Short
stories are all done, and on top of that, I also wrote a new short for
an anthology. If the anthology takes my short story, that will be my
very first published short story (crossing fingers).
The "progress tracker" is working great. Not only does it keep track of my daily word count and words per hour, it's also keeping track of how many minutes I devote on each process. Since I'm good at fiddling around an excel spreadsheet (it's part of my day job), I've created a formula where it tells me how many hours I spend in writing, revising and line editing. I think this is helpful because it gives me an idea on what areas I need improving on.
Along with the "progress tracker," I've also created a "submission tracker." I had one previously, but I made the mistake of creating a sheet per story. Now, I'm putting it all on one sheet and using auto-filters to sort through the submissions and rejects and what-not. It looks like a mess at first glance, but with some finagling and spreadsheet wizardry, I can make it sing.
Finally, I've also created a "rejection rant free-writing" file for myself. It's my habit to free-write for five minutes before writing or editing my manuscript. I'm listening to a podcast called "Creative Penn Podcast," and on the episode where the host interviewed the author of DIY MFA, she mentioned something about an angst jar. This spawned an idea in my head and then took it for myself. Instead of an angst jar, I will have the rejection rant doc file.
Since creating the rejection rant file, I've submitted six of my short stories to publications. I've yet to fill my rejection rant file since I'm still waiting for a response (which are most likely rejections).
Anyway, those are my progress so far. Since I'm done with my short stories, I'm prepping for the final edit on my novel. With the rate of how I edit (thanks to the data from my progress tracker), I'll be finished with the line edits in two months. As always, my goalpost is my birthday. So long as I finish my novel before that, then I'm good.
The "progress tracker" is working great. Not only does it keep track of my daily word count and words per hour, it's also keeping track of how many minutes I devote on each process. Since I'm good at fiddling around an excel spreadsheet (it's part of my day job), I've created a formula where it tells me how many hours I spend in writing, revising and line editing. I think this is helpful because it gives me an idea on what areas I need improving on.
Along with the "progress tracker," I've also created a "submission tracker." I had one previously, but I made the mistake of creating a sheet per story. Now, I'm putting it all on one sheet and using auto-filters to sort through the submissions and rejects and what-not. It looks like a mess at first glance, but with some finagling and spreadsheet wizardry, I can make it sing.
Finally, I've also created a "rejection rant free-writing" file for myself. It's my habit to free-write for five minutes before writing or editing my manuscript. I'm listening to a podcast called "Creative Penn Podcast," and on the episode where the host interviewed the author of DIY MFA, she mentioned something about an angst jar. This spawned an idea in my head and then took it for myself. Instead of an angst jar, I will have the rejection rant doc file.
Since creating the rejection rant file, I've submitted six of my short stories to publications. I've yet to fill my rejection rant file since I'm still waiting for a response (which are most likely rejections).
Anyway, those are my progress so far. Since I'm done with my short stories, I'm prepping for the final edit on my novel. With the rate of how I edit (thanks to the data from my progress tracker), I'll be finished with the line edits in two months. As always, my goalpost is my birthday. So long as I finish my novel before that, then I'm good.
