This spreadsheet features a wordcount tracker, progress chart, pages for filling in novel info, characters, and chapters, as well as character and plot development sheets. It’s designed for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) 2012, but with a little tweaking you can use it any time.
It’s an Excel spreadsheet; if you’re using a Mac, you might need to adapt/convert it. This is the basic design which is available in two versions, one which works by daily wordcount, and another which works by total wordcount.
- NaNoWriMo2012 word tracker – Eric
- NaNoWriMo2012 word tracker – Forest Fairy
- NaNoWriMo2012 word tracker – Pirate
- NaNoWriMo2012 word tracker – Selene
- NaNoWriMo2012 word tracker – Stars
- NaNoWriMo2012 word tracker – True Blood
- NaNoWriMo2012 word tracker – Warrior Woman
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. You’re free to change, edit, and share these, but please remember to give credit. All images used are my own, and they are copyrighted, not to be used for anything outside of these spreadsheets.
Svenja, thank you so much for these. Promoting them across my social media and blog (CommuniCATE Resources for Writers.)
Best wishes!
No problem at all – thank you for spreading the word! That’s great, I appreciate it. All the best!
I really like this one. Definitely going to use it. Thanks! :)
Awesome, I’m glad you like it! :)
Wow, this is really fantastic! I’m downloading and sharing these at our write-in!
That’s great, thanks for dropping by! I hope your write-in goes well. :) Best of luck!
These are great! Thank-you SO much for sharing these. :)
No problem, I hope they’ll help you with NaNo! :D
Is there a way to donate? I read your plot and character examples, and they were hilarious! Ring Wars I: Lord of the Stars, indeed! It’s also clear you’ve put a lot of work into these, not just the word counter, but also the artwork, the number of different pages, and so on. I never thought of a spreadsheet as a piece of art before.
Wow, thanks! This made me smile. :) If you want to donate, I’ve just put up a donation button in the sidebar! :) In any case, I’m really glad that you like the spreadsheet, and best of luck with NaNo!
Forest fairy! Yes, these spreadsheets are beautiful and awesome. Thanks so much for sharing. :)
No problem at all, thank you! I’m glad you like them.
This is so useful. Beautifully designed, too. Will definitely be sharing this on my blog.
Awesome, that’s great to hear – and thank you!
This is beautiful, thanks so much.
No problem, I’m glad you like it :D
OH GOD THANK YOU. This is gonna help me so much in getting ajur.
I hope it does help, best of luck! :)
Wow, these are amazing! I really like when things are organized and pretty, it gives me more motivation for some reason! Thanks for these! :)
Thanks right back at you! :D I’m the same, that’s why I started making these to begin with actually. :)
Thanks so much. I’m attempting to write a novel this month and although the software I’m using covers your spreadsheet, I love it and may use it any way. I will be sharing your site with other writers if that’s okay. Thanks again, this is brilliant!
Update: I loved the tracker before I started using…now that I’m using it…OMGoodness, I’m head over heels. Thank you again for sharing.
Great to hear, that’s awesome! :D (And am I right in thinking that you donated? Thanks so much!)
Good luck with your novel! And yes, absolutely, share away, that’s what they’re for. :) I’m glad they’re useful!
Thank you for these! They are really well done. Your artwork is so beautiful. Keep on keeping on!
Thanks for the kind words! :) Good luck with your writing!
Thank you so much for this! Was looking for a word tracker with custom word count. All of the extra features are an unexpected bonus.
Now, I just have to figure out how to alter the dates for December…
No problem! Best of luck with NaNo. Altering the dates is pretty straightforward actually, you just have to change the date for day 1 and it’ll adjust the rest. But I’ll probably put a “Novel-finishing month” version of these trackers up at the end of November anyway, which will take what you’ve already written into account. :)
This is amazing. I like to think I’m pretty good with Excel, but this is incredible.
I was worrying because I couldn’t start NaNo this year right on time, so I wanted to give myself a different time frame (still 30 days) to finish. This is perfect because I still get to see the fancy bar graph and everything is there to keep me on track. Plus ALL the other information you’ve jammed into this. I can’t wait to start using it.
I’m glad you like it! If you want to change the time all you have to do is change the first date in that column. :) Good luck with your writing!
I have been using your spreadsheet for NaNo this year and I’m totally in love with it! Do you have any advice on how to make one up for longer projects or for year-round writing? I tried saving your spreadsheet as a new document and adding a starting amount of 50k (for example) on Day 1 but it messes up all of the stats and estimated completion dates. Any suggestions or referrals are appreciated. Thanks for all the hard work creating these beautiful tools. :)
Well, first off, I’m glad you like this! And I actually have a year-round spreadsheet, too. I don’t have the link handy right now, but it’s posted on my blog. You can use it year-round or just for a few months. I’ll be posting an updated version for 2013 sometime in December so just keep an eye out for that. :)
Ah, this is so awesome! I was searching the Internet forever for a good word count tracking system that shows where you need to be and since I have no idea how to format Excel, this is a lifesaver.
You. Are. Awesome.
Well, I’m glad you found me then, that’s great! :D I hope it helps!
Your spreadsheets are beautiful. I’m going to try the yearly wordcount one to keep me going now that Nano 2012 is over. Thanks so much for making them available.
Thank you very much! I should have a 2013 version of the yearly tracker up soon. :)
I downloaded the excel nanowrimo word tracker that has the capability to develop and record plot and character details. I read the first page with the instructions on how each section works, but I don’t have a clue how to get into them.
I’ve never used excel before because I didn’t know how. If I click on the headings of the information list, nothing happens except the cursor is a little ‘cross’. How do I get into the different sections?
Bonnie j. Eaton
If you look at the very bottom of the window, you should see coloured tabs with “Instructions”, “Word Tracker” etc written on them. If you look at the preview image in this post, they’re at the very bottom of the image. That’s what you need to click on, not the headings.
Can you find those?