What Tracker Did We Create?

This week, we are diving into What Tracker Did We Create, How to Plan Your Words, Tips- Writer's Tools, Prompts and more.

Coral Sands

Jessica

Melanie

, and 2 others

Oct 08, 2024

Writing Quests is a writing community that strives to connect writers with writing challenges to foster a continued flow of words for your preferred genre.

What Tracker Did We Create?

The Writing Journey had spent the last few months developing a Progress Tracker in Google Sheets for use during Novel Quest. We are excited to announce that Version 1.0 has been released. You can find it here, along with our instructions for use.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zsjBv1wG4HquO-azqirvdHXDLQRak067?usp=sharing

The tracker helps users log their word count and/or hours spent over the 30 days of Novel Quest. The tracker has multiple tabs, with the most important being:

Your Quest

The “Your Quest” tab is used at the beginning of the month to enter information about your project. You can name your project, pick a genre, enter your monthly goals, etc.

Daily Word/Hour Count

The “Daily Word/Hour Count” tab is where you will fill in your daily word/hour count and set daily goals. You can also leave a status message, which will allow you to share a message with others in your region (If you link to your region’s aggregator.) For ease of use, everything the user enters on a daily basis is on this tab.

Progress

The “Progress” tab shows your progress across the month. This tab has various charts and tables to break down your progress in different ways. Everything on this tab will be filled in automatically using some fancy formulas.

This tracker can be used for solo quests, or connected to your region’s aggregator to allow you to share your progress with your region’s members.

Easter Eggs

We hide a total of seven Easter Eggs in the tracker for users to find. Easter Egg #1 can be found during normal use of the Tracker. But the remaining 6 take a little creativity or thought. I don’t expect everyone to find all seven. But, I hope this will be a fun little side quest.

Website Tracker

There is a website version of the tracker under development. We hope to have it completed by November. We will update you, when we have more information to share.

Volunteer Spotlight- Gertrude

WQ: What is your writing background?

GD: I have a bachelors of arts from the University of Michigan, where I majored in English with an area of specialization in Medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern Literature. In my day job, I write operation and maintenance manuals for a company that creates automated guided vehicles used in factories and warehouses to move goods.

I like to write fiction in my free time and have published a number of short stories. You can find more about me on my website, https://gertrudedaly.com/.

WQ: What are your hobbies when not writing?

GD: I enjoy following the royals. I am a "Royal Watcher." I run a blog Gert's Royals which focuses on European Monarchies. You can find me on X (Twitter) @GertsRoyals or at

http://gertsroyals.blogspot.com/

WQ: Time for a shameless plug

GD: I recently had a short story "Grandma's Red Christmas Sweater" published in Chicken Soup for the Soul's 2024 Christmas Anthology, "Tales of Christmas: 101 stories of Holiday Joy, Love & Gratitude". https://gertrudedaly.com/grandmas-red-christmas-sweater/

WQ: What do you do to contribute to Writing Quests?

GD: I worked on the Google Sheets Progress Tracker. I had a lot of fun hiding a few different Easter Eggs.

WQ: What is your quest?

This November, I will be working on a new project. The story is about a young woman who gets a job at the Prince's Palace in Monaco. She falls in love with a bad boy prince, the younger son of the sovereign. I need to plot it out. But I think it is going to be a mystery/suspense thriller…

How to volunteer/contribute

We have three different ways to get involved:

Quest Guides- The people who host the Writing Quests are called Quest Guides. They help creatives through the process of setting goals, prepping for the quests, and providing encouragement during the event. Click on Get Involved> The Framework to get started.

Participants- Anyone can participate, even if you are not a writer. Visit our website to find a participating group near you.

Volunteers- Writing Quests is an all-volunteer organization. If you want to volunteer, please email info@writingquests.org and let us know your experience and if applicable, what you want to help with.

We actively need people with technical skills in website design/coding (our writingquests.org site is created with Hugo) and web application design/development (e.g., using Vue.js to create our rules generator or Laravel to work on a web-based progress tracker).

How to plan out your word count?

The month before you begin a writing challenge is the perfect time to begin planning some of the simple things to make your Quest go smoothly. The reason we want to plan out our word count in advance is that it can be a bit time consuming. While you are in the midst of your Quest you want to stay fully engaged rather than dealing with technical and tedious tasks. It will make for a more successful month when you know what your goal is.

An example of a common quest is working on it during a 30-day month and aiming to write 50,000 words. One key thing to look at is will you be writing every single day during the month. If you are, then you are aiming to write 1,667 words a day. However, some family time might be required, or you might have holiday obligations. So, in a 30-day timeframe, one might realize they are only writing for 25 days. If you know you will miss a writing day, then your word count will be different for the month. For this example, you would need to write a minimum of 2,000 words a day. So, when you figure out the month’s word count, take that and divide it by the number of days you plan to write for to get your measurable goal.

The final aspect that truly helps with this planning is to have a way to track it. A great way to do that is to have a calendar for the month you plan on writing. On each day, write the number you plan to write per day as well as the amount that you should be at. For instance, if you are going with 2,000 per day, on day 5 put 2,000 for that day and total accomplished 10,000. It’s ok if you are not exactly on track because you know you are doing well either way and sometimes you might write more than your goal.

Goals are meant to be made and remade. If you are on track, consider an adjustment. If you aren’t, know that you are doing amazing anyway even if it’s not your exact goal. Progress is purpose!

Tips for Writers- Writer’s Tools

What’s in your writer’s toolbox for Novel Quest?

by Tim Yao (NewMexicoKid) and Jessica (DancinLibrarian)

Jessica, the DancinLibrarian: I write on my laptop, typically. It allows me to write anywhere - at home, at a library, in a restaurant. These days, I use OpenOffice Writer since it’s free, and save the document as a .doc file. Be sure to have backup methods for saving! I always email the file to myself at least once during a challenge. Flash drives and external hard drives are also good to have. Lastly, as a pantser, I tend to only use the document, but in the lead-up I might jot down ideas on note cards (often old library catalog cards, since I have those at work).

Tim, aka NewMexicoKid: I mostly write on my Pixelbook (a chromebook), but I can write using any computer because I write in plain text with the text editor vim with simple markdown mark-up. All my work is version-controlled using subversion.(some may want to use git or a different system)--once set up, it is extremely easy to use and provides a backup solution. It’s easy to convert markdown to other formats with the pandoc utility. I usually then use LaTeX to create the interior pages (LaTeX has a learning curve but is free and very effective at creating beautiful typography). I do most of my novel planning using the XMind mind mapping program (free, works on all platforms). I started off as a firm planner, but have become more of a “plantser” over time. I often will use index cards when writing, jotting down ideas to explore before a given writing session.

Now a prompt: Describe a wondrous item your protagonist has never encountered before. What does it look, sound, and feel like? What does it do? What does your protagonist think of it?

Upcoming events

In October, we will start prepping for November’s Novel Quest, a fun writing challenge run by Writing Quests. We will release templates for the challenge and include social media banners for writing groups and participants. More information to come as we get closer to the month.

More information to come on the exciting special Featured Authors during November’s Novel Quest!

Coming October:

Oct 13: Preptober for November’s Novel Quest Starts on Youtube at 11am central

Oct 27: Preptober Second Session on Youtube at 11am central

Coming November:

Nov 1: Novel Quest Begins! Kick-off Event on Youtube at 6:30pm central

Sundays at 11am central Virtual Write In on Youtube

Thursdays at 6:30pm central Virtual Write In on Youtube

Coming December:

Dec 1: Thank Goodness Its Over Party on Youtube at 6:30pm

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