What's the deal with word counts on Facebook?

gettingby · Mar 30, 2015

Putputt said:
This.

So don't.

Tbh, your posts come across as a bit judgmental to me. People post whatever the hell they want to post. Is posting low word counts somehow inflammatory or offensive to you? Like others have said, it's mostly for themselves, and if you don't like it, there's always the Unfollow or Mute buttons.

I wasn't trying to sound judgmental. I'm sorry to everyone who I might have offended. It just seems to be a trend I noticed. I wondered hostly wondered if other people have seen this and what they thought. It was not my intention to upset anyone.

To me, though, all these little announcements can sort of dilute bigger accomplishments. That's just my thoughts. I am not trying to say that 350 is nothing. It's just not 3,500 words. I get that people can post and tweet whatever they like. I really wasn't trying to complain about that. Just thought I would see what my AW friends think about this.

amergina · Mar 30, 2015

gettingby said:
I am not trying to say that 350 is nothing. It's just not 3,500 words.

But 350 might be a big accomplishment. You don't know that it isn't.

For example, my wordcount goal for a weekday is 500 words. If I make it, I am ecstatic. Why? Because I work full-time. I go to the gym three times a week. I live alone, so all the cooking and cleaning falls to me. I do go out with friends occasionally, too, because socializing is good for my mental health.

Getting in 500 words in the small time I have to write in the evenings is a major accomplishment. Is is 3,500? No. But there's no possible way I can write 3,500 on a weekday.

I've set a goal for 3,000 on weekend days. It's still not 3,500. But it also allows me to do the house things I need and grocery shopping and sleeping in and stuff like that.

But 500 a night is still 2,500 in 5 days, which adds up. Those little wordcounts, if done every day, can add up to a lot of words in a year.

(350 a day for 365 days is 127,750 words.)

(6,000 on weekends plus 2,500 during the week totals 8,500 in a week. In 52 weeks, that's 442,000 words. I won't always make my goals, but... dude, that's a lot of words.)

Really, any amount of words is better than none, so I'll celebrate if my friends write 5,000 or 50 in a day.

Hapax Legomenon · Mar 30, 2015

I knew the number 350 sounded familiar:

350 words a day 5 days a week is a "baby steps" writing schedule for people who think they are either too busy to write or are a bit intimidated by the prospect of writing a whole novel.

Here are a couple websites that talk about it.

brainstorm77 · Mar 30, 2015

Motivation and or appeal to other friends who are currently working on a WIP?

bearilou · Mar 31, 2015

Seems to me that 350 words/day is a huge accomplishment. Especially over those who talk about wanting to write but just never seem to find the time.

lizo27 · Mar 31, 2015

It's not 3500 words, but 0 to 350 is still an accomplishment. It's like someone who's getting over health problems posting that they've walked a mile versus someone training for a marathon posting that they've done their twelve-mile run. They've both accomplished something and they're trying to motivate themselves. Nothing wrong with that.

bearilou · Mar 31, 2015

I went away and came back.

I think my issue with this thread is the implicit judgment that 'you're not a real writer unless you write X words a day' and that 350 pushes those who get that done into the 'not a real writer'. It's judgment that they're not doing it right, or doing it enough. That because they are not bleeding over their keyboard every night makes them less than.

The thing is, we don't know what it took for the writer to get those 350 out. Maybe they really did bleed all over their keyboard, right after they dragged their bleeding bodies in from a day's work. We're not there to see what they go through so who is anyone to disparage that in any manner?

Finally, if it was 'big time' writers posting their accomplishments of only 350 words, perhaps they are wishing to share the fact that they also have days where 350 is all they could manage and thus showing they are not monster word machines, but working family people, too.

If they can do all that they need to do and get a book written, then so can you.

CrastersBabies · Mar 31, 2015

350 words can be a good day for someone struggling to make time or to get anything on the page. And it's 350 less they will have to do tomorrow. Some days, I go happy to have finished 350 words, and I think it's a little insulting to point a finger at people and say, "that's IT?" It might have made my eyes bleed and given me a migraine to get those 350 words out. Having someone come along and demean that isn't what I would call supportive or catering to the spirit of art.

As for why they post, I imagine it's more for themselves, the same way fitness folks post their Fitbit activities, their workout sessions, or such. I enjoy seeing those things myself, but can understand why some people aren't that into it. That said, I'd never mock someone for not hitting a daily word count that some random person made up as a measurement of a "real writer."

BenPanced · Mar 31, 2015

I wrote considerably less than 350 words yesterday. But I wrote. Wanna make somethin' of it? I'm just in the mood.

:box:

Weirdmage · Mar 31, 2015

My last day-job kept me away from home for twelve hours a day, four days a week. If you include getting ready in the morning, and making dinner and eating it (, I live alone,) that comes to about fourteen hours. Throw in some shopping, and maybe dropping by the pub for a pint and talking to friends about how the day was, and it's down to about an hour at best of writing time a day.
Many people have a longer commute than I did, and if you have someone at home you like to spend time with, you might do that instead of the pub. But either way, someone with a full-time day-job is not doing bad if they can get 350 words a day on paper/harddisc. If they have kids, a day-job, and a partner, I'm actually quite impressed with anyone who finds time to write at all.

