A Few Words on Word Count

The most torturous metric

Piles of French Novels, Vincent van Gogh

A quick word to the wise before we go further

Consider this an interlude between Chapter 4 and those to come.

When Dream to Draft was a course, we had a set word count for each week and built up to what we called “cruising altitude.” It was very important to me that this word count not cause burnout or discouragement. To that end, I kept it below NaNoWriMo’s iconic 1667 words a day, and strongly encouraged students to take weekends off. I encourage you to do the same.

However, I also encourage you to pay attention to what sort of measurement and tracking is inspiring for you. We use word count as an easy metric because it’s so quantifiable. Did I write 1,000 words today or not? The answer is clear.

But clear isn’t the only count that matters. I have a client who completely loses hold of the novel whenever counting words. If time is the thing tracked, then words follow of their own accord. How funny that in this case, ignoring word count increases it.

Time isn’t the only other additional option either. When I write longhand, I could how many pages in my notebook I want to fill. This feels more organic. It’s also possible to count scenes, chapters, paragraphs, even sentences depending on where you are in the project and how things are flowing.

The research on motivation is quite solid: beating yourself up for not reaching a goal does not help you subsequently reach said goal. Better to evaluate what’s not working the way you want with a “test and tweak” mindset.

Try word count, but don’t stop there. If you feel stuck with it, smaller word count is an option, but so is time and all the other units listed above.

I hope this pep talk keeps you writing. The better you feel while writing, the more you’ll want to continue, so let’s keep experimenting until something clicks.

In subsequent chapters, we’ll be looking at dialogue, tension, structure and more. If you’re not yet a full member, now’s the time to dive in so you get all the goodness well before the book comes out (likely the end of 2023 / early 2024 as my current estimation)