I'm so pleased to have author Barbara M. Britton as my guest today! Barbara writes…
A Honey of a Writer Tool {Guest Jessica R. Patch}
Today I have the pleasure of welcoming my dear friend and fantastic author, Jessica R. Patch! Jessica has a new novella (the next installment in the Honeyhaven Series) out just in time for the holidays. More on Honey for the Holidays below!
She’s graciously agreed to share a tool she recently started using to stay on track of her writing goals. I’m intrigued by it and figured you would be too. Take it away, Jessica!
A Honey of a Writer Tool
Who doesn’t love the sweet things in life? I don’t know anyone either. 2020 has proven to be completely crazy-pants, but hopefully you’ve been able to stay productive in your writing goals. And that begs the question: How do you stay on track with your daily or weekly word count?
Me? I’ve been using a tool with my last two projects thanks to my good friend and author Jodie Bailey. She introduced me to a FREE writing tool that she and I both highly recommend.
Free? Yep—gotta love those sweet things in life. What is this free thing you ask?
Pacemaker.
Pacemaker does exactly what it sounds like. Keep your heart beating? No. Keep track of your writing pace and help you determine what your daily/weekly/overall word count should be? Yes. Simply enter your project name (title of your work). Also, I totally had to Google how to take a screen shot because I can never remember! This is my current project—the third book in the LIS Cold Case Investigators series.
Whether it’s a blog post, a revision or a first draft…there are plenty of choices. Select an overall word count—which is what I do—then choose if you want to skip weekends or block out particular days/weeks as well determine if you want to write steady, start out strong, or do a mountain hike. I like steady word count. Once you enter all of your choices, Pacemaker lets you know how many words you need to write daily/weekly (depending on what you choose. I choose daily.) to meet your overall goal.
After my day of writing, I enter my progress and it calculates what I’ve written, how much I have left, and will adjust my daily word count (if I want it to).
Since I’m a checklist kind of gal, this has been extremely helpful for me. I feel like I’m nibbling and not biting off huge chunks. I can focus on today’s count goal and not the huge amount I need to get to in order to finish the manuscript.
When writing Honey for the Holidays, this tool came in handy and instead of thinking, “Oh my word! I have 30K to write in two weeks! Ack!” I simply said I have 2200 words to write today. That is way doable for me. And before I knew it, I was at THE END.
I encourage you to test it out. Pacemaker.press. Once you finish a project, you can delete it since the program only allows you to keep tabs of two projects simultaneously for free. You can upgrade for a cost, but I haven’t felt the need to do that yet.
I’d love to hear what programs you use to help you with your writing goals. Let me know in the comments.
And, hey, Honey for the Holidays is available for the low price of $2.99! If you haven’t read any of the books in the Honeyhaven series, yet, you can find them all on my website.
Happy Writing!
Jessica R. Patch
Crockett Baylor is known as a businessman whose professional practices are above reproach. His personal reputation? Not so much. When the mayor dangles Crockett’s long-buried dream in front of him, he’ll have to take drastic measures to prove he’s worthy. He’s got a plan but it requires the help of his ex, who despises him for all the wrong reasons.
Beloved Parks and Recreation Director, Scout Denman refuses to go along with Crockett’s cockamamie scheme: pretending they’ve rekindled their past romantic relationship. It’s too much of an emotional strain. But she has no choice when she gets in a bind and needs his help with a parks project.
As they stumble their way through Christmas events, grudgingly selling themselves as a couple, they discover there might be a genuine ember left burning under the ashes of their broken hearts. And if they can swallow their pride, they might be able to spark it into a glowing future together.
BUY HONEY FOR THE HOLIDAYS NOW!
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Hey Jessica this looks good and do-able. I’ve always kind of done my own, in Word and Excel, but will probably find the need for something more structured as my career does whatever it’s going to do next. I’m revamping my whole writing practice starting in November. My husband just retired, and that’s a two-edged sword: he’s around a lot more, which means he needs to find Something To Do, but also he’s around more which means he can start doing the errands and other stuff.
I’ve shared with Jill, and she with me, that our organizational needs change over time and at least I constantly have to keep readjusting. It’s no longer as simple as banging stuff out for your two free hours while your child is in kindergarten. Ah, remember kindergarten?
But We Persevere.
Kathy Bailey
working it out in New Hampshire
Kathy, “banging stuff out for your two free hours”–so true. I do remember banging it out for a few hours when my youngest was in Kindergarten! I knew nothing about revising or editing at that point. I just sat down and wrote. So much has changed!! I hope your writing routine falls into place with the new changes!
Hi Kathy!
It’s definitely doable and with shifting changes in our schedules–which happen often–it’s a great way to set reachable goals and keep accountable. Oh, if we could go back to naps and coloring! 🙂 Thank you for commenting.