can also select what the main character of the scene/chapter is, where it's taking place and at what stage of your story you're in. Add to that information that tells you what your goal for the day is, and how much you have left, it's more than just a writing log. It's a story log!
The Dashboard, well, this is where you truly measure your progress. The chart shows you not only what the expectation is every day, but how you're actually doing compared to what's expected. You can see how your daily writing stack up against your daily goals, and see how much you have left to go. The table, of course, tells you the actual numbers, including the dynamic daily goals the Excel Intelligence writing logs are known for. The more you write, the smaller your daily goals are for the remaining days, and vice versa.
Finally, the Calendar gives you a visual overview of the month. Print it at the beginning of November and cross out each day you as you meet its goal. Print it out weekly, or maybe even daily, just as a reminder of how much you have left.
This is your TNT for November!
Best of all, TNT is now available in the Excel Intelligence Etsy store. Check it out below!