Rethinking Word Counts
I’ve been ruminating on the value of word counts for a while now. I’ve sort of been wondering several things about them and why we’re so obsessed with them as writers. Here are my thoughts–feel free to argue, disagree, or just ignore them.
We like them because they make us feel like there’s progress. I admit–I LOVE saying I’ve had a 3-, 4-, even 10-thousand word day. It makes me feel like I was really a writer that day–like I really did something worthwhile.
We like them because it shows everyone else we made progress.
We like them because it’s like building a Lego house. You can see all this progress in increments. “The white block–that was a 2,000 word day. That long red base? That was my 10,000 word day.”
But here’s the problem I’ve been having lately… I’m realizing that, as a pantser, word counts may not mean a lot. I mean, the problem is, if I basically write a 150,000-word narrative outline, does it mean much if I go and change 75,000 of those words?
If you’re a plotter, maybe word counts are more meaningful. I mean, you already know where you’re going and what you’re doing, so keeping track of your word counts and knowing what your goal is probably makes sense.
But then again… Maybe not.
NaNoWriMo is coming up, and I’ve been considering participating this year with a new project. It’s been a while since I wrote something new and fresh and not in the world of The Taurin Chronicles, and I’ve been making notes here and there for this new idea. It would be a shorter novel–in the 70,000-word range, I think–so it would suit NaNoWriMo perfectly.
The whole thing about NaNoWriMo, though, is that it’s based on word counts. When I wrote 105,000 words in November 2009, I ended up splitting that whole chunk in two and working with the first half until it became what I finally published as Ravenmarked. What I published has very little resemblance to that first draft. So yeah, I’m great at vomiting words, but if I change them all, does that really matter?
I think word counts do have some value. I think they’re one more tool in the writer’s arsenal. And obviously, if you’re submitting something somewhere, and the publisher wants 5,000-word short stories, you need to know if you’re in that ballpark, at least.
The other thing is… I think we can sometimes feel a little frustrated when we don’t produce more words or the proscribed number of words each day. And then we see writer friends post a word count update, and we sort of hang our heads and slink back to our holes because we didn’t write our 1,000 words or whatever. But the truth is that some days I just don’t write new words, and that’s okay. Some days, I spend all day editing, or doing client work, or writing blog posts or articles that don’t have anything to do with my WIP. Some days, I just end up being a mom.
All of those things are okay. In the quest for balance, we have to recognize that balance is a holistic thing you strive for over weeks, months, years, lifetimes. Not every day will be a perfect Martha Stewart writing day (“I wrote 2,000 words, made dinner, helped with homework, wrote three ads for clients, balanced my checkbook, cleaned the bathrooms, edited two chapters, and gave the dog a bath”).
But as far as a progress report… I think I’m done with posting word counts. For me, they’ve become sort of meaningless. I’m focusing on new goals, and they tend to vary from day to day. I think one day I might say “I’m going to write THIS scene,” but another day, I might say “I’m not going to bed until I’ve read through three chapters” or “today, I’m reworking my plot map.”
So as far as NaNoWriMo… I might still do it, but it will depend on how confident I feel about Bloodbonded by then. I’ll probably track my word counts on my own just to make sure I’m really working on this particular project. But I probably won’t publish my final word count till December 1.
How do you feel about word counts? Good, bad, indifferent?
I think wordcounts are like anything: They work for some people, but not for others. Really, a similar article could be written about outlines, writers’ conferences, character sketches, blogging, etc. It depends on who you are. For me, having a wordcount helps me gauge my productivity, and I count cumulative words, so if I delete 200 and write 1,300, that’s an 1,100 word day for me. I’m more likely to write on a Thursday if I wrote 1,000 on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Jeremy, yes, that’s true–they do work for some and not for others. In truth, they worked for me for a while. It’s only been recently that I felt like it was pointless to track them. This could just be a signpost on my writing journey, perhaps–The Mile When Wordcounts No Longer Worked.
It might be different for me if I were working another job or if I were busier with client work. Then tracking daily wordcounts might help me realize when I was taking too many days off.
I never set word count goals, except during NaNo. I try to write 3-4,000 words a day for the first few days, to have a cushion to fall back on. Because even during NaNo, there are days when I Just Don’t Write. Posting the daily word count keeps me on track. I don’t care whether or not anyone else sees it. The rest of the year, I could care less. I may set a tentative goal of so many chapters written or edited by a certain date, but it isn’t something I hold myself to religiously.
I wonder if maybe there are just some folks for whom wordcounts are helpful getting *started*, but at a certain point, the whole thing takes on a life of its own, and you just realize you write every day whether you track the counts or not?? That’s sort of where I am, I guess. Hence the new goals… In fact, this week, my goal is just to do a rough map of my series to make sure I end everything in the right place on Bloodbonded. I have a lot of other minutiae distracting me, so it seems like a good time to kind of do a roadmap check rather than try to focus on detailed new words. But it’s not like that stuff is less important just because it doesn’t result in a new wordcount total, you know?
I agree with Jeremy: they work for some people. For me, they just put me off. Procrastination kicks in when I see something like “Only 74, 000 words left to finish this novel!”. Then I start thinking thoughts like “Yeah, that’s nice. But what if I write 74, 000 CRAPPY words?”