Sunflowerrei · Mar 31, 2015

Most of my Facebook friends aren't writer friends, so I don't see these word count status updates you're talking about. I've done them myself, but I usually confine it to NaNo time. I tweet more about my writing life than Facebook it.

I had a friend who used to post cryptic passive-agressive updates meant for her ex-boyfriend on Facebook--now, that's annoying. I took her off my newsfeed for about a year. The word count updates might be directed at particular friends or are simply proof that they're writing at all--and if you really can't stand them, you can take them off your newsfeed as well.

Jamesaritchie · Mar 31, 2015

A novel per year is a good pace. 350 words per day gives this, and then some. Even taking weekends off, that's still 91,000 words per year. Raise your hand if you write a novel longer than this in the last year.

This is also twenty-six short stories at 3,500 each. Raise your hand if you wrote twenty-six or more short stories in the past twelve months.

How many writers do you know who did better than this in the last year?

Whether it's 350 words, or 3,500 words, the daily word count is not the accomplishment. Many 3.500 word per day writers never finish anything, or write more that every great now and then.

Putputt · Mar 31, 2015

gettingby said:
To me, though, all these little announcements can sort of dilute bigger accomplishments.

I think my answer to this is: Whoooooo the hell cares? They're not your accomplishments to "dilute". They're the author's accomplishments to "dilute", so why should anyone else care about it? Is there an accomplishments police I wasn't aware about?

And actually, I disagree that it dilutes bigger accomplishments. I don't generally post my word counts outside of Nano, but I enjoy seeing other people's word counts for the day. I appreciate seeing how even established authors who regularly churn out best-sellers sometimes have days where they post stuff like, "Terrible writing day, but managed to scrape together 200 words, so yay." I appreciate their honesty, and I like knowing that we ALL struggle and sometimes, 200 words IS an accomplishment.

That's just my thoughts. I am not trying to say that 350 is nothing. It's just not 3,500 words. I get that people can post and tweet whatever they like. I really wasn't trying to complain about that. Just thought I would see what my AW friends think about this.

Nope. Your previous posts made fun of people posting lower word counts and I found that distasteful.

People have explained how 350 words can be an accomplishment. Suffice to say, 350 words, written everyday for a year, is over 120K words. That's longer than the average book. So 1 book/year. Feel free to look down on that, but I think it's a pretty good rate.

Becky Black · Apr 1, 2015

Some people are too busy to get more than a few hundred words a day. So what? As long as they keep on getting those words most days they will have a whole book soon enough. That's the point - the keeping going and eventually finishing. If posting on social media for accountability, support, encouragement or whatever, helps someone do that, then cool.

Someone producing 350 words a day pretty much every single day is going to get more done than someone who's got time to get 2000, but wastes the time faffing about doing something else.

Jamesaritchie · Apr 1, 2015

Becky Black said:
Someone producing 350 words a day pretty much every single day is going to get more done than someone who's got time to get 2000, but wastes the time faffing about doing something else.

That's sort of the point, isn't it? If we spent as much time actually writing fiction as we do complaining about things like this, we'd all have a ton of fiction written at the end of a year.

Sam Argent · Apr 1, 2015

gettingby said:
I wasn't trying to sound judgmental. I'm sorry to everyone who I might have offended. It just seems to be a trend I noticed. I wondered hostly wondered if other people have seen this and what they thought. It was not my intention to upset anyone.

To me, though, all these little announcements can sort of dilute bigger accomplishments. That's just my thoughts. I am not trying to say that 350 is nothing. It's just not 3,500 words. I get that people can post and tweet whatever they like. I really wasn't trying to complain about that. Just thought I would see what my AW friends think about this.

If I only tweeted about my big accomplishments, I would probably post only five times a year. Small or large, when I post my wordcounts, I get more followers. This doesn't surprise me because I follow other writers for the same reasons. Seeing other writers working, even when its a struggle, urges me on too.

Myrealana · Apr 1, 2015

gettingby said:
I'm not saying anything is wrong with having low word-count goals. It is great to reach any writing goal we set for ourselves. But is it worth posting about on Facebook?

As opposed to, say, anything else that goes on FB?

"Scones for breakfast."
"Look at my cute kid/cat/dog..." for the billionth time.
is feeling sad
"Try this one crazy trick to lose belly fat!"

Since when does anything have to be "worth" posting to get onto FB?

BenPanced · Apr 1, 2015

Myrealana said:
As opposed to, say, anything else that goes on FB?

"Scones for breakfast."
"Look at my cute kid/cat/dog..." for the billionth time.
is feeling sad
"Try this one crazy trick to lose belly fat!"

Since when does anything have to be "worth" posting to get onto FB?

YOU WON'T BELIEVE THE HYPERBOLE INVOLVED WHEN THIS BABY TURNