Yesterday I jumped right into writing as soon as the kiddo was asleep. That meant that I didn’t have the opportunity to think about tracking my word count or anything like that beforehand.
Let me be frank. Every year, I plan on doing NaNoWriMo Prep. I print out workbooks from the NaNoWriMo website and other authors about how to plan and prep, everything from plotting to meal planning to the whole shebang. Literally, anything I can think of to make it easier to actually get all the words down on the page and focus just on the writing, I plan to do.
But every year, something gets in the way. Usually, October is the month we are packing up shop at the cabin and moving to our winter abode. This year was no exception.
So yeah, this is definitely something you could/should plan beforehand, but I did not.
If you are like me and looking for ways to track your word count still, maybe this will help. Here are five ways I am thinking about tracking my writing. Something I definitely should decide today.
The Official NaNoWriMo website. This one is a no-brainer. If you want to unlock the prizes, you need to input it into their site. They also have interesting stats with a cute interface. But did you also know you can use this tracker for just all of your projects? Year-round.
Sarra Cannon’s Preptober Workbook. Paper-lovers and spreadsheet haters rejoice! If you want a printable, paper tracker that helps make it feel like a game, this one is a good one. I have already spent too much time stanning Sarra here, but suffice it to say that she knows a lot about creating positive momentum in your writing routine and her NaNo trackers help with that.
Artful Spreadsheet trackers by Svenja Gosen. These were my go-to trackers for years. I love the auto-fill spreadsheets and the imagery is awesome for setting the mood. She also has spreadsheets for year-round tracking and tracking individual projects. Highly recommend.
Word Count Tracker from the 20Booksto50k Facebook Group. If you are an indie author, this group has tons of information and resources, including a well-thought out and very easy to use word count tracker. This is the one I use to track my word counts on a daily basis. It is a lot like the group — no frills, but works.
4thewords. This is one I have been thinking about for a while. I am a nerd who loves the gamification of everything and this app and online writing community gamifies your word count. I mean, squee! But this is the only one of the trackers mentioned here that charges a fee. That is why, up to now, I haven’t tried it. But there is a free 30 day trial that I could use for NaNo to see if the motivation of killing those cute monsters and having quests really motivates me enough to be worth the money. Have you tried it? Would you recommend it?
How do you track your word count? Are there others I should be looking into?
And of course, I’ll be tracking my word count here, too. So you can see how it’s going.
That means it’s time for NaNoWriMo again! You maybe have heard of the yearly challenge of trying to write a novel in thirty days. These are those days.
NaNoWriMo and I have a speckled history, to say the least. I began trying to NaNo in 2013, and for YEARS I could not win. I tried nearly every year from 2013-2019 and lost every time.
Then in 2020, I tried again and won!
What was the difference? Honestly, I have no idea. Maybe there were so many fewer social commitments because of the pandemic. Maybe it was that I finally had an office. Maybe it was that I finally got more involved with my local NaNo group (shout out to Alaska WriMos!).
In any case, it lit a fire under me. I am a slow writer, and to think I could do 50000 words of writing in 30 days (and actually, I wrote the vast majority of those in the last two weeks) just blew my mind.
Was it my best work? No. Was it a finished novel? Also obviously no. But it was a really good start on the first draft of the next book in the series I was working on and I was thrilled.
So, here I am again.
I will be trying to journal here every day of November, letting you know how I am going, the word counts, and documenting how it happens.
Check back for updates, and to keep me honest!
PS: Are you doing NaNo too? I would love to hear how it is going for you. The camaraderie is the best part!
Writing can be lonely, y’all. It can be a very long slog with not a lot of recognition and no small wins along the way. I can be awash in a sea of ideas one day and swamped in petty author “to-dos” the next. Need to make an author website. What about that sequel to my memoir rattling around in my brain? Often, when I sit down I feel so overwhelmed by the amount of things I could be doing that I freeze up and do nothing at all.
But I’ve found something that’s helping. It’s not a magic pill, but it feels like I am training myself to be more purposeful in how I spend my days, and making it just a little bit easier to sit down and get started. And I feel these little nudges making a difference.
What is HB90?
