Tip Tuesday #38

Do you guys remember Ryan? I thought you'd like to know that his hard work and patience paid off. He recently signed with Steven Malk (congrats Ryan!). But, I'm actually bringing him up because he sent in a tip for the week (as much as this is turning into Malk-week, the timing is totally coincidental, I swear). He doesn't have a website or blog up yet, but it's in the works. I'll let you know when we can commence blog-stalking.

Here's his tip:

My biggest motivation in writing is keeping a writing log. I always write down a) date b) chapter c) time spent d) words written e) running total of words in the project. By forcing myself to do so, I frequently push further than I normally would have. I don't so much care about time, but if I've written 850 words, say, I'll want to push it to 1000, and sometimes if I go over that, I'll try to just keep going to 1200 or 1500. One night, I would have stopped at 800, but I pushed further a couple of times until I got to 2000. Beyond the fact that I tend to write more, I also can go back afterward and find out how much time I spent on certain things, what speed I wrote at, and better predict when I'll be done.

Wow, Ryan. You're awesomely organized. I've kept word count logs with dates but never thought to keep track of time spent. I bet that's a great reminder on slow days, knowing how much you can get done in X amount of time. Thanks again for the tip!

Readers: Do you keep a writing log? Consider giving it a try!