Do you set a daily word count goal?

haefner919 · Dec 11, 2006

I have been trying to write as much as posible and figured that if I wanted this novel done before I go away on vacation in January, I needed to write about 1900 words a day. There were many days I did that and surpassed it, but of course, other days when life got in the way and I barely wrote 500 words. Then there was last week when my daughter was sick, then dh was sick, then ultimately, I was sick myself...pretty much a week of hell and no writing what so ever.

This novel is about 30,000 words so far and it took 20 days. I'm happy with that, but I'm behind where I want to be.

J.S Greer · Dec 11, 2006

Thats a good pace for 20 days.

I did 3700 words last night, but it was really flowinbg out of me, and im definitely going to have to go back through what I wrote to add/tighten.

I say that whatever word count you hit, just write daily.

It's hard enough to do that as it is, without setting a lofty goal for yourself. Not that you shouldnt set goals, but it can be discouraging if you find yourself not meeting them. That being said, im happy if I hit about 1000 a day.

Mr. Funktastic · Dec 11, 2006

I shoot for 1,000 words each day, but I almost always go over. 1,000 is just sort of a minimum I set myself for my busier days to keep me from feeling guilty. Heh. There are days that I just don't have the time. For instance, I ended up so busy at the end of last semester that I couldn't squeeze in much to to write for almost two weeks.

Life just gets in the way, as you said. You seem to be doing well.

WildScribe · Dec 11, 2006

My goal is to write at least 500 words a day, but I often double that, or even more. The real goal is to write SOMETHING every day.

NeuroFizz · Dec 11, 2006

No. Forward movement of the story is much more important, and not always directly related to increases in word count. If you want to hang a carrot in front of your nose, do it with progress on the story.

Zolah · Dec 11, 2006

Didn't we have this thread already? About a week ago?

UrsusMinor · Dec 11, 2006

No, I don't set a goal.

But I track my daily word count on a calendar.

Azure Skye · Dec 11, 2006

UrsusMinor said:
No, I don't set a goal.

But I track my daily word count on a calendar.

I did that too but I seemed to have misplaced the calendar.

Anyway, I'm thinking of taking a different approach on my next project. I don't know what it is yet, but I'm still thinking. A daily word count might be one aspect of it.

smiley10000 · Dec 11, 2006

If you are interested in setting a word count goal you can come over and takethe word count pledge. We have chocolate and a great group for support.

:Hug2:

10000

KTC · Dec 11, 2006

My daily goal is just to remember to go back to my WIP. I don't set daily word goals because I will go 9 days without writing a word and then write 5,000 in one day. Just write...that's my goal.

victoriastrauss · Dec 11, 2006

NeuroFizz said:
No. Forward movement of the story is much more important, and not always directly related to increases in word count.

I agree.

I tried the daily word count thing, and found that its main effect was to make me obsessed with word count--especially on days when I didn't make my word count, since I then felt like a bad, lazy writer. Since it did very little to improve my productivity, I stopped counting.

That said, many people do find it helpful. As with all else in writing, YMMV.

- Victoria

Bubastes · Dec 11, 2006

I like setting a weekly word count goal. It gives me some flexibility, but keeps me moving forward.

Ken Schneider · Dec 11, 2006

victoriastrauss said:
I agree.

I tried the daily word count thing, and found that its main effect was to make me obsessed with word count--especially on days when I didn't make my word count, since I then felt like a bad, lazy writer. Snip... - Victoria

Me too!

Now I go by time. I go at least two hours a day, more if I have the time.

This way, whatever I write, whether I'm in a grove without eating up all my plot, or struggling to find the right words, I am happy at the end of my time.

By eating up my plot,which I used to do, I mean that you rush toward the end of the book without fleshing out the story.

Low word count novels, where the writer has come to the end of H/H story, I found, is because of eating up the plot before fleshing out the characters, lack of sub-plots, and rushing toward being done.

good luck

haefner919 · Dec 11, 2006

Sorry Zolah if I repeated a thread you guys had already....I haven't been in here in ages...been busy writing!!! So, I apologize, and appreciate the responses!!!

Prawn · Dec 11, 2006

I just today finished my first novel. My goal was a thousand a day. It took 4 months to have a completed first draft, which ran 80K. I then spent the next two months doing four revisions. It ended up at 93K. I printed it out today and had it bound and sent it to my Beta readers. I am sure I will do at least another month of revisions when it returns.

THis is what I learned: compared to writing, revisions are hard. Its much more like work than the creative flow of writing. I am now about twenty pages into novel #2 and I still am doing 1000 words a day, but I am also writing better and revising as I go so that the novel may take longer to complete, but the revisions at the end will be less painful.
p

haefner919 · Dec 11, 2006

I never realized how hard revision would be...I always thought writing was the hard part....oh no...... I did 3 revisions on my MS....it started out at 135,000 and I trimmed it down to 121,000, and along the way fixed up tons of grammer mistakes and made the flow better.

I do agree- this second book will not need as much time spent on that type of revision.

BruceJ · Dec 12, 2006

I read on another thread not to use MS Word's statistics for the word count, but to count the words on a page, divide by 5 and multiply by the number of pages (at least I think that was the formula). Is this true/important? Why is Word's statistical wordcount suspect/wrong? Thanks. Just curious.

Do you set a daily word count goal?

haefner919

J.S Greer

Feel the power!

Mr. Funktastic

The name says it all.

WildScribe

Slave to the Wordcount

NeuroFizz

The grad students did it

Zolah

Over the hills and far away

UrsusMinor

Azure Skye

Huh?

smiley10000

What do we do? We write...

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live

victoriastrauss

Writer Beware Goddess

Bubastes

bananaed

Ken Schneider

Absolute sagebrush

haefner919

Prawn

Writing is finite,revising infinite

haefner919

BruceJ

Me and my Muse