HB90 stands for Heart Breathings 90. It’s a 90-day planning system designed for writers and creative entrepreneurs. It uses a lot of psychological principles to help you keep motivated and take actionable steps toward your dreams.
It includes a planner and a whole support and motivation system, with kanban boards, rewards, community for accountability, and a whole process to bang out your hopes and tasks for each quarter.
For me, this system works on two different levels. It’s nice to have a planner that is geared for writers, but the reason this works is that the process is based on proven principles from psychology. It actually looks a lot like cognitive behavioral therapy, but in the form of a planner (hello, markers and washi tape!).
Sarra Cannon, the creator of this system, is an indie writer who has published more than 25 novels. She’s also very open about the fact that she has dealt with depression and anxiety; this planning system was born out of that struggle. So HB90 is geared toward writers and creative entrepreneurs, but I personally have noticed that it is especially helpful in dealing with depression and anxiety. The system that Sarra has developed to help her through mental health issues is also helping me!
A Planner for Writers
HB90 is first and foremost a planner system that’s designed with writers in mind. There are pages to plan your work in progress and keep track of your word count, etc. A lot of Sarra’s videos explain things from the point of view of a writer, using writer’s goals and tasks as examples. But, I do think this would work for any kind of creative or entrepreneurial endeavor.
If you are trying to create a writing life, you know it can be hard to find the time, pick the projects, think about publication or marketing. This is a system that takes the lonely, scattered bits of being a writer and helps you shape them into a puzzle that can reveal your ideal life.
It’s a planner that takes into consideration both the artistic side of writing and the goal-oriented business side, and creates a balance between the two. There is a part of me that feels like my writing is somehow sacred and should not be measured. However, I’ve found that, for me, the advantage of using this kind of goal-oriented approach is that it gives me milestones along the way down the long, lonely road of writing a novel so that I can see the progress I’m making and celebrate my wins. This has been keeping me motivated and more consistent in my writing routine, which is a boon for my creativity and the muse.
A Planner to Help with Depression and Anxiety
Sarra Cannon is graciously candid about her struggles with mental health issues on her youtube channel and also on her instagram account. Though the HB90 system is not specifically billed as a system that helps with depression and anxiety, I have found that it helps with mine, and I suspect that Sarra has developed this system as a way to deal with her own struggles.
I have been working through the Cognitive Behavioral Theory Workbook (which I also high recommend to help with anxiety and depression) and some of the most practical and useful aspects of HB90–thinking of how to refill your well, identifying low-energy tasks, and taking time to really identify what you value, overlap with CBT. Of course, I’m no mental health expert and this isn’t medical advice. This link is pure conjecture on my part, but it’s helped me enough with my own mental health issues that I think it’s important to mention.
What is HB90 Bootcamp?
HB90 Bootcamp is a seven-day course that walks you through a detailed process of envisioning your long term goals, prioritizing the things you need to do, looking realistically at your time, and creating a system that will support you in actually following through. It’s a course that teaches you step by step how to take on the HB90 method.
The course takes place over seven days, and each day contains a couple of hours of video and homework. The homework is all encapsulated in the planner that comes with the course, so it is very much like a workbook that you can look back on throughout the quarter. Each step of the way, the videos and workbook show you the reasoning behind the process and alternative ways to think about each step, which helps make the system very customizable.
Things I Love about It
It actually comes with a lot.
I have seen other five-day or weeklong courses that only come with a bit of instruction or work each day. This course comes with more than an hour of video every day, the planner, the facebook accountability group, a workbook to envision your ideal life, and a live kickoff call.
The value in this really comes with the fact that you are then welcome to join every quarter. So every quarter, you can go through the process again, re-examine your goals and your vision for your life, and plan out the next 90 days so you can take the steps you need to to get there!
The system is flexible.
I have been doing the HB90 system for over a year now and every quarter I have been able to tailor it to my specific needs that quarter. I have done digital kanban boards, in-planner kanbans for when I travel, checklists, different kinds of reward systems. Each quarter I can see better which parts of it motivate me and which parts I can leave by the wayside.
One thing that I really love about Sarra Cannon is that there are tons of levels at which you can engage, like just buying the planner, or following some of the planning advice on her youtube channel, all the way to going through the bootcamp.
It really does get better each time.
