Gamify Your Writing

Bruno Henrique & Canva

I’ve been more productive in 2021 than the last six years. I’ve already written more words, made more blog posts, learned Canva and fell in love with Instagram. It’s only June. I’m determined to keep my momentum going. How can I tweak my productivity? Being a gamer and an efficiency nut, I knew what I wanted.  

Many authors use word count as their carrot on the end of a stick. Nothing wrong with this style of tracking. I love Nanowrimo. The 50,000 words I output every November are an outlier. If I write all five days a week, I can get to 5k to 7k. About half of what I crank out for Nano.  

If word count motivates you, try out Pacemaker. You create your goal and then check in every day. You can set up descending goals for editing. It gives you little rewards and shows your writing chain. I love a good streak. This site has a free component. I’ve always stayed on the free plan.  

Matilda Wormwood

I love to test out new writing software. Almost all of them have a word count tracker. Nothing fancy most of the time. I use Dabble for fast drafting. The software has a word count tracker that sinks with Nano every year. Thinking about it, I have drafted my last four books in Dabble. Guess I like it or I’m getting superstitious about completing manuscripts? Scrivener has a tracker, as does Papyrus Author. You may have to hunt for it, but it’s in there somewhere.  

I love statistics. They are a great motivator. Seeing that I am forty-five percent through a draft kicks my motor over. While spreadsheets are outstanding, I’ve been using Notion to track fiction versus nonfiction writing along with how long I take to create either. We can link the databases to master pages where I take all the data and leverage it into seeing patterns.  

Pick a prize. Who doesn’t love prizes? For my last writing goal, I had something picked out. Jetpens makes so many of my dreams real. When my pen got to me, I loved it. Plus, when I use the pen, I grin about finishing edits on that manuscript.  

Take classes. They don’t have to be writing related. For instance, I took a canva class to learn new ways to brand my website. It’s a work in progress, but it’s helped me stay motivated. You can checkout Skillshare or Udemy and such. Learn something new and plump up your writing arsenal. Easy way to gamify continuing education. 

How many rejections can you get? Keep track and give yourself kudos as you rack up the no thank you emails. If you don’t have a way to track, create a spreadsheet or keep a word document.  

If you’re self-publishing, are you making your production schedule? There are always hiccups, but if you look at the project as a whole, you’ll find you’ve been working your butt off. Maybe you want cheesecake or more things from Jetpens? Because you deserve some acknowledgment for releasing your baby out into the world.  

What it comes down to is you have to find what makes your engine purr. I like physical things. Planning supplies, stickers and all the pens I can horde make me grin bigger than an Orangutan. It doesn’t have to be big things. In a planning group I saw some Animal Crossing: New Horizon stationary. That’s an awesome prize.

Sharad kachhi

Maybe you work best in spurts. I love a ten to fifteen minute sprint. Small goals help get me over the finish line. If I write for fifteen minutes, I get ten minutes on my Nintendo. Or a phone game. Ten minutes of your favorite show. Chain the small sprints into a productivity game of your own making.

What works for you? What motivates you? Maybe you have something sitting in your online shopping cart. When you need a jolt to get you over the hump, click buy. Now let the joy spread over into your writing.  

For many, writing is a career they fit around whatever job pays the bills. It’s lonely, rigorous and often self-defeating. You can write one hundred books and only a handful will hit the lists. Are you writing two books a year? Then a fifty-year career comes out to one hundred books. Long days with writing shoehorned around other obligations. How old are you? Do your math.  

You don’t want to spend your writing career miserable. No one can expect happiness from outside yardsticks. Give yourself a bonus when you need to. That boost can help you never give up on writing. Respect yourself and your work and learn how you can use what makes you tick to get your story told.  

Gamify the crap out of your writing if it will help you. If it sounds too weird, keep doing whatever is working for you. But only if it’s working. If you’re shaking your head but the writing is abysmal and nowhere near consistent, give something else a try.

Create your own success. Everyone has different benchmarks. Find yours. Make it work for you.  

Keep it simple.  

Write. Write. Write.