word count-NOTAGAIN?

jerrymouse · Jan 24, 2007

hi, newbie user here.

so, how many words do you aim for in a day?

i have a goal of 500 words a day. i usually go over, some times i dont make my target. when i get stuck into a project i can write over a 1000 words a day.

i read and write slooooowly. how about you lot, you other writers, do you have a target word count per day? how much do you aim for? do you get there? what happens if you fail to reach or even exceed your target?

cheers
jerrymouse

alaskamatt17 · Jan 24, 2007

I aim for 2,000 words per day, but lately I've been slacking.

500 seems like a very reasonable starting point. I think that's about the pace I proceeded at on my first novel.

I usually make my goals, but sometimes I set very strange goals. 2,000 per day is about the edge of what I can do consistently when I don't have a really full schedule (I'm not a professional writer yet).

If I don't make my goal, I generally just feel bad about it and try to make it up the next day.

If I go over my goal, I try to erase that knowledge from my mind so I won't be tempted to slack off the next day.

jerrymouse · Jan 24, 2007

i have been writing for a few years now, (project 4 almost done-ithink.) 500 words was my target on my first day of novel writing. i liked the number so i have stuck with it. 2000 is a better target if you want to finish novels in a reasonable time.

i wrote 48 word one day and calculated it would take me about 50years to finish at that rate. i spent most of my day working that out, maths is not my strongest point.

NeuroFizz · Jan 24, 2007

Don't count words. Write to move the story forward. Any day you do that is a successful day.

ChaosTitan · Jan 24, 2007

I aim for a weekly goal, because some days I just cannot fit BIC into my schedule.

jerrymouse · Jan 24, 2007

NeuroFizz said:
Don't count words. Write to move the story forward. Any day you do that is a successful day.

now that is why i came to this forum. sensible advice.

Jamesaritchie · Jan 24, 2007

Words

I aim for 2,500 words per day. You don't have to count words, but you'd better count something, whether it's words, time spent at the keyboard, etc.

Moving the story forward is a good thing, but if you want to finish and polish a novel before you die, which might be when you step in front of a speeding car three months from now, or when that undiagnosed aneurism in your brain pops three years from now, you'd better have some sort of system in place that actually produces results.

NeuroFizz · Jan 24, 2007

Moving the story forward means that every day you get closer to The End, James. And having a daily word count goal does not guarantee a more rapid completion of the work any more than it protects one from the speeding car or the aneurism.

Thomma Lyn · Jan 24, 2007

NeuroFizz said:
Don't count words. Write to move the story forward. Any day you do that is a successful day.

My take exactly. I write big first drafts then whittle them down on successive revisions, so for me, word count isn't a good measure of overall progress.

But moving the story forward? Oh, yeah. When I've done that, even if the part I've added needs whittling when I get to edits and revisions, I'm happy.

I also count time, though not rigidly. If my BIC time has been at least two hours for a given day, then that's pretty good. When the writing is going great guns, my daily BIC time runs 6-8 hours, sometimes more.

jodiodi · Jan 24, 2007

I write as many words as it takes to say what I want to say for that particular day.

I don't write every day (sometimes it's physically impossible to do between work, errands and obligations), and when I do, I just simply write without a word or time goal in mind.

Jonny Nexus · Jan 24, 2007

I have a target of writing 600 words each week day and a total of 3000 words a week. I started a big push on my previously stalled novel at Christmas and am making nice steady progress.

NeuroFizz said:
Moving the story forward means that every day you get closer to The End, James. And having a daily word count goal does not guarantee a more rapid completion of the work any more than it protects one from the speeding car or the aneurism.

That's true, but I find having an actual target keeps me focussed on actually doing something. Without that target it's too easy for me to slack off when I hit a tricky bit and do something easier, like read a book or a paper, and if I'm not careful I find myself in "non-writing mode" producing nothing.

Also, while writing a novel is a long(ish)-term project with no "pay-off" until the end, keeping track of word count gives me a little emotional reward each day of the "Hey, I wrote x words today" type.

I guess what I'm saying is that it's all about how an individual's psychology works. If it helps you write - and it certainly helps me write - then I think you should do it.

IrishScribbler · Jan 24, 2007

jodiodi said:
I write as many words as it takes to say what I want to say for that particular day.

I don't write every day (sometimes it's physically impossible to do between work, errands and obligations), and when I do, I just simply write without a word or time goal in mind.

This is my goal, as well.

Sometimes, if I have time but don't have time to write, I'll do research or editing or something along those lines so I still feel productive.

scribbler1382 · Jan 24, 2007

Tracking wordcount isn't really meant to monitor your progress so much as to ensure you get your BIC on a regular basis. I agree with James, in that you don't have to count words but you better damn well count something. "Moving the story forward" is a nice thought, but too intangible a metric. Now, moving the story forward EVERY DAY is a different story.

CaroGirl · Jan 24, 2007

You could also write by scenes. Try to write one or two scenes a day. Scenes definitely move the story forward, and even writing half a scene can translate to a nice chunk of words, depending on the length of your scenes (assuming you write in "scenes" per se, which I do).

icerose · Jan 24, 2007

NeuroFizz said:
Don't count words. Write to move the story forward. Any day you do that is a successful day.

That's me. I aim for the end and shoot for it. Any day that the story gets written on and it moves forward is a good writing day.

word count-NOTAGAIN?

jerrymouse

alaskamatt17

jerrymouse

NeuroFizz

The grad students did it

ChaosTitan

Around

jerrymouse

Jamesaritchie

NeuroFizz

The grad students did it

Thomma Lyn

Cat Wrangler

jodiodi

Reflections of Reality

Jonny Nexus

IrishScribbler

scribbler1382

Write For You, Edit For The Reader

CaroGirl

Living the dream

icerose

Lost in School Work