If it can’t be measured. It can’t be improved. I believe the management guru Peter Drucker said that. It isn’t limited to business either. Some people also believe that science is only about things that can be measured. Well what about the arts?
There is no measurement for what is good writing. There is no measurement for a strong plot or interesting characters. You wouldn’t need critics if that was the case. Interestingly, there is a measurement for clarity in writing. For example the Flesch formula measure of readability. I believe it is built right into Microsoft Word so that you can see the difficulty or grade level of your writing ease.
Some argue that the way you get better as a writer is output. Just write more. And read more. There is a story about a ceramics class in the book Art and Fear. It goes something like this: On the first day of a ceramics class, a teacher offered students to be graded by the weight of their pottery output or the perfection of a single piece. Of course, the students who tried to make one single perfect piece couldn’t compete with the students that made tons of pottery and by the end had mastered the materials and techniques.
Often people say you should have a writing quota everyday. The problem I have with that is does revision and editing count for the writing quota? Brainstorming and outline? Aren’t those all important to the writing process? Where am I supposed to fit in time for submitting and researching markets for my writing? Has anyone successfully outsourced that submitting and researching using a service like Upwork? Questions I should look into later.
For now, I was brainstorming metrics for a writer beyond just writing everyday. Something I can measure for myself, compare to my past self, and plan for my future self. Here are things I want to measure:
- # of short stories finished
- # of novels finished
- # of blog posts finished
- # of scripts finished
- # of book read
- # of finished pieces submitted
- # of rejections collected
- # of acceptances
- # of stories, novels, or scripts analyzed
What other metrics are out there?