Writing Word Count Tracker

If you haven't heard of the phenomenon that is Bullet Journaling, and you're into notebooks and keeping notes, have a quick Google.

I discovered Bullet Journaling in March just as we went into lockdown. I have a terrible memory. If I don't write things down, then I simply won't remember to do them. This is why I always forget to send birthday cards, don't pick up everything I need when I shop for groceries and am generally late or absent minded.

The Bullet Journal helps me a lot. It keeps me organised and hopefully I'm not missing any deadlines. (Incidentally, two people from Day Job have commented that I come across as really organised, so this must be working because I feel as if I'm the most disorganised person on the planet!)

Bullet Journalling for me wouldn't be complete unless I used it to help me keep track of my writing. Writing is a huge part of my life and while it isn't how I generate my income, it is how I spend a lot of my free time.

My notebook isn't as thick as I'd like so it doesn't contain ALL my notes, as I wish it did, (but I am trying to find a way to bind some more pages into it) but I do have a word count page where I'm tracking how many words I have written each day.

I out grew it.

But that's fine because it gave me the chance to come up with a new one! I love putting doodles together in my notebook. I love researching different layouts and experimenting with different styles. I don't think I've done a monthly layout the same each month, as I've been experimenting with what works best for my journaling style.

I found various different layouts for word counts, mainly from people doing Camp NaNoWriMo. Incidentally, I've never managed to do NaNoWriMo because I'm not organised enough! Also, August is really the only month I can do a WriMo so it usually doesn't work for me.

These are some examples of what I found, and they are fabulous!

by Bri Rudd

by Life on Island

by TCK Publishing

The article from TCK Publishing is actually really interesting and has a lot of good ideas for writing journal pages.

As fantastic as these trackers are, they're not really my style. I wanted something that reflected my book a little more. Something science fiction/space related.

It's also a children's book so I wanted it to be quirky and childish as well. I found some mood trackers that reflected my style a little bit more. I also ordered some stencils as I can't draw, freehand or otherwise.

I am in awe of some of the layouts some bullet journalists do. They are so creative and beautiful. That's just not me. I can copy, a little, and I can follow artists' instructions on how to draw something, but I can't do it myself.

So, using my stencils and copying some layouts I've seen around, this is what I came up with for tracking my word count:

I started at 30k because I wanted to have something to colour in before I got started. The only thing I don't like is that there's nowhere to write a date, so I can't keep track of when I'm writing. But, I have my writing schedule for that now.

It's not perfect, but it's mine and I love it.