Tracking Word Counts

[BeechLeaf]

No, absolutely. In a week or a month or whatever, you produce a story that's three or ten pages or whatever. If you do that repeatedly, it's how you work. It has no impact on the quality of your writing. Do whatever works for you.

 

[CalBishForNow]

I read threads like this and continue to be astonished at the analytics people do on their writing.

If you ever try National Novel Writing Month - tried, probably, since the organization by that name is defunct, but some of the communities surrounding it still exist - then you have to think about word count, since the goal is measured in those terms.

If you're always happy with how much you've been writing, feel free to continue to ignore word counts. Conversely, some people find things like that useful.

 

[HyunnaPark]

Reading all the comments makes me think I'm doing something wrong.

Not at all. The purpose of this thread was to get the thoughts of people who track their word count on a daily/weekly basis as a way to measure their progress. I did this for a while and found it both very helpful and very harmful, and I was trying to sort that out.

 

[ElectricBlue]

If you ever try National Novel Writing Month - tried, probably, since the organization by that name is defunct, but some of the communities surrounding it still exist - then you have to think about word count, since the goal is measured in those terms.

If you're always happy with how much you've been writing, feel free to continue to ignore word counts. Conversely, some people find things like that useful.

I get that, but it still doesn't stop me being astonished, the things people do to track their progress. I personally couldn't think of anything worse than doing a NNWM, that would be guaranteed writing death for me. I added six bullet points to the bottom of a page once, thinking it might be useful guidance when a story ran slow. The story nearly died until I deleted them, then it came back to life. As you say, different techniques for different folks; none of them right, none of them wrong.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I read threads like this and continue to be astonished at the analytics people do on their writing.

Like I said, I never use a target word count (okay well I did write one 750-worder a couple of years ago), but word counts just help me keep track of the big picture. Then I can zoom into the details and never lose sight of the big picture. Also, since my goal is always to create a reading experience, length is a factor in that experience. Now while I may not aim for any particular length, at least I am aware of that aspect of of the reader's experience. Some poor bastard actually has to read this thing, so I should at least have some understanding of what I'm making him read. Usually that is on the scene by scene or chapter by chapter level rather than the overall length. If I track the word counts, I can mete out the portions.

 

[anthrodisiac]

I read threads like this and continue to be astonished at the analytics people do on their writing.

Tracking word count wouldn't help me one bit, because being a pantser I have no idea where a story is going, nor how many words it will take to get there. I vaguely keep mental tabs on my overall output, which I know hasn't changed in years (roughly 10k - 15k a month), but that's like knowing I'm six foot tall: it's a fact that just "is", there's no other inherent meaning, doesn't tell me much.

Also a pantser, and obsessive word-count monitor. I'm a big fan of personal arbitrary metrics. I like going back and seeing how much I wrote and measuring it against how much I kept. I usually scrap or about 30-40% for one reason or another. I'm an overwriter, so looking at overall word count is better than final product word count in terms of determining how much raw effort went into something.

I think particularly because I'm not entirely sure what path the story will take and because I have no idea how many words it will take to reach the end (hopefully) that it's interesting to keep track of how long it took me to get there, which days produced the most usable words, etc.

If someone wants to keep tabs of it, that's cool. If not, that's also cool.

 

[Paul_Chance]

I think word count is a good measure of productivity and progress, which is important when you’re working toward a deadline. I don’t think there’s any particular value when you don’t have a deadline. I don’t think plotting or pantsing matters there.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

These days I generally only check the word count when I've finished writing. None of my stories 'target' a particular length, I just keep writing them until I think I've reached a natural conclusion.

In the past, though, I used to try to write 1,000 words per day and that did keep me on track.

 

[NuclearFairy]

When I first started writing it was with pencil and paper, that then got transferred into an app on my phone for another site that had automatic formatting tools and a word count. That site had a recommended word count per chapter. You go too far over the word count and your story might make the app crash happy for your reader. So knowing my word count was important!

I was also moving my stories onto lit after my SO had edited them on that site, and I'd noticed in my reading of fantasies here that commentators tend to get really unhappy if your block of chapters is too short, so I had to keep an eye on my word count there too until I had enough chapters strung together.

I quickly figured out that twelve notebook pages was a good length for that site, and six chapters was a good length for this site.

Anyways, when I finally got a chromebook and could start actually typing (my god is typing so much faster) I searched high and low for how to enable word count tracking. Now I know if my section has gotten too run on for the other site, and how many lit pages it'll fill at a glance. Also, if I highlight a section for breaking up, it'll tell me how many words are highlighted so I know when I've found appropriate breaking points.

Also it's a nice bit motivation, all the way from "Hooray! I wrote 50 words today!" to "Fuck yeah! I wrote 5k words today!"

 

[lovecraft68]

Other than the few times I did Nano I never count. To me it just seems like another thing to obsess over and worry about.

Sometimes if I have a good burst I'll take a look to see how many words I wrote just to see if it was as much as I felt it was, but I don't go in with any number in mind.