This is something I’ve heard Sarra say a few times, and I have to admit I rolled my eyes the first time I heard it. This month, I will be doing the course for my fifth time, and it really has gotten better each time. Each quarter I can say that my vision for my life becomes more clear, what I am trying to do and why becomes more clear, and the things that will help bring me toward those goals become more clear.
What’s Difficult about It
It asks hard questions.
Honestly, I struggled with whether to list this as a thing I love or a difficulty. The hard questions are good. Taking a big, eagle-eyed view of where you are and where you want to be is an important step in creating the life you want, but it is difficult. If I’m being honest, this has been the most difficult part of the HB90 course for me every time I do it. It really asks you to dig deep and think about why and how you are heading in the direction you are heading. And sometimes, the answers to those questions are uncomfortable.
It takes time.
The course is structured so that it takes about a week to complete, and I would say you do need that whole week. You could watch the videos all at once, but there’s a lot of thinking and processing between videos which I think is really important.
You don’t necessarily need to do it at the same time as everyone else. In the Facebook alumni group there are often people going through the course the first week of the next quarter or several weeks after the quarter begins, and they still get the support of the group. However, you definitely need to set aside about a week’s worth of time to do it.
The Verdict: Is It Worth It?
Sarra Cannon has a suite of courses for writers. In addition to HB90 Bootcamp, she also has a course called Publish and Thrive; you can read my review of that course here. The thing I find interesting about Sarra’s courses is that they are packed full of information, but what is really valuable about them is the way they empower you to envision and create a writing life that sticks with you long after the information is forgotten.
So, for me, it’s been totally worth it. I was at a point in my life where I knew something had to change. Actually, I knew everything had to change, but I had no idea where to even begin making the changes. After a year of working with this planning method, I can definitely say that I am working toward the life I want on a daily basis and thinking often about the direction I’m heading and what I want my life to look like. That has definitely been worth it.
Note: This post contains affiliate links to Sarra’s courses, which means if you choose to enroll after clicking my link, I will receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. That being said, I am recommending this course because it really has changed my thinking on my writing career and helped me manage my mental health issues, so I want to spread the word!
Let me say from the start that I feel a little bit like a Sarra Cannon fangirl. I stan her, I guess you could say. And I am a zealot for a reason.
I want to share this course because it made me re-envision the possibilities for my writing career. I’ve been a teacher all my life. My husband often points out my Lisa Simpson tendencies (“Grade me! Tell me I’m good!”). I spent the entirety of my life believing that writing could only be the sidepiece to my day job, that I would always have to teach, that no one makes money as a writer. This way of thinking solidified in graduate school, where the traditional style of publishing is lauded as the only way and every “successful” writer is also a teacher.
I believed there was only one way to be a writer, and the road was hard and selective. That you have to cross your fingers and hope your book lands on the right person’s desk on the right day. That the only way to get your work out into the is to beg at the gatekeeper’s door and hope that each sentinel making decisions about your work would see the value in it.
Basically, it was incredibly disempowering to think about writing in this way.
This course transformed the way I think about how writing fits into my life. It changed what I believe is possible in a writing career.
WHAT IS PUBLISH AND THRIVE?
Publish and Thrive is a five-week course for authors (especially indie authors!) who want to develop a writing career that will sustain them not only financially but also artistically. It walks you step by step through the process of developing your ideas into publishable books, marketing those books, and building a writing life that will bring more than money (but also money).
It’s been my dream for some time to find ways to help artists make money. Not because I am super interested in money (if you know me at all, you’ll know I am not), but because I believe that art is valuable. Books are valuable. Poetry and stories are valuable. And the way we show value in our current society is money. I want artists and writers to be able to support themselves and create more beautiful, valuable things. This showed me not only a way to do it for myself, but also a way to include others and bring them along.
The shape of publishing is changing. The democratization of technology of course has its good and bad sides, but the shifts in the publishing business are an example of the good. You don’t need to ask permission anymore. Of course, this means there’s all kinds of books of varying quality that are published and things that are super niche. But that’s great! It puts the distribution and production of the work in the hands of the writer. The writer no longer needs to be beholden to what an agent/editor/publisher/distributor/bookstore thinks will sell. Instead, the author just needs to find their readers, connect with them, and understand them.
