Some days it feels like you’re not making any progress, when in fact you are.

Take today. I wrote a messily little 130 words so far. I’m probably going to write a little bit more, but it won’t be a lot since it’s already past midnight. However, I did go through my entire manuscript and clean up a lot of the grammar errors. Changed the then’s to than’s. Got rid of double spacing. Made all the “…” uniform. Took out all the double words.

It wasn’t a major edit, just a superficial one, but one much needed. From here on out I will be going through each chapter and doing a major cleaning up of word usage. Not a true edit, since I still need someone else to correct the spelling and grammar errors, but just making the words read smoother. This basic once over to clean up all the really easy to spot things will make that go through a little easier.

Progress is more in how you see things then how you measure them. I usually measure progress by word count, but some days I do an awful lot of editing, formatting, and cover design. This leaves no time for actual words on page. I know I should set at least one hour aside every day to just write, but sometimes your brain is so overloaded with everything else that you just can’t write. That’s when you have to measure progress in another way.

I’m going to be adding other accomplishments to my word count sheet. Maybe it will just be a note that says “marketing” or “art” for the day. Maybe it will be something more specific. But it feels a lot better to look at the spreadsheet and see “I didn’t waste my time playing video games that day, I actually did something productive before I played them.” (Because a girl has to have her video games, right?)

How do you measure your progress? What do you do on days that you feel like you’ve done nothing, even though you know you did a lot?