Ticker Counter
Feb282010
So Lani showed me this fabulous new writing tool: Ticker Counter. You go to the Ticker Counter website and sign up for a free counter where you can enter the number of words you’ve done each day and track your progress. Why is this a good thing? Because if you put it on your website, say once a week, you’ll know you have to produce or people will throw rocks.
So you can do a ticker like this one:
Or like this one:
Or like this one:
They have pages of different designs for bars and sliders, so you can pretty much pick your poison.
I’m going to try this. Say every Monday, I’ll put up the ticker. And then you can throw rocks. The Liz books are contracted for 50K, but I always go over so I’m putting 70K up there as a starting point. Hmmm, maybe 60K. I must cogitate. And then I must go back to the damn copy edits. Fabulous copy editor this time, though. Tomorrow, back to Liz. With counters!
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37 Comments to 'Ticker Counter'
On February 28, 2010 at 10:53 am JulieB said...
Very cool. Thinking I should post and be accountable for progress, but then wonder who would care but me anyway.
On February 28, 2010 at 11:23 am Sierra said...
So if you do well for the week, can we throw diet-approved cookies instead?
On February 28, 2010 at 12:12 pm Jenny said...
I’m cheating on the diet right and left. Which I prefer to call “dieting outside the box.”
On February 28, 2010 at 12:54 pm colognegrrl said...
“Dieting outside the Box” is the best way, I think. I started one last summer and lost one kilogram every month. Now that’s not much, but when it stays off for good, that’s better than all those yo-yo-effect programs that make you suffer so much that you can’t help it, you just cheat. Which makes you feel bad, and that’s the last thing you need. Making up you own diet plan, however, is great because you’re your own coach (which reminds me to say that the best way to diet is to exercise more).
On February 28, 2010 at 11:25 am Sure thing said...
Interesting.
On February 28, 2010 at 11:46 am Brenda Bradshaw said...
Well, apparently I’m more computer inept than I originally thought: I couldn’t get this to work for me at all, not even on Facebook where it gave me the usual “publish to profile” part. Did it publish? Nope. And I think instead of spending hours and hours determined to make it work, I’ll go and write instead. I’m bound and determined to get this blasted novel finished already.
On February 28, 2010 at 12:13 pm Jenny said...
I’ve gotten it to work on here, so there’s hope. At least it works in Preview for tomorrow. It did take me awhile to figure out how to get it together. I’ve asked Mollie if she wants it on Facebook, and if she says yes, she’ll figure out how to do it and I’ll report back.
On February 28, 2010 at 12:18 pm Judy Long said...
OT movie plug – WHIP IT what a great movie – nice soundtrack, too.
On February 28, 2010 at 1:50 pm Sam said...
That was SUCH a great movie. It’s based on a book, too.
I was lucky because I saw it in an advanced showing and got to meet some real roller derby girls.
On March 1, 2010 at 12:05 am CrankyOtter said...
Agreed! I saw the early show and got the free T shirt, although no roller derby grrls were there. Wound up seeing it 3 times. Can’t figure out why it gets no award buzz.
Great news on having a good copy editor this time!
On February 28, 2010 at 12:36 pm Eve said...
How long does it usually take you to write 10,000 words? Thanks
On February 28, 2010 at 1:59 pm Jenny said...
It depends. Sometimes it takes me forever and sometimes I can do it in five days. And then there are the rewrites.
On March 1, 2010 at 12:28 am Eve said...
5 days? gasp. That means theoretically, we can have a new book every couple of months. mmmmmmmmmm.
P.S. How much of the original ms do you keep after the rewrites?
On March 1, 2010 at 12:49 am Jenny said...
Well, there are also all those days that I weep helplessly as I stare into my computer screen.
It’s hard to tell how much of the original stuff I keep because I write on the computer and constantly revise. A lot, though. I can’t do 2K a day on the really big books because my brain hurts from juggling everything.
On March 1, 2010 at 10:12 am Eve said...
Aww, well thank you very much for answering. For us – you can do no wrong
So, no more weeping willows – you’re far too precious for that (you know how much humor you bring into our lives?!)
On February 28, 2010 at 1:49 pm Sam said...
That’s cool. I used to use those when I had a blog.
Good luck!!!
On February 28, 2010 at 2:04 pm Betty said...
Sounds like it works on the same ‘guilt and ‘shame’ principal as the electronic scales you can now link to your facebook page so friends and family can plot your weight loss. Its a ‘shame’ that along with all my other resolutions I also vowed to quit guilt this year…which in itself makes me feel slightly ashamed… will the cycle never end?
On February 28, 2010 at 3:57 pm Jenny said...
I’m not big on shame, so I’m ignoring that, but maybe it’s not guilt. Maybe it’s pride (I can do the whole range of deadly sins, no problem). And if it doesn’t work, you’ll never see that counter again.
On February 28, 2010 at 3:29 pm robena grant said...
Hmmmm? Well, I clicked on the link above and got charts on ovulation. Definitely do not need that. : ) So I clicked on a side bar and ended up with maps and graphs for ovulation…must go back and take another look.
On February 28, 2010 at 4:05 pm Jenny said...
Yeah, I had that trouble, too, at first.
Click on the little “Home” box in the top right of the screen, then scroll down to “Crafts, Hobbies,” then hit Objects/Actions counter.
That’ll take you to a form where you choose a password, fill in a field for what you’re counting, then another for your current word count and another for your target word count.
Then you hit next and it will give you pages of possible ticker rulers. Pick one, then hit next and it will give you pages of possible ticker sliders. Use the numbers at the bottom to look at the different pages, not the “Next” button.
