I love word counts. Maybe because they look so neat and tidy on my spreadsheet, or maybe because they show visible progress on WIP. Maybe, also because they make it easier to set writing goals.
Stories should not be driven by word count, of course. It is the story that matters, but for most of us regular folks, we need something to make us sit and write regularly and consistently enough to get that story out. For me, it's word count goals.
For 2012, I've decided to try an annual word count goal challenge. I'm hoping to write 250,000 words by 31st of December.
The only condition is that this word count must be towards Book Projects. So blog posts, planning and outlining books, emails, letters, poetry - none of that counts. Just book projects. Reason for that is simple: I want to be a published author of books - so putting words towards that is what's going to achieve it. Not just words by themselves.
I am not going to obsess over daily goals, or even monthly goals. I am going to focus on my books, and hopefully, that will get me there, because some writing periods are more intense than others. Still, 250K seems plausible. If you are interested, you can follow my progress through the word count progress bar at the right.
What about you? How do you feel about word counts? Will you / do you have any word count goals for this year?
Good luck!
ReplyDeleteMy aim is to finish and edit a book in order to have it ready to shop around by Christmas. No idea how long it's going to be! But regular word counts are very motivating.