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Writing: Spreadsheets & Calculations

I’m addicted to spreadsheets. Excel is a necessity for me. Right next to Word. So it should come as no surprise that with all my new deadlines and an increasingly hectic home life, I’ve been staring at my spreadsheets for hours on end, trying to figure a way to fit in all the work I need to do over the next few weeks – plus all the family stuff. (My mom is having lung surgery next week and has moved into my place for the duration.)

As an example, I had a first round of edits on my upcoming cat shifter novel (Cat’s Cradle) for Samhain due yesterday. I was a day later than my estimate, and handed it in this morning. My bad. I also got copyedits from Kensington in the mail on Monday (Once Bitten, Twice Dead) that are due soon.

I used to just float along and try to get as much done each day as possible. But with everything that’s going on, I can’t just coast anymore. So I’ve started setting a new goal. I’ve always had writing goals – anywhere from 2-5k words per day, which has dropped to 500-1000 words now that I’m too busy to really do much. Now I have a page goal for edits each day as well.

I simply take the page count and divide by the number of days I have to get the job done. With my copyedits, it means I have to get roughly 30 pages of edits done per day. Judging by how long it took me to do about half that today, 30 pages will equal roughly an hour or two per day. I may not always have the time, depending on what’s going on in the next weeks, but at least now I can gauge what I’m in for. If I have extra time on one day, I’ll work ahead for the future days where I might not have as much time.

Wish me luck. This system *should* work, but it’s new to me, so I’ll have to give it a whirl and refine my spreadsheets some more as I work the plan.