Wordcount Tracking

Of all the (very few) things I don't hate about the new NaNoWriMo website, the simple wordcount updater is one of them. I hit the plus sign, enter my new total and click update, and I'm done. I also hunted around to see where the verification widget is now. According to what I read in the forums they've done away with it. So I no longer have to cut and paste my manuscript to get the win at the end of November. I think this is going to lead to a bit of cheating, but according to the forums some people had already been cheating on the old site, so there you go.

One thing does puzzle me: why would anyone cheat at NaNoWriMo? So they can win? To impress friends? To get the t-shirt? I cannot fathom this.

Anyway, to plan and track my wordcount goals these days I use Excel. It does all the math for me, and generates a list I can print out and put on my desk if I think I need daily visual prodding. A wordcount spreadsheet is especially helpful when you're adding to a WIP that was already in progress, as I am. I've uploaded a copy of the one I made for Twenty-One here.

Comments

nightsmusic said…

I'm terrible at anything more than adding and subtracting in math. I also don't use Excel because except for the most basic of things, I can't use that either. I keep track of word count in Word and a running total every day. That's the best I can do.

I don't know why people cheat at NaNo. Frustration? A need to impress others in a writers group? Getting to display the badge? Who knows? People do the most ridiculous things for the worst reasons.

November 6, 2019 at 8:56 AM

the author said…

I use Excel for my tax ledger and wordcounts but that's about it. I used to do Lotus spreadsheets way back in the Jurassic era when we had to back up everything on those huge floppy discs. :)

It confuses me to think that anyone would want to cheat at NaNo in the first place; I can't get past that to the why part. It's ridiculous.

November 7, 2019 at 8:57 AM

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Valerean

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