I love the start of a new year. I’m a clean slate kind of girl. The weirdo who makes her bed before she can get into it. The type to wipe a counter clean and clear before cluttering it up with baking supplies. A brand new year is the perfect excuse to allow my inner obsessive compulsive to take center stage.
Last year, Voirey Linger stressed the importance of having a business plan. I took her advice to heart and opened a new Excel spreadsheet. 2012 was the first year I took tracking the various aspects of my writing career seriously. I have word count spreadsheets, release plans, project trackers, and an earnings chart. This year, I’m adding a blog tracker, because I have never actually kept a running tally on how many words I blog per year.
What can I say? I’m a geek for stats.
My business plan may not look anything like the business plan Voirey had in mind, but that’s okay. These little gems are purely for my own edification. When I’m feeling unproductive, I can look back and see exactly what I am capable of producing. If I’m feeling a little lost or unfettered, I have a document that houses everything from my short-term goals to pie-in-the-sky ambitions that remind me there is indeed a plan in hand. I can’t wait to see what happens next!
How do you track your progress?
Diamond State Romance Authors 
Go, Margaret, go!! I feel like this is a new start, too. 🙂
It’s going to be a great year, Brinda! Let’s go chase it!
I think you are capable of amazing things, Margaret Ethridge! I’ve started tracking my progress now too, thanks to you! I try to push myself to write every day, just to get my brain active and stay involved in the story. I don’t worry as much about how many words I write, only that I do, in fact, write. And so far this year I’ve written a little every day. I feel pretty darn great about that. 🙂
As you should, Evelyn! A little bit every day adds up pretty fast!
Post-its! Spiral notebooks. Calendars. LOL. I’m THAT efficient. 😉