Hooray NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow! Are you ready? Me neither but I am close. The most I normally do is get a folder prepared in my Dropbox so I can work on my story anywhere. Dropbox is free to start off with and allows you to access your file almost anywhere.
In my Dropbox folder, I keep my MS Word doc and my excel spreadsheet that I use to track where I am at count-wise. There are so many good writing tools out there. I use Scrivener for non-NaNo writing because of all the lovely tools it has that I get lost in. When it comes to NaNo though, I love MS word because I can easily keep an eye on my word count.
Because I like to keep a close eye on my daily word count I have created a spreadsheet that helps me to track my daily progress. I realize that most people are fine without doing this but in case you are compulsive like me, I thought I would share the tool. You enter your total word count each day, and then the spreadsheet lets you know how many more words you need in order to reach 50K, how many days are left to reach that goal, how many words you need to write daily to reach 50K by November 30th, and finally how many words you need to write to reach the daily goal.
The Google link should open a copy of the spreadsheet as a new google doc just for you. The Excel link should either download an excel file or prompt you to save it. Both of these programs are very simple and should pose no security risks. Next year I will try and make a pdf form.
Speaking of word count, for some, 50k words in a month is nothing, but if you are like me, that is a real challenge. So remember, “don’t” is one word but “do not” counts for two! What are your NaNo writing hacks?
Be safe and have a great day!
Paula