Fantasy Story Progress Meter

EDIT April 9th, 2010: Since I posted this, the site has changed. The progress meters now appear on the homepage and are shown using ProgPress.

I’ve added a meter to the blog’s sidebar to track my progress on the fantasy story I’m writing. My goal is to finish the first draft by December 31st, 2010, or at least that’s what I said at the beginning of the year. I also said that I was going to seriously start looking for a job.

I sat down at the computer Monday morning (Feb 1st), surfed to Monster.ca, and searched for jobs that match my skills. There were quite a few postings, but as I skimmed them, my heart wasn’t in it. I just don’t feel like going back to work yet. I had a chat with my partner on Monday night, and I’ve decided to take a few more months off.

Given that, I hope to make some progress on the fantasy story every day, even if it’s just a few hundred words. When I’m writing a Rymellan story, the fantasy won’t get as much attention. But since I’m not working at the moment, I should be able to dedicate some time to it each day, even if it’s only half an hour.

So now I’m hoping to finish the first draft by the end of the summer. Since I’m one of those weird writers who enjoys editing my work more than writing it, the first draft is always the slowest and most painful part of a writing project. Completing it is a huge milestone (and a great relief!). I’ve added the progress meter to encourage me to put in that half an hour every day (please, Bethesda, don’t release TESV until I’ve finished the darn thing!).

When I write, I don’t have a specific length in mind. When the story is done, it’s done. The progress meter’s 100,000 word goal is an estimate. If I hit 100,000 words and I’m not finished, I’ll change it to 110,000, then 120,000, etc. So I might actually make backwards progress at some point, even though the word count has gone up. If you see the percentage go down, the goal has likely changed.

I also wanted to show my progress on whatever Rymellan story I’m currently writing, but unfortunately I couldn’t find a widget that would do the trick. I tried ProgPress because it allows tracking of multiple projects in a single widget, but the progress bar appeared cut off. If I wanted to, I could do some digging and figure out how to change the appearance of the progress bar using CSS, but I wanted a widget that I could just drop in and use with no fiddling.

I’m using Dave’s Whizmatronic Widgulating Calibrational Scribometer to show progress. According to his website, the next release of the plugin will support tracking of multiple projects. If so, I’ll add the Rymellan progress then. Don’t hold your breath, though. He said that back in June 2009.

I’ll have to sign into the blog to update progress, something I don’t do every day. So if the bar doesn’t move for a few days, that doesn’t mean I’m slacking off (though I might be ).