How I write 1K+ Words a Day Using a Writing Tracker
I write romance books under two pen names and children’s books under my name. I’ve written 167 books to date. I’m not claiming any of these books are of any literary caliber, especially my speculative fiction absurdist romance books, but I do get a lot of words on the page.
I work full time as a software engineer and homeschool. How am I able to keep up this writing regimen?
With a writing tracker!
I created this tracker with Canva using one of their templates. I print it out and glue it to the blank pages in the back of my Passion Planner.
The tasks on the Writing Tracker are what keeps me publishing and improving my writing craft.
Morning Pages
Every day, I wake up with Morning Pages. I learned this from Julie Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way. Morning pages are stream-of-consciousness writing for three pages straight, first thing in the morning.
Morning Pages gets my day started as a writer. I remind my brain: I am a writer. Today, you will write. Some people have told me it’s so hard to write morning pages. Write whatever comes to your mind. Any thought, jot it down. Sometimes, when I don’t have anything immediate coming into my brain I’ll write: I don’t know what to write. What else? I don’t know.
Anything that pops in your head, write it down.
Sprints
My daily goal is to write for four 15-minute sprints. Before I get in front of my computer screen, I already know what I’m going to write about it. Currently, I’m writing:
- a dystopian romance book
- my memoir
- a children’s book of STEM puns
The night before, I’ve reviewed where I am in each project.
When I wake up in the morning, I know, for example:
- I need to write this scene in my dystopian book.
- I need to edit this chapter in my memoir book.
- I need to organize my puns by category.
Whenever I get to my computer, I can immediately start writing because I know what needs to be done.
How to find time for Writing Sprints
Most days, when I wake up, I get my Morning Pages done and then immediately start Sprint 1. Sometimes, I can get Sprint 2 in, too, starting my day with a good number of words already written.
That leaves two 15-minute sprints. How do I find the time?
I can grab 15 minutes during lunch. Then, another 15 minutes in the evening.
4 15-minute writing sprints = 1 hour of daily writing.
(I average ~500 words in 15 minutes.)
Family Journal Time
At the end of the day, as a family, we write in our journals. I reflect on my day and list out my wins, things I’m grateful for, and five big dreams. I end the day with writing to remind my brain again: You are a writer.
Read 30 mins
If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: Read a lot and write a lot. — Stephen King
Every day, I read a fiction book and a book on the craft of writing. My daily reading goal has been 30 minutes, but since I’m starting business school this Fall, I’ve decided to drop my reading goal time to 15 minutes.
Published
My publishing goals
1. Publish a blog post every week
2. Publish a romance book every month
3. Finish a chapter of my memoir every 2 weeks (Not publishing, but I am sharing the chapter with my memoir writing group.)
Create your own Writing Tracker to reach your writing goals. Canva has useful templates to choose from.
My writing tracker encompasses small tasks that make up my daily writing life. Each day builds into a week, month, and year. Before I know it, I’ve written a lot of words, sentences, chapters, and books. It all starts with this tracker.
