Friday 26 April 2013

A-Z of Writing - W

 
 
Word count is obviously quite important to a writer, whether you have a limit (for a short story, for example) or a number you're aiming for. I write chick lit and aim to write between 80,000 and 90,000 words.
 
I like to keep track of my word count on my blog and use a little counter. It can look a bit poor when I first start as the counter is blank but the words soon begin to tot up and I find it spurs me on as the bar fills up.

My progress bar is nice and full at the moment as I've finished that particular book but when I start my new one (very, very soon), all that lovely green in the bar will be gone.
 
How many words do you aim for? And do you keep track of them?
 
 
This post is part of the A-Z Challenge. Click here to see all the other participants


12 comments:

  1. I love that counter! What a great idea :)

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    1. Thank you. I 'stole' the idea from Cally Taylor's blog. Thought it was a great idea to keep me motivated.

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  2. I think it's quite easy to get hung up on word count, although it's nice to rack up an impressive number, we should focus on the story first. The good thing is with self-publishing, a lot of the conventions over appropriate counts for different genres are melting away.

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    1. It goes both ways with me - I've racked up too many words and have had to cut down.

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  3. I aim for the minimum I need for a rough draft of whatever I'm working on, be it a novel or a short story. Keeping track of the wordcount helps spur me into action. Setting a deadline to make that number is even more effective. Getting that draft down is the hardest part for me. Once that's done, I just make note of the wordcount ceiling and make sure the final draft ends up less than that. :)

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    1. I find setting myself goals spurs me on too, especially if I'm in a bit of a slump.

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  4. Anything over 50k for me is pretty good and gets me motivated. Without WC goals we wouldn't have 'Word Wars' and I don't know about you, but I don't want to live in a world without word wars!

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  5. As for blog posts, I try to keep it between 500 and 600 words. I am a high school student, so I unfortunate.y don't have time to really sit down and write right now :(.

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  6. Sometimes, when I set myself word count goals, I panic more about reaching the goal and lose my flow, concentrating more on the count. Love that progress bar though : )

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    1. Probably best to just concentrate on the story to begin with then. You can always expand or cut down later.

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