Everyday Fairytale Love Stories

2013 Writing Progress Spreadsheet

Posted on Dec 27, 2012 | 40 comments

NOTE: This post is repeated from 2011 and 2012 but the spreadsheets have been updated for 2013. Enjoy!

It’s the start of the new year and, of course, that means the updated writing progress spreadsheet. For those of you who are new to using it, find the description and instructions below. For those of you who are spreadsheet veterans, skip right to the bottom and download the new files for this year!

The first thing you’ll notice (for 2007 users) is that there are multiple worksheets. The spreadsheet will open to the first worksheet, pictured below, where you will name your projects. Simply highlight the cell where it says “Project 1″, “Project 2″, etc. and replace it with the names of your projects. It will change the titles throughout the entire workbook. I recommend keeping them fairly short–one to two words or an acronym–otherwise they’ll run over on each other.

Along the bottom are your worksheets. There is one for the titles, one for each month of the year and a yearly totals sheet. Choose the month you’d like to go to and you’ll find a worksheet that looks like the one below. On the left, it’s laid out like a calendar, on the right, by day and at the bottom, a graph of your progress.

You will ONLY make changes to the daily section of the spreadsheet. All other areas have functions to automatically add up totals for you. So, for instance, you’ll go to the third day of January and enter the word count for Project 1 (or whatever you’ve renamed it). It adds your word count for today to the total Project word count for the month at the bottom of that column, it also appears in the calendar, which calculates your word count for all projects each day and then gives you a total sum at the end of each week and a total sum for the month at the bottom of the calendar. Note that on the weekly totals, it’s calculated for 7 days so the first week might look a little high, but it’s actually pulling the totals for the last days in the previous month.

Lastly, your final sheet will add up totals for the entire year by project, by month and also a grand total for the entire year.

The cells containing functions are locked to avoid accidentally deleting the function but if you need to make changes, there is no password so just hit enter when it prompts you for one and you should be allowed to make the changes after that. If you come across any bugs, let me know and I’ll do my best to fix them.

I hope this spreadsheet helps you keep track of your writing goals and I hope you fill each and every cell with writerly love.

Download 2013 Writer Progress Spreadsheet for Excel 2007
Download 2013 Writer Progress Spreadsheet for Excel 97-2003

Want to Say “Thanks?”

I’m happy to offer this spreadsheet to you and I hope you enjoy it all year long. While I don’t require anything in return, if you feel so inclined, I always love the opportunity to meet new readers of Women’s Fiction and Romance. If you think any of your friends would be interested in reading online fiction, talking about TV, movies and books, or reading my future novels, please send them my way or share the link to my Facebook page, linked below. I truly appreciate it!

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40 Comments

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  1. Arlene @ Love & Laughter
    January 4, 2011 at 6:22 am

    This looks complicated … but I think I’ll give it a try.

    Reply
  2. Wednesday
    January 5, 2011 at 1:01 am

    I’ll try it. :) Thanks!

    Reply
  3. RainGurl
    January 6, 2011 at 5:51 pm

    Oooooo how pretty! I love what you did with it this year. Hmmmmm wonder how I can apply it to blogging…

    Reply
  4. Jessica Matteliano
    March 25, 2011 at 6:53 pm

    You’ve saved me a lot of work trying to design my own. I love these types of things, thank you so much!

    Reply
  5. Lori Sizemore
    March 27, 2011 at 11:37 pm

    This is incredible. I can’t wait to start using this!

    Reply
  6. Debra
    January 9, 2012 at 4:45 am

    Thanks for sharing Jamie. I do love spreadsheets. And I do like to keep track of my production. Have a great day!

    Reply
  7. Jessica Aspen
    January 10, 2012 at 6:48 am

    Love this Jamie! I can’t wait to get my projects up and running on here. One question: how do I add more projects? I love the idea of keeping track of blogging on here too and I have lots of projects that are in the finishing stages of editing, so I need some room for the new ones. I’m an excel illiterate, but I’m trying to learn!

    Reply
  8. Kelly Leiter
    January 10, 2012 at 4:28 pm

    This looks wonderful! I’m just about to tackle several projects that have minimum word counts so this will be very helpful. Thank you so much for sharing with us!

    Reply
  9. Elizabeth Haysmont
    March 23, 2012 at 1:49 pm

    This is a BEAUTIFUL thing! Thank you, Ms. Raintree. It’s fantastic.

    Reply
  10. Gary Speer
    July 4, 2012 at 1:02 pm

    Hi Jamie. I found your site and this excellent spreadsheet tool via Google. I’ve been looking for something exactly like this to start seriously tracking word counts on some short stories, a novel, and even some blog posting.

    May I have your permission to link to the blog post/article offering the spreadsheet on my home site? I would plan on doing a blog post there telling my readers generally about your site and your work, and specifically about the spreadsheet with a specific link to the spreadsheet.

    Gary

    Reply
  11. Abbott Katz
    November 25, 2012 at 10:05 am

    Hi. The daily activity you’ve committed to your Writing Progess Spreadsheet could be more efficiently tracked with an Excel pivot table, which would obviate the need for separate monthly tabs. You can email me about this if you wish.

    Thanks,
    Abbott Katz

    Reply
  12. Ryan
    December 7, 2012 at 10:26 am

    Jamie, I’ve used this daily in 2012, but 2013 is getting close. Will you have an update soon!?

    Reply
  13. Arlene Hittle
    December 27, 2012 at 10:46 am

    I love using your spreadsheet. Thanks so much for updating it and sharing it again.

    Reply
  14. Téa Cooper
    December 27, 2012 at 1:06 pm

    This is just what I need! An excellent New Year present. Thank you!

    Reply
  15. Elizabeth Gibson
    December 27, 2012 at 2:39 pm

    Awesome Jamie! Thank you. It’s just what I need to see my progress.

    Reply
  16. Barb Wallace
    December 28, 2012 at 3:37 pm

    Thanks Jamie! Melissa McClone recommended this to me. It looks excellent. I’ll be sure to recommend it to my followers as well.

    Barb

    Reply
  17. Callene Rapp
    January 12, 2013 at 6:15 am

    This. Is. So. Cool! Just what I needed and really easy to use! Thanks for sharing it with everyone.

    Reply
  18. Jacqueline
    March 14, 2013 at 10:46 pm

    I’ve tried to create a spreadsheet to keep up with my writing projects without much success. This is great. Thanks for sharing, Jamie.

    Reply

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