Writers, track your progress…
AND FINISH YOUR BOOK!
Track your writing and revision progress for daily, weekly, monthly, and annual totals for up to 10 projects!
Includes a Project Planner page!
So in 2011, I went about creating my own motivation and the Writing Progress Spreadsheet was born.
I shared it with a few friends and before long, hundreds of writers were using it, loving it, and thriving under the accountability and intrinsic rewards it offered.
Over the years it has evolved based on requests from users to include more projects, revision tracking, and goal setting, and is now used by thousands of writers every year.
If you want the accountability and motivation of National Novel Writing Month all year long, check out the features of the Writing & Revision Tracker.
What Others Have Said
The Spreadsheet Includes
- NEW! The Writing & Revision Tracker is now UNDATED for re-use every year!
- NEW! Choose between two versions: 5 projects or 10 projects!
- Visual calendar layout that automatically calculates your day, week, and month totals. [Weeks start on Monday.]
- Daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly writing and revision statistics for up to 10 projects.
- Project planner page with start and end dates for each project.
- Counts down how many days and words or pages you have left to complete the project by your goal date.
- Automatically calculates how many words/pages must be completed per day to reach your goal.
- Monthly goal setting for writing and revisions for each project.
- Project goal setting.
- Project due dates, descriptions and genres.
- Customizable project names.
- At-A-Glance Module on month layout to quickly see your overall progress for the year.
- Revision tracking by word count or page number.
- Graphs to display your progress toward your monthly writing and revision goals.
- Year totals for each project.
- A writing and revisions grand total for the year.
- Also works in Numbers for Mac users and, so far, any other spreadsheet program. Track on your phone with the Excel or Numbers apps.
The 5-Project Version
The 10-Project Version
F. A. Q. s
The features of both are exactly the same, except that one fits up to 5 projects and one fits up to 10. Only you know how many projects you’re likely to work on each year! You might consider whether or not you’d also want to track your blog posts, journaling, poetry, etc., and how many projects that might add up to. If you get easily overwhelmed by technology, working with the 5-project tracker may be less intimidating to get started. You might also consider how many projects you’re likely to work on in the future. If your goal is to eventually work on more than 5 projects per year, you many want to invest in the 10-project version now to avoid re-buying in the future.
Do I need a new Writing & Revision Tracker every year?
Nope! Previously, the Writing & Revision Tracker was released annually, however, the Writing & Revision Tracker is now undated and can be re-used every year without an additional purchase.
How do I re-use the undated Writing & Revision Tracker?
When you first download your copy of the Writing & Revision Tracker, be sure to save that as your master copy in a safe space, then create a duplicate copy to use for this year, renaming it with the year in the file name. Then, each year, make a new copy from your master copy.
The short answer is: however you want!
Personally, I track the number of pages revised. Other people have told me they track words subtracted so you may use a negative number, or you may track words added. I’ve also had other writers tell me they have an equation for how they come up with their number, which you could play around with. So it’s really up to you and what works best for how you revise.
* The only important part is that you stay consistent with your tracking method for all projects throughout the entire year so your year totals are accurate.
Can I add more projects?
Unfortunately, no. There is a lot of coding that goes into each and every cell that create the calculations you know and love. While it is possible to add more cells to enter your daily word/page counts into, those totals will not be added to your day, week, month, or year totals.
Can YOU add more projects?
This is my most popular request because you all are so darn productive! (Which I love.) At this point, however, it is unlikely I’ll be able to fit any more projects into the spreadsheet without having to scroll horizontally, which would make the spreadsheet clunky and less user-friendly. I recommend grouping smaller projects like short stories, blogs, essays, poems, etc. into one project.
I am prolific. What do I do if I work on more than 10 projects in a year?
If you work on more than 10 projects in a year, here is a clever workaround, recommended by a user: create multiple blank copies of the Writing & Revision Tracker. Use the first 9 projects for individual projects, and then call the 10th project, “Other Spreadsheets.” Do this on every copy of the tracker you’re using. You can then enter your total project goals from however many other copies you’re using, and enter your total word count and revision count from other copies into a single cell in the 10th project for accurate year totals. Or, you could add other spreadsheet totals in each month for accurate monthly totals. Play with it and see what works for you! (Thank you, Christi Snow!)
Can I change the colors?
Yes, but…I do not recommend it. Every colored cell and bar in the monthly graph is colored individually. You may change the colors if you prefer, however to do so, you would have to change every single colored cell throughout the spreadsheet. They are not linked in any way.
Unfortunately, no. After 10 years of updating the spreadsheet, I feel it has reached its most effective formulation and layout so continuing to re-release it each year seemed unnecessary. Though the Writing & Revision Tracker started out as a personal project, I’m delighted that thousands of writers have come to use and rely on the tracker every year in pursuing their writing goals, and now you can copy it and reuse it every year!