Word Count

[deathlynx]

Word Counts. Do you Use them? Do You hate them?

I've always had mixed feelings about them. Sure, it's a great feeling to realize, at the end of the day (or even week) you've got 5K-10K+ written. At the same time, sitting at the keyboard and realizing you haven't even reached triple digits only emphasizes the frustration. I've never participated in NaNo WriMo because I know, both then and now, that the deadlines and expectations would kill my creativity. At the same time, I used to keep digital diaries for each of my major projects detailing daily word-count.

These days, I don't keep track. My home computer doesn't provide easy access to the data (I'm sure it's there somewhere but it would require effort to discover). When I'm writing on a computer that does display it in the bottom corner, I have found I sometimes begin to worry about chapter lengths and the overall length of the novel. It pushes me a little, but it also sends worrying signals about the quality of the piece.

 

[TheLobster]

Someone once said that using word count as the measure of your writing is the same as using pounds as the measure of your aircraft design.

Well, okay, it was actually about lines of code in software projects, but it feels appropriate nonetheless. Don't sweat about it too much; the story will be as long as it needs to be.

 

[UnexpectedLuggage]

I have only ever worried about word counts for the few times I did NaNoWriMo, and when doing commission work where the client needed it to be a certain word count or less.

My stuff here? Never worry about it. I write as much as I can during each session I'm up for it, and the story will be however long it needs to be.

 

[crookedletter]

I consider word counts for daily/weekly goals, to measure to what degree I'm actually writing when I'm writing. It tends to work for me to keep me at it when the words are slow to come, to keep hammering away until something (hopefully) breaks open.

There's a trap there, though, that I have fallen into, which is to watch the word count rather than the words. When I'm just counting upward until the task is done, and not getting sufficiently engaged in the content of what I'm writing. That just requires a little personal honesty and accountability, to reset when I find myself doing that, and remind myself I'm doing this because I like it, not to check it off some to do list.

As far as how many words a story is or might be, no, I don't care. It'll be as long as it needs/wants to be.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Focusing on word count would work for me only if I never did any developmental editing while writing. So in other words, it won't work for me.

 

[StillStunned]

Sometimes, if I'm in the flow for multiple days at a time, I'll check my word count and see whether I can add a few hundred here and there. Just to stretch myself, so to speak. If the words aren't coming easily, I don't force it.

And I'll admit that once or twice I've added a sentence or two to get the final word count up past 5k, or 6k, or whatever.

 

[Bamagan]

I largely ignore the word count, until or unless it gets above a certain point. I generally prefer writing and reading shorter pieces; too much of the stuff I find here that's in the 20k range or above feels bloated.

 

[TheLobster]

And I'll admit that once or twice I've added a sentence or two to get the final word count up past 5k, or 6k, or whatever.

Not to rounding specifically to thousands, but I recall there were a few times where I made things a bit more elaborate to make sure I'm steering clear from the 3750, 7500, or 11250 boundary. For stories longer than that I usually don't care, as the uneven distribution of paragraph length makes the final page breaks virtually random anyway.

 

[StillStunned]

Not to rounding specifically to thousands, but I recall there were a few times where I made things a bit more elaborate to make sure I'm steering clear from the 3750, 7500, or 11250 boundary.

Yes, that too.

 

[TheLobster]

Yes, that too.

I suppose we should now join hands and go declare ourselves in that other thread about how Lit influences our writing.

 

[StillStunned]

join hands

Paws and claws.

 

[Seurat]

I tend to write in explosive bursts; word count is just there to let me know if I should be cutting my current work into smaller pieces.

 

[ICantLeafYou]

Word count only matters to me in competitions, events, etc. where there is a minimum or maximum allowed word count.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I do. I follow wordcounts religiously. I can understand others not wanting to rely upon it, but that's just not me. Even when I'm pantsing, I'm always at the mercy of a ceiling. Let me cook:

A story has both a beginning and an end, and if you're writing something without any idea on when is it going to end, you're navigating in circles. Will it be in Word 1500? 6000? 50000? When is your story going to end? Having limits is mandatory for any artistic endeavor. If you have an A4 size canvas to draw, 2 minutes to fill with sounds, or a block of wood as tall as the rectangle you use to read Literotica, you are immediately at the mercy of those limits. Why writing should be any different?

