Productivity

It was only a few weeks ago that I blogged about the challenges of using word count as a measure of productivity, and my decision to abandon counting words on a daily basis.

Feedback on this issue has been interesting and unexpected: it turns out word count matters to a lot of writers, and they are passionate about it.

While not a perfect method, I agree it is worth using if it can help motivate and reach writing goals. For me, it had reached the point where it made me stop writing altogether and that’s why I had to stop.

After more readings and discussions on the issue, I still have mixed feelings about word counts. Therefore when I was challenged to participate in the #SeptWritingChallenge on Twitter, my knee-jerk reaction was to immediately decline.

I am always up for trying new methods if it can help my writing in any way so after some reflection, I decided to try it for a month. WritingChallenge.org’s challenge is to write 500 words a day, and they accept one hour of editing as the equivalent of writing 500 words, which addresses my main concern about word counts not taking into account revisions. Participants are asked to tweet everyday about their results, whether the writing day was productive on not.

It’s still not a perfect system but it is still better than pure word count. Revision time is often not easy to calculate as I don’t use a stopwatch to eliminate every interruption, but it can still be estimated. It also doesn’t address time spent on research or critiques, among other things, but I still take them into account in my Twitter reports.

We’ll see at the end of the month if it has helped with my writing production. I have so many projects on the go, I can use any help I can get to get me to the finish line. Just knowing I have to share my results on Twitter for everyone to see forces me to make sure I have something to report: the reporting of results is an even bigger motivator than the word count itself so perhaps that is the key to everything.

I believe no system is perfect and most everything can be improved upon, so it’s a worth a try. Like my mother says – “Il y a juste les fous qui ne changent pas d’idée.” (Only fools never change their minds.)

My progress can be followed on Twitter @JennerMichaud.

WWR1436

Since Einstein said it, it may just be true.

I used to measure my writing productivity by word count. It seemed the most straightforward way of setting and achieving writing goals (e.g. write 300 words a day, which I almost always surpassed). I even designed an Excel spreadsheet with a multitude of formulas for totalling per month, averaging word count per day/month/quarter, etc.

It worked well for months, until I began revising stories instead of writing new ones. One day, I spent hours reworking a story, taking out entire sections, and writing new ones from scratch. I was in “the zone”, and completely rewrote a story in one intense ten-hour stretch that flew by and felt like no longer than a mere hour. I was also incredibly proud of the end product, where a story had all come together to my complete satisfaction.

Then I looked at the final word count. The net result was exactly minus forty words from where I had started that morning. Minus forty words in ten hours where I felt I had accomplished so much. I dejectedly entered zero in my spreadsheet, and felt like a failure as the pre-programmed formulas spewed the twisted results.

I created another column to note that it was revision/rewrite, and wrote several lines as if to justify that I did indeed write that day. I kept up the database but as I continued spending time on revisions, my averaged stats continued to take a dive, as if all my work counted for nothing.

It reached a point where I made excuses not to write so I didn’t have to open the database. So I put a stop to it and I archived the database, and stopped counting.

I sometimes miss the spreadsheet, especially on days when I write explosively, thousands upon thousands of words. Even if I want to somehow track that successful production, I don’t as the alternative is just not worth it.

Whether it’s new words, revisions, rewrites, or even research, it’s all part of the writing process, MY writing process.

I alone know the work I put in and can only report to myself. I won’t—and can’t—let hard statistics affect what I know I have accomplished, and impact me to a degree that makes me stop doing what I love to do.

So without reporting, recording, or word count tracking, I just keep writing.

WWR#1432