Writing Up Wednesday #9

Writing Up Wednesday is a brand new meme created by Lizzy of The Bent Bookworm, this one for authors!

Writing Up Wednesday #9: Wordcount Woes

Writers seem to either obsess over word count or ignore it altogether. Which are you? Why do you find it important or not?

Word counts… a necessary evil.  Especially at NaNoWriMo time, the 50,000 word count goal.  Meeting the 1,667 words a day target often kicks my ass.  Why?  Because I stress out way too much about that word count and it hinders me.  But word counts, especially as a daily goal, can have their uses, too.  I set them for all of my projects because it helps me track my productivity.  I’m a busy chick with a lot going on so maybe my daily target is low, but it works for me.  2,000 words a day.  And I almost always make it, even though the 1,667 goal of NaNoWriMo kicks my ass more often than not.  I think it’s a lot like running.  I loved it when I did it for myself and on my own, hated it when the Army made me do it.

I keep a table for every manuscript that tracks my word counts.  My daily goal is 2,000 words.  I track my actual daily word count, my target total word count to date, and my actual total word count to date.  It helps me track which days I do better than others and allows me to play with my writing schedule so that I can stay on point.  But I don’t obsess over it.  I tend to go over most days, so that makes up for the days when I struggle a little.  The less the stress the better!