Do you set a daily word count goal?

[haefner919]

I have been trying to write as much as posible and figured that if I wanted this novel done before I go away on vacation in January, I needed to write about 1900 words a day. There were many days I did that and surpassed it, but of course, other days when life got in the way and I barely wrote 500 words. Then there was last week when my daughter was sick, then dh was sick, then ultimately, I was sick myself...pretty much a week of hell and no writing what so ever.

This novel is about 30,000 words so far and it took 20 days. I'm happy with that, but I'm behind where I want to be.

[J.S Greer]

Thats a good pace for 20 days.

I did 3700 words last night, but it was really flowinbg out of me, and im definitely going to have to go back through what I wrote to add/tighten.

I say that whatever word count you hit, just write daily.

It's hard enough to do that as it is, without setting a lofty goal for yourself. Not that you shouldnt set goals, but it can be discouraging if you find yourself not meeting them. That being said, im happy if I hit about 1000 a day.

[Mr. Funktastic]

I shoot for 1,000 words each day, but I almost always go over. 1,000 is just sort of a minimum I set myself for my busier days to keep me from feeling guilty. Heh. There are days that I just don't have the time. For instance, I ended up so busy at the end of last semester that I couldn't squeeze in much to to write for almost two weeks.

Life just gets in the way, as you said. You seem to be doing well.

[WildScribe]

My goal is to write at least 500 words a day, but I often double that, or even more. The real goal is to write SOMETHING every day.

[NeuroFizz]

No. Forward movement of the story is much more important, and not always directly related to increases in word count. If you want to hang a carrot in front of your nose, do it with progress on the story.

[Zolah]

Didn't we have this thread already? About a week ago?

[UrsusMinor]

No, I don't set a goal.

But I track my daily word count on a calendar.

[Azure Skye]

No, I don't set a goal.

But I track my daily word count on a calendar.

I did that too but I seemed to have misplaced the calendar.


Anyway, I'm thinking of taking a different approach on my next project. I don't know what it is yet, but I'm still thinking. A daily word count might be one aspect of it.

[smiley10000]

If you are interested in setting a word count goal you can come over and takethe word count pledge (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47847). We have chocolate and a great group for support.

:Hug2:10000

[KTC]

My daily goal is just to remember to go back to my WIP. I don't set daily word goals because I will go 9 days without writing a word and then write 5,000 in one day. Just write...that's my goal.

[victoriastrauss]

No. Forward movement of the story is much more important, and not always directly related to increases in word count.I agree.

I tried the daily word count thing, and found that its main effect was to make me obsessed with word count--especially on days when I didn't make my word count, since I then felt like a bad, lazy writer. Since it did very little to improve my productivity, I stopped counting.

That said, many people do find it helpful. As with all else in writing, YMMV.

- Victoria

[Bubastes]

I like setting a weekly word count goal. It gives me some flexibility, but keeps me moving forward.

[Ken Schneider]

I agree.

I tried the daily word count thing, and found that its main effect was to make me obsessed with word count--especially on days when I didn't make my word count, since I then felt like a bad, lazy writer. Snip... - Victoria

Me too!

Now I go by time. I go at least two hours a day, more if I have the time.

This way, whatever I write, whether I'm in a grove without eating up all my plot, or struggling to find the right words, I am happy at the end of my time.

By eating up my plot,which I used to do, I mean that you rush toward the end of the book without fleshing out the story.

Low word count novels, where the writer has come to the end of H/H story, I found, is because of eating up the plot before fleshing out the characters, lack of sub-plots, and rushing toward being done.

good luck

[haefner919]

Sorry Zolah if I repeated a thread you guys had already....I haven't been in here in ages...been busy writing!!! So, I apologize, and appreciate the responses!!!

[Prawn]

I just today finished my first novel. My goal was a thousand a day. It took 4 months to have a completed first draft, which ran 80K. I then spent the next two months doing four revisions. It ended up at 93K. I printed it out today and had it bound and sent it to my Beta readers. I am sure I will do at least another month of revisions when it returns.

THis is what I learned: compared to writing, revisions are hard. Its much more like work than the creative flow of writing. I am now about twenty pages into novel #2 and I still am doing 1000 words a day, but I am also writing better and revising as I go so that the novel may take longer to complete, but the revisions at the end will be less painful.
p

[haefner919]

I never realized how hard revision would be...I always thought writing was the hard part....oh no...... I did 3 revisions on my MS....it started out at 135,000 and I trimmed it down to 121,000, and along the way fixed up tons of grammer mistakes and made the flow better.

I do agree- this second book will not need as much time spent on that type of revision.

[BruceJ]

I read on another thread not to use MS Word's statistics for the word count, but to count the words on a page, divide by 5 and multiply by the number of pages (at least I think that was the formula). Is this true/important? Why is Word's statistical wordcount suspect/wrong? Thanks. Just curious.