Word Count Junkie

Lots of people who are writing books do not set daily word count targets. There are various reasons for this—they feel stifled by it, they need to let their writing go where it goes (or not), they want to feel okay whether they write many words or few, or they just do not need it. And lots of those people are finishing their manuscripts.

But there are also lots of people who do not set word count goals who are not making progress on their manuscripts. Who are likely never going to finish their manuscripts. I hate this. And part of the reason I hate this is that this was me.

For years I wrote and published stories, poems, and essays. I got them done because I had systems—mostly deadlines imposed by writing classes, critique groups, and contractual obligations. But I allowed my novel project to be one I dabbled at. I told myself I was working on it but, if I’m being honest, the “writing” sessions were puny things. My butt was in the chair, but I spent most of my time thinking, planning, researching, and drafting bits of scenes. Good stuff. But not a substitute for full-on writing.

And then, in an act of self-care, I decided to make writing a novel one of my life’s priorities. I made a plan. I decided how long I wanted to give myself to write a draft (arbitrary and adjustable). Then I divided 90,000 (rough target) by the number of days I was allotting (five writing days per week). There it was—a daily word count number. I felt a little sick looking at it. But also relieved. There’s some power in facing the truth.

I’m finally making progress even though I don’t write every day I intend to and I don’t always hit even my conservative goal. But sometimes I do. I do it more often than I used to. I see the word count on my book going up and up and I get a little dopamine hit every time I look at it. I’m thrilled by the fact that if I keep doing this, I’m going to finish a novel.

What I don’t do is concern myself with the fact that the novel might not be very good. That I might be drafting a fatally flawed plot, that I won’t have done enough research or that I might lose steam and give up on it. That kind of worry has nothing to offer me.

If you think a daily word count goal is a cruel master and not meeting it is going to make you feel bad, I have a suggestion. I’d like you to consider that it’s not the goal that’s the problem, but rather that you keep thinking the thought that it’s a cruel master. I’m going to skip the lecture on that and just drop in a short tough-love message—Entertain a new thought.

If you’re ready, here’s all you need to do—

1. Set a daily word count goal based on what you can reasonably expect from yourself.
2. Set up a way to keep track of your word count. I made and use an old-school word count tracker. Here’s a fancier one online.
3. Start using it and get addicted to watching that word count grow.