Writing a book is a marathon, not a sprint. If you want to stay motivated, it’s crucial to keep track of your progress as you go.
But there are many ways to define “progress”—and the definition you choose can make a drastic impact on how you end up spending your writing time.
So, here are three popular methods you can use to track your writing progress, and a few pros and cons of each.
Method 1: WIP Word Count
The simplest way to define “progress” is based on the true word count of your WIP. Here’s an example of what that might look like in a progress tracker:
The great thing about this method is that it accurately reflects how close you are to finishing your first draft. If you want to write an 80,000-word novel, and your current WIP word count is 10,000 words, you know you’ve written about 1/8 of your book.
The downside of this method is that it can sometimes incentivize you to reduce the quality of your story. A longer story isn’t always a better story, but it’s easy to forget that when adding to your word count is how you define “progress.”
When I used this method to track progress, I often found myself bloating my WIP with unnecessary words, because that way I could feel like I’d accomplished more—but ultimately, those words weren’t improving the story.
When I used this method to track progress, I often found myself bloating my WIP with unnecessary words, because that way I could feel like I’d accomplished more—but ultimately, those words weren’t improving the story.
Method 2: Total Word Count Including Deleted Scenes
A few years ago, I switched from tracking my WIP word count to tracking total word count, including all my deleted scenes. It might seem like a small change, but the quality of my first drafts jumped up by a mile.
Here’s an example of what that might look like in a progress tracker:
With this second method, you can keep track of every single sentence you delete from your WIP. Just paste those sentences into a different section of your project, and include that section when you calculate your word count.
For me, that changed my mindset about what counted as “progress.” Cutting words no longer meant typing a negative number into my word count tracker—and that meant I was a lot less reluctant to “kill my darlings.”
The downside to this method is that doesn’t reflect “real” progress as clearly as the first method. For example, my tracker says I’ve written over 200,000 words of my first novel, but only about 90,000 of those words are actually still in the novel—the rest are remnants of previous drafts.
Still, this is the method I use for my own writing, because I love that it lets me prioritize quality over quantity.
Still, this is the method I use for my own writing, because I love that it lets me prioritize quality over quantity.
Method 3: Time Spent Writing
The third way to track your writing goals is to ignore word counts entirely and simply track how much time you’ve spent working on your story each day.
Here’s an example of what that might look like in a progress tracker:
Here’s an example of what that might look like in a progress tracker:
If you spend an hour going on a walk and untangling plot holes inside your head, you can count that as an hour’s worth of writing, even if you didn’t actually write any new words.
Many of my writing friends love this method, and I can see why. It’s the most flexible. There are lots of different ways to work on a story, and a lot of that work happens off the page, so it’s useful to be able to treat non-drafting work as “progress.”
The downside to this method is that it can be harder to track time than to track words. You can either use a stopwatch, or just note down what time it is whenever you start and stop a writing session, but either way, it requires actively keeping track of time while you work.
The downside to this method is that it can be harder to track time than to track words. You can either use a stopwatch, or just note down what time it is whenever you start and stop a writing session, but either way, it requires actively keeping track of time while you work.
Which Method Works for You?
Every writer has a different process, and the best way to figure out yours is to try different methods and see what sticks.
Do you already have one that works for you? Which method do you like best? Let me know in the comments.
Do you already have one that works for you? Which method do you like best? Let me know in the comments.
I’m Hannah Yang, and I’m a full-time author. Every Monday, I publish a new blog article about writing craft tips, my writing process, or my journey to publication. Share this article if it resonated with you, and subscribe if you want to see more!