So I’ve decided to go scene-by-scene. What stage is the scene in? To-do, first-draft, revised draft, finished-ish? Do I even KNOW what’ll happen?
Somehow, it seems less intimidating to me. Could be because there’s a lack of numbers, and I have a long history of shunning mathematics.
That being said, there IS something satisfying in “Yeah, I wrote THIS much today.”
I DO have wordcount goals, but they are very low and really only there to get me writing in the first place. My goals are 250. There was a great post by, I think, Zoe Winters about the reasoning behind the low wordcount goal.
Re: the 74,000 crappy words: Yes, exactly! That’s kind of where I am right now with this novel. I really did almost start over. I mean, many of the bones will still be the same, albeit broken, set, and reknitted…
I think that was Zoe’s post… I remember that one… Like I said, I don’t have any problem vomiting words. I just have to be able to vomit the *right* words.
Hmm – there’s quantity of words, and quality of words. I have to disgorge quite a large quantity to get down to the quality. Word counts are, for me, a way of keeping the words coming. Are you still worried about not turning out publishable work on the very first draft? Accept that you need to write lots and lots of words and they all count.
There is no wrong way to do this writing stuff.
Roxie, no, not worried about not turning out perfection the first time around. I think it’s just exactly what you said–I need to write lots and lots of words, because that’s how I discover. So in that sense, tracking them every day is pointless for me because I might write 2,000 every day for three weeks and then change half of them based on what I discover at the end of that three weeks. My net count is all that really matters at that point, so saying “I added 2,000 words to the story” doesn’t really matter. Does that make sense?
And yeah, totally agree–there is no wrong way to do all of this.
I’ve turned from a panster to more of a plotter. I’ve found that doing that has helped me make my word counts matter more, become more precise and require less overall editing. I think if I didn’t thave a day job that wordcounts would matter, but not so much. With the day job taking a huge chunk of my day keeping a word count goal is helpful to help me stay on top of eveyrthing.
I really did think I was becoming a better plotter, but now I’m not sure… Bloodbonded has changed so much from the first two storyboards I did that I’m not sure they helped at all. I dunno… I don’t know if I’ll ever be a plotter, exactly. I just have to write to figure stuff out. But like I said to Jeremy, if I were working another job or doing more client work, the wordcounts might seem more relevant. The truth is that I don’t really miss tracking them… I mean, I’m sort of keeping track of where the total wordcount is on Bloodbonded these days, but not religiously since the second half is going to change quite a bit based on the rewrites I’ve already done. Oh well. This is how I learn.
I think they’re one more tool in the writer’s arsenal.
Exactly how I feel. For the first story, I did use word counts. I generally write word counts on my white board calendar as a means of motivation. It does feel like progress!
But the most recent project, I did spend a good portion of it writing and rewriting, so at some point I stopped counting when it didn’t seem to be doing anything for me.
Yeah, that’s sort of what’s happened to me, Nina. I mean, I come to a chapter or scene of Bloodbonded and cut half or two thirds of it–or the entire thing–and then rewrite it all, and it just doesn’t seem to make sense to keep saying I “added” so many words to the book. The net effect might be less, you know? But I still had to write all those words, and I still tracked them on the first draft… Now I’m just thinking it didn’t matter.
Oh well. It’s all good. It’s more just a discovery I’ve made. I figure writing this stuff out might help someone else feel better about breaking certain “rules” or traditions, you know? Or maybe it’s just part of my growth as a writer…
I used to write 1500 words a day, every day. I thought word count was awesome. And then I started revising, editing, polishing, etc – and I realized they were a great way to see progress on a first draft, but of very little use for anything else
to me, anyway. I now tend to think in scenes. If I revise a scene, or write a scene, or edit/polish a scene, I feel good. I can count scenes to go, scenes I need to write, etc, and the word count doesn’t matter so much, just getting the story right.
Cassie, that’s exactly where I am. Counting words was great when I was just spewing a rough draft. But when I’m editing, rewriting, polishing, etc., I often cut more than I write. And I don’t want the Word Count Police standing there screaming “YOU DIDN’T WRITE YOUR 1,000 WORDS TODAY!!” You know? Some days, you just don’t write a thousand words. That doesn’t mean you aren’t a writer, though, or that you aren’t working hard on your writing. I agree that getting the story right is the most important thing.
I’m not addicted to word counts, but as plotter/pantser hybrid, I do find page counts useful for keeping me motivated. There are days when I only have a couple pages to show for all the words I wrote, but usually those are pages that will stay in the book, even in edited form. That’s just me, though. Everybody needs a writing routine or method that works for them.
Ann, thank you for your comment. A plotter/pantser hybrid–huh. Maybe that’s what I’m becoming. I don’t know–time will tell. And much of this angst in general comes from my current project since I’m rewriting about a third of it. At least that much–maybe more. :\ Maybe on the next book, I’ll find a more stable middle ground between pantsing and plotting…
I guage my progress on FINAL word count — in other words, edited and polished to a fine sheen. First draft word counts are relativey meaningless, in my experience — too much work still to do. But hey, that’s just me.
I think that’s kind of been my experience this time around, too. We’ll see how I feel on the next project…