Then it’ll give you a page with different codes for Facebook, your website or blog, whatever.
On February 28, 2010 at 4:13 pm AgTigress said...
Ack! That counter is really scary — much too public (but then, nobody except me and my publisher really cares whether I am meeting my word-count anyway. Not like Crusie novels, that we are all panting to get our hands on).
I do progress tables in Word with totals of where I stand on the current work in progress, first on the pictures and the factual research, and then on word-counts, but I don’t show them to anyone else. As today is the last day of February, I am now officially over deadline on my current contract, with less than half my measly total of 37,000 words completed (lots of pictures, that’s why so few words). But my 175,000-word scholarly catalogue is now finally IN PRINT — I have an actual advance copy — and will be on sale in a couple of weeks’ time, so yah, boo, sucks, to use a good old British expression. Writing two books simultaneously is a special kind of challenge, which has been going on so long for me that I can’t seem to cope with the fact that I have only one on the stocks at the moment.
On February 28, 2010 at 5:37 pm Jenny said...
CONGRATULATIONS, Ag! That’s fabulous. A book turned in and 175K at that. The mind boggles.
On February 28, 2010 at 5:06 pm Mel said...
Ooh, those are cool progress bars/counters. I used to use the Zokutou one but it disappeared. And the one I use now is not as pretty as these! Shall investigate, thanks (and thanks Lani!)
On February 28, 2010 at 6:10 pm AgTigress said...
Thank you very much, Jenny. It is such a relief, and with the pace of academic journal publication, I don’t have to start worrying about reviews for another 12 months… But I won’t tell you how many years it took to complete it!
On February 28, 2010 at 6:56 pm Jenny said...
Since my dissertation which I started in 1995 is still unfinished, I am in no position to criticize.
On March 1, 2010 at 12:40 pm Lora said...
Hey, in 1995 I was 16.
I just like saying that.
On March 1, 2010 at 2:43 pm Terrio said...
That’s just mean. LOL! I was planning a wedding (for an ill-fated marriage.)
On February 28, 2010 at 11:00 pm Thea said...
Read an interview with sainted John McPhee today in LATimes – okay, nonfiction, but, recalling, two years for first draft (he calls his drafts “skeletons”); four months for second; one month for third; one week for fourth and final draft. His latest book is memoir.
On March 1, 2010 at 5:13 am Theresa said...
Completely off topic. I just saw an add for Wild Ride on SmartBitches! I was so excited!! And I was even more excited when I saw that we could click and get the prequel!!!
Except they wanted me to register and sign up to get email of some sort in order to read the prequel, which I never do, if at all possible, because I don’t want to get that kind of email I’ve had extremely low success actually getting off such email lists. So I’m not going to read the prequel, which makes me sad, and a bit mad at Macmillan (not the first time, by the way).
So, still very excited though about Wild Ride! Must find a CB to mail me one over the Pond.
On March 1, 2010 at 9:31 am Jenny said...
The prequel will be on my website and Bob’s in a week or so (not sure exactly when). SMP asked for it exclusively for either one or two weeks, but then we’ll put it up and I’ll put a reminder here.
And thank you for saying something because I will now put up a reminder that the prequel is on the SMP site.
It’s here: http://us.macmillan.com/static/stmartinspress/exacttarget/wildride.html.
On March 1, 2010 at 11:02 am Theresa said...
Yay! That will be terrific, and something to look forward to, thanks!
On March 1, 2010 at 12:39 pm Lora said...
I’m thinkin I should do a ticker on how many words I CUT from my rough-draft-in-progress. It has 115,500 words currently and I’m about a thousand from the end. I wonder if there’s a reverse ticker showing reduction in words….a graphic of a toilet flushing perhaps!
On March 1, 2010 at 1:38 pm Meredith B. said...
I’m glad you have a fabulous copy editor. I want to be a fabulous copy editor some day. That doesn’t seem like too big a dream, does it?
On March 1, 2010 at 4:33 pm Jenny said...
This one made some mistakes–for some reason she couldn’t find “Man in Love” by Clapton even though it’s on iTunes and easily searchable on the net. She kept trying to tell me that “Achy Breaky Heart” wasn’t a song but “Aching Breaking Heart” was. There’s a ghost who whispers “Who do you love?” and she wanted desperately to change that to “whom” (but refrained which is a big check-mark in the plus column for her). For some reason she changed the spelling of “hoochie coochie” and made it wrong. But she caught all kinds of mistakes I’d made in continuity and historical accuracy and she had an amazing grasp of what had happened in the story and how things would unfold. And for some reason I had a ton of missing words (possibly because I cut so much), and she painstakingly put them all back in. And she did a helluva lot of comma work, which I had a brain melt on/ I know where commas go, but I completely screwed them up. I told Jen she (he?) was terrific. Good copy editors must be cherished.
On March 2, 2010 at 10:11 am Meredith B. said...
It’s interesting to hear what you think makes a good copy editor. It sounds like most of the things she didn’t catch were pop culture references.
You know, when I did copy editing for people from time to time in college, the people who seemed to appreciate my work the most definitely fought with me over things.
Sometimes I speculate on how I could become a copy editor without have to move away from Cincinnati. There must be a way. In the meantime I practice by copy editing query letters and samples for a couple of friends who are RWA members.
On March 1, 2010 at 11:18 pm McB said...
Couldn’t wait so I have already read Wild Night! Non stop action, horny demons, a dragon, disappearing beer … And banter, too
Yes Theresa we will gladly send a copy across the pond in exchange for MIKs.
On March 1, 2010 at 11:22 pm Jenny said...
Oh, good. I am not very good at short stories, although of course, Bob wrote half of this one. The novel is MUCH better.