This is exactly what Publish and Thrive teaches you to do.
The course is taught by Sarra Cannon. She is an indie author who has published more than 25 novels and has made more than a million dollars from her books. She has been self-publishing since 2010. She’s also a former teacher and this really shows in both her course design and her teaching style.
The course lasts five weeks, although honestly, it’s way too much information to fully absorb in that amount of time. Thankfully, you get lifetime access, including all of the updates and bonuses that Sarra adds each time (there have been a lot!).
WHAT MAKES PUBLISH AND THRIVE DIFFERENT?
This course distinguishes itself because it doesn’t just concentrate on your sales or popularity; it also teaches you about designing a writing career in which you can really thrive.
I have read a ton of advice for indie authors since beginning this journey. There are a lot of useful resources out there. However, a lot of these are prescriptive. They tell you what your career should look like and what you should do. It’s often really useful information that shows you what has worked for other people and their books. But the thing is, you’re not other people, and what works for them and their books is going to be different than what works for you.
This is not a course that tells you that you must learn to use Amazon ads and get a million Instagram followers. This is a course that lays out all the possibilities for publishing and guides you in picking and choosing which possibilities are going to work best for you, your books, and your career. Sarra doesn’t tell you what you should do. She shows you the things you could do. This teaching style makes all the difference.
This is a course that understands creative passion and artistic drive, and helps you take these things into consideration while also taking concrete steps toward your vision for your writing life.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Module 1: Gearing up for Success
This week contains several lessons on everything from developing a publishing strategy to writing your best book to your author website. Basically, it covers everything that you want to think about before you actually hit publish: the ideas, the writing, the editing, the cover art, the title, the blurb, and setting up your author platform. It’s a deep dive into bridging the gap between your creative ideas and the preparation it takes to put those ideas out into the world where readers can actually find them. In this first week, Sarra covers your author mailing list, social media, and your website.
Module 2: Publishing Your Novels
Week 2 gets into the nitty-gritty of actually hitting publish on your novel! There is a surprising amount to do,and Sarra walks you through all the ins and outs of publication. This week delves into how to find your ideal reader, ISBNs and how to get them, keywords and metadata, and formatting. There’s also whole lessons that walk you through the nuts and bolts of publishing on each of the major vendors, including Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, and Kobo Books. She also has lessons on how to publish in print and audio.
Listen, I said it was a lot of information, and it is. But it’s presented in bite-sized chunks that make each step seem totally manageable. It’s also set up so that when you reach each stage in your publishing journey, the information that you need at that point is easily accessible.
Module 3: Running Your Writing Business
This week is one that I know can be intimidating for lots of writers: the week of numbers! Thinking about money and yourself as a business can make an artist want to run screaming for the woods. Ahhh! But it’s important stuff, and the way it’s presented in Publish and Thrive makes it doable(and the spreadsheets are already made for you!). Week 3 includes lessons on structuring your business, pen names, tracking sales, taxes, and budgeting.
But the best lesson in this week is one that made me weep and ultimately changed the way I think about my writing: Cultivating an Entrepreneur’s Mindset. It was so helpful to see how another creative and sensitive soul thinks about this and it straight-up transformed the way I think about my art.
Module 4: Marketing Your Books
The module on marketing your books is by far the longest, with the most information. This is partially because there is a lot to know, but also because Sarra does not give you a marketing plan. Rather, she shows you the options, helps you weigh the pros and cons in your own situation, and helps you get the ball rolling. Week 4 explores pricing, ads, preorders, launching your books (with a few different launch plans), and reviews. There’s also special lessons about how to market your books if you are a slower writer or writing nonfiction or standalone books.
There is no one-size-fits-all-you-must-write-series-and-rapid-release advice here. There are lots of options!
Module 5: Creating Success That Lasts
The last week of the course is entirely devoted to creating a sustainable career and writing life. Sarra spends nearly 20% of the course talking about how to thrive, how to make a writing life that you can really live with, and how to find joy in the process. It touches on everything from time management to handling criticism to organizing your data. It also covers goal-setting, burnout, and planning. The range and depth of topics that this module covers shows the amount of thought that has gone into her lessons. This course recognizes that an author is not a machine, that writing can be a business but also be more than just business, and shows how to build a writing career that will really support you for the long term.
WHAT’S INCLUDED
For me, one of the most important (and very necessary!) perks of the Publish and Thrive course is the lifetime access. I was just drafting my first novel when I started the lessons, so I was definitely not ready to think about box sets or newsletter swaps, but I was glad that the information would be there when I was ready to delve deeper into those parts of the process. Also, indie publishing is constantly shifting and changing, and the course gets updated regularly. Since I took the course a year ago, five new lessons have been added, as well as new resources, like launch plans.
Each module of the course contains between three and five hours of video lessons, as well as four recordings of question and answer sessions with previous students. The Q and A videos are each about two hours long, so each module has 10 to 15 hours of information (3 to 5 hours of instruction and 8 to 10 hours of Sarra answering questions from previous students).
Each week, there’s also a new live Q and A session with Sarra where you can ask your own questions. I personally didn’t listen to the Q and A sessions from past rounds of the course in the beginning, because time was tight and I figured the questions were probably not relevant to me. Actually, these sessions are also packed full of information–it’s enlightening to hear about other students’ plans, challenges, and successes.
Each module also contains a workbook for that module, about 20-40 pages of information, links, and recommendations of other resources to check out. There are even bonus workbooks for plotting your novel, editing your novel, and sample launch plans. Finally, for those writers who are adverse to spreadsheets, there are spreadsheets already set up where you can track your sales, taxes, budget, etc.
Finally, enrolling in the course also gives you access to the Publish and Thrive Facebook group. This allows you to post questions any time, and Sarra is impressively responsive. But you don’t just get responses from Sarra. You also get answers from the other alumni, who are at varying stages of their career. The group is very supportive, and it’s useful to see the questions that others ask as well.
THE DRAWBACKS
I know I keep getting into infomercial territory. I am really trying not to, and I apologize.
I promised an honest review, and as much as I felt like the Publish and Thrive course really helped, there are some caveats.
This course is lot of information in a very short time span.
The biggest thing I found difficult about this course was that it was A TON of information in a very, very short amount of time. Maybe it’s just the university instructor in me, but I feel like this could easily be a semester-long course. That being said, I love that Sarra allows lifetime access to the materials, because honestly, you need it. I personally could not absorb all of the information or walk through the process in a matter of five weeks.
This course is spendy.
I definitely needed a nudge to justify spending this kind of money on a career that I am just starting. I am honestly lucky to have a supportive husband who is also a writer. He pushed me to invest in myself. Why is it easy for me to spend hundreds of dollars on a university course but I hesitated with this? I;m not sure. Because honestly, Publish and Thrive was probably a much better investment.
This course is time-consuming.
If you plan on following along week by week, participating in the weekly Q and A, and watching all the videos in five weeks, you definitely need to make some time in your schedule. There’s nothing that says you need to watch all the videos “on time”, but it sure is nice to be able to ask questions in the Q and A. That being said, this kind of deep dive into the business of indie writing is not possible in a tiny snippet of time. So fair warning, clear some time for yer learning.
THE FINAL VERDICT
I can’t tell you that Publish and Thrive is going to make you a millionaire. I can tell you that Publish and Thrive has shifted my mindset completely, from thinking of my writing as something that I needed to squeeze into the minutes between my real life to thinking of my writing as my purpose, my meaning, and the way I show up in the world.
This course helped me see that no matter how much time I have (it is often not much!) I can move in the direction I want my writing career to take, and that doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s. (Note: Sarra also has a course called HB90, which focuses on time management and goal setting that really helps if you feel pinched for time and are not sure where to start! You can see my review of that course here.)
It’s made me let go of looking to the gatekeepers for permission to get my words out into the world. Instead, I am just doing it, and I have a clear vision of how to get there. That transformation in mindset is probably the most valuable investment I have ever made in myself.
I definitely needed a nudge in order to go for it.
So if you need that nudge, let me be it. Creating a writing life that will sustain you is worth it. Living up to your potential is worth it. You are worth it.
This post contains affiliate links to Sarra’s courses, which means if you choose to enroll after clicking my link, I will receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. That being said, I am recommending this course because it really has changed my thinking on my writing career and what’s possible for writers and I want to spread the word!