Give me 10 pages, and I'll write 10 pages. Give me 300, and I'll write 300. Therefore, give me 2500 words, and I'll use 2500 words. Give me 50000 words, and I'll spend 50000 words.

I was a musician. I know how to play a solo when the group is doing a loop.

I was a political cartoonist. I know what is like to draw within a small square.

If I can fit an entire first act of a surrealist police procedural novel inside a 96 page notebook where I could write 125 words per page (give or take), you can fit an entire story in 12000 words. If I can write a novel in 20 chapters, 500 words per chapter, you can do the same thing. Just don't do it on the first draft. Cut the fat while editing instead of adding things up.

The wordcount is both a compass, and a budget. I always give myself a bare minimum to write, and a ceiling so I don't go over budget. My current WIP had a budget of 6K minimum, but a top budget of 16K. Right now I'm editing it, and it's sitting right in 14K. Words are not something you hurl at a stripper like a monkey. Words are worth money. Specifically, from 0.01 to 0.50 Rights to Bear Arms per word.

 

[Writer61]

I tend not to read stories longer than 15k (approx. 5 pages), so I try to write within that length.

And because I think that a reader is more likely to rate a one-pager that they don't like, my usual minimum is 4k words (2 pages).

 

[anthrodisiac]

I keep track of word count for a day so I can get a feel for how much I've done, but I don't track it on a sheet, it's more just a daily check-in with myself to see how I did. I also keep track of how long a story is and try to estimate how much longer it will need to be based on the current amount and roughly where I am in the story. Helps to get rough estimates of my timeframe.

When it comes to reading, I usually won't touch anything over 30k, but usually shorter than that. My kinda stories I read don't tend to be very glad. If anything has over 10 chapters, or multiple books, ain't no way I'm touching that. I could find a bunch of short stories instead of reading one gigantic 8 book epic that's only continuing because it's super popular, the author makes money off of it, and can't kill the project without losing revenue, so they're stuck perpetually writing the same story and coming up with more and more outlandish plots to justify the continuation.

As for when I'm writing, no word count doesn't influence how I tell a story unless there are hard limits on the submission (min 750, some max for a potential challenge/contest). The story's gonna be as long as it's gonna be, and that's all right with me.

 

[Katie_Mae]

Word Counts. Do you Use them? Do You hate them?

Back when I did nanowrimo I tracked wordcount.

I no longer do nano and no longer track wordcount in the sense of how many per day. I don't set daily wordcount writing goals.

But it's something I'm aware of, just not in a "how many per day" sense, but an overall "is this a 1,000 word story or a 100,000 word story.

Prior to ever writing on lit, I used to write novels. I'd plan them heavily. Broad outline then more and more detailed until I had every scene mapped out prior to writing. Then I could go and write the 90-130k words in the space of 2-3 months (at least 50k in the first month to hit the nano goal, then usually I'd write the rest at a slightly slower pace, taking 1-2 months.

I wasn't a short story writer, but coming on lit I generally write shorter stories here.

My short stories, I don't pants them as such, but I have a clear idea in my head of what happens prior to writing. I've learnt that there's a limit to where I can do that, and when I really need to sit down and write a full proper detailed outline prior to the first draft. My first story I posted on lit was 116k and I did not put in the prep I need to write a story of that length. I mean, I can still write longer stories without an outline. It's just annoying. And harder. And ends up taking longer (for me). I say every writer is a plotter, just some call their outline a "first draft." Which is fine. I just don't do as well writing like that.

So I need to know how big an idea I have before going in, to understand if I'm going to be good and take the time to plan, or if I'm going to be lazy and not. Is the idea a 1000 word idea? a 30,00 word idea? 300,000 word idea? Different prep needed. (Again... for me.)

The last place I need to have an idea of wordcount is when posting. I post here and on another site with differing wordcount rules and norms, so I need to be aware of that.

 

[Trionyx]

I worry about word counts only with the 750 word challenge, otherwise not.