I’ve written here before about word count goals and how tricky they can be for a verse novelist like me. While my friends are cranking out 2,000 words on a bad day, I’m often lucky if I can hit 300 on a good one. Usually I don’t keep record of these sorts of things.
Unless I am, like when I tried my own version of National Novel Writing Month last year. The draft was absolutely awful, but the experience was a good one. It helped me realize fast and furious can sometimes be as beneficial in my writing life as slow and steady.
I’m working on that messy NaNo manuscript now. It’s due to my editor at the end of the month. The book is prose, and while it’s my third novel written this way, it’s the first non-verse novel I’ve ever sold. That’s made me fret a bit. I’m not sure if I know how to do what I’m doing. But isn’t that a hallmark of the writing life?
When I started back with the story, I thought it might be wise to keep a record of my progress. I set up a chart, all ready to watch my word-count numbers grow. But they didn’t, not really. Even as I moved forward, sometimes those numbers stood still or even found a way to travel on a backward path. So it was interesting to read at Project Mayhem a few weeks ago that many writers aren’t fans of using word count as a way of marking progress, either.
What do you writers out there think of word count goals?
PS – Those aren’t tears on my chart — just water that dripped off my cup. Promise!
I never pay attention to word counts. Unless a certain fellow writer mentions, jokingly, on FB that we are having a manuscript Smackdown. So I started looking (via Scrivener) at my word counts one day. And the next. And then again. I discovered I was chopping off words and that was a very good thing. Noticing the word count thing was intriguing, though I don’t think at all necessary.
Intriguing, yes. That’s a good attitude.
I’m glad to see your comments on this issue. I am a poet first, and storywriter second. I’m currently working on two novels in verse. I tend to be a slow writer, not that I can’t crank out the words when I need to, I can, but I guess I am more concerned with getting the right words, than with how many. But I still think I may try your method of tracking just to see what I can learn from it. And tears, drips from your cup…somedays they all run together, don’t they…
I’m slow at every stage of the process!
For me, the best tracking seems to be simply writing down how long I work each day. No two days are ever the same (and I never “produce” the same way twice), but it is satisfying to realize the small steps I make add up to greater things.
This is an interesting topic for me. On one hand, if I don’t set word count goals for myself, I would have trouble finishing projects. I find that without a word count goal (daily or weekly) I have greater anxiety and guilt–I feel like I’m wasting time. With a word count goal, I’m able to see the progress, feel like I’m taming the beast (aka the novel). And it’s easier to step away from the computer for the day too, easier to spend time doing other things knowing I’ve “finished” writing for the day. On the other hand, it is easy to slip into writing words just for words sake, letting the prose or storytelling get sloppy just to make the word count goal for the day. It can start to feel like I’m writing in circles or writing myself into corners. I think it’s about finding the right balance, about knowing what I’m capable of doing in a day and setting achievable goals. And then not beating myself up if I don’t make those goals either. I find it’s also helpful to not worry about word count in certain stages…like during revisions, word count goes out the window. But in early drafts…I don’t know…maybe it’s because I write longer books, but I like using the word count goal to push me forward.
That said…I think every writer comes to the page differently and needs different things to do their best work and get to the heart of their story. Word count goals may work for me, but I wouldn’t recommend them for everyone. I also think that progress on a book can be made without word count goals. As long as you’re coming to the story ready to work, committing, focusing, listening to your heart…it doesn’t really matter what shape that work takes or how you get it done. Our stories need different things at different times, writers need different things at different times. Do what you have to do to get it done. 🙂
See? This is why I come to you for advice. xo
Such a great topic. I do better with word counts but I’m not writing in verse. I think that would be very tricky.
I stopped by to say I just finished reading May B. and wanted you to know I enjoyed it so much! May B. is such a strong character; I really felt for her through all her struggles on top of surviving through that long winter ~ so terrifying! You kept me captured! Now I need to get a copy of Blue Birds. 🙂
Catherine, thank you! That girl’s really special to me.
I don’t count my words except for the total and how close I’m getting to the middle or the end. I write and write and when I end for the day, I end. 🙂
That’s sounds like a spectacular way to go!
Unless I’m NaNoing, I try not to think about word counts too much while I’m drafting. This can be tricky when writing a first draft of a picture book, because I can get a little panicky when the word count starts to soar above 500 when I’m not even half-way through! But this isn’t really an issue for me when I’m writing a novel. I just write the story, and if it feels to short (in novels, I almost never write too LONG), then I find ways to improve the story while adding length.
But…I’m not really sure what word count to aim for anyway, when writing verse novels. The ones I’ve read have been such varying lengths!
I truly have no clue when it comes to verse novel lengths. My MAY was around 15,000. BLUE BIRDS is somewhere between 23,000 and 25,000. I tend to under write always. Thankfully critique partners and my editor pull out the extras I need to add.
Thanks so much for this post. I am not very prolific when it comes to word count. I refuse to do NanoWriMo for that very reason. But I am requiring it, suggesting it, rather for my students because they need to learn to write more details and elaborate.
BTW, Vannisa is reading Blue Birds. She is cradling it in her arms. I would take a picture for you, but our administrators are cracking down on picture taking of students. I’ll read it after her and we will write a review.
This has made my evening!!!
hi, i’m a first time reader, but also a writer and i found your blog via chatting at the sky!
well, i’m primarily a poet, so word count goals are usually pretty small (maybe even trying to make them as small as possible) BUT that said, i think they can be useful, depending on your personality.
i am goal-oriented and thrive on that type of thing–quotas, etc–while my husband is detail oriented and shuts down when facing quotas.
so i’d say you just have to figure out what works for you based on your personality!
Welcome, Renee!
I’m finding that with each book — and sometimes with a new season/phase with a book — I need to be open to a new approach, if I need one. The best writing advice I’ve ever gotten was “Learn to write *this* book,” the implication being each one is its own beast with its own direction, flow, and set of “rules”.