So, when I first started doing ONC, I used spreadsheets to calculate the total word count. A couple of years ago, I started using an alternative method because I knew that method was only off by about 10 to 20 words per chapter, and thus if my story was 10 chapters, I made sure I at least had 200-word leeway, and a 20 chapter story would have 200-word leeway.
Oh, and a few of you may have noticed my entry about writing out numbers and noticed I didn't do so for this entry. That would be because the rules for fiction writing and non-fiction writing differ, and whereas I don't want the numbers to jump out at you, the reader, in my fiction writing, in my non-fiction writing, I want them to stand out.
Back on topic, this year, I've had to go back to the spreadsheet because the way I was doing it is now off by 50 words on some of the chapters. I still go back in to edit the chapter to check the word count even though it does look like the issue of the word count changing between when one copies and pastes text and when they publish is now fixed, which is a difference from previous years.
As I was doing it, I realized though that some won't know how to do this themselves and will instead calculate it all by hand. So, here is how you calculate your total word count via spreadsheet.
Step One - Create a new document.
Step Two - Title the top of the first column as "Chapter," "Chapter #," "Chapter Number," or anything that will remind you this is the column to indicate the chapter number for each row.
Note - For those who find themselves confused as to which one is a row and which one is a column, rows are the parts of the spreadsheet that are labeled with a number, and columns are the parts that are labeled with a letter. The top of the first column would is called cell A1 because it is in column A and row 1.
Step Three - At the top of your next column (this will be cell B1) put the title of your story. Repeat in C1 and so forth for each additional ONC Project. Following are a couple of optional steps to help the cells from steps two and three to stand out from the other cells.
Optional Step 1 - You can make the titles stand out by making the font bold, which will be the B icon up above, or you can make the text bold by pressing ctrl+B, the ctrl part being the key marked Ctrl on your keyboard and the B being the key marked B on your keyboard. The plus sign means holding them down at the same time. You hit this same key sequence to make bold font no longer bold, but if only part of it is bold, you'll want to hit that key sequence twice. Ctrl+I is for italics, and Ctrl+U does underlining.
Optional Step 2 - There is an option to change the font orientation with the standard orientation that we read being at 0°. To change the orientation of a cell, right-click with your mouse to bring up your options and go down to format cells. You'll open up the options to format cells, and at the top, you'll see a variety of options. Click on alignment. (Think how when we write a story, we can alight the text to the left or center.) There should be a section labeled "Text Orientation," but the standard alternative to 0° is 90°.
Step Four - In column A, starting in A2, and going down, number the cells. I numbered mine from 1-10, even though I suspect I'll have more than 10 chapters in my stories.
Step Five - Under the other columns, put the number 0 in the same rows you've placed a chapter number in the chapter column (column A)
Tip - To quickly fill a cell with the same number, familiarize yourself with where the fill option. In Windows, it is under Insert in the main menu, but with Libre Office, it will be either of the icons showing a table highlighting either a row or column. You can just fill left and right for step five, but for step four, you can select filling with a series, one that adds a number as you progress down.
Step Six - Go to the empty cell for each story. (In my case, the first one would be B12.) Follow the following steps for adding a formula.
- One - Write "=".
- Two - After "=" write "SUM("
- Three - Select all cells you want to add together.
- Hit the enter key.
If you're doing ten chapters like I am right now, it should read =SUM(B2:B11), but if you're doing this manually, what comes before the ":" should be the name of the first cell in the group of the cells and what comes after should be the name of the last cell, but you get the name of the cell based on what the name of the column and row is.
Step Seven - At first, all your chapters will have a word count of zero. When you write a chapter and publish it, put the word count in the appropriate cell. For example, for my first story, if the first chapter were 1,500, I would put that in B2, and if the third chapter were 1,400, I would put that in B4.
As for calculating, that cell right below all the chapters will automatically do the calculation for you, and thus you won't have to worry about messing up on the math.
What if I need more than ten chapters?
First, insert a row below where you put the tenth chapter, and repeat what you did for the rows above.
Second, adjust the formula accordingly. For example, if I needed to add a row for the eleventh chapter, I would change the formula from =SUM(B2:B11) to =SUM(B2:B12).
Trick - If you look at the two formulas above to know what number you need without looking, all you have to do is add one. Since the cell before is the first chapter, you add one to the number one and get two, and since the second number is the last number, you take what is your last number and add one. So for the tenth chapter, you add one and get eleven, and for the eleventh chapter, you add one and get twelve.
Hope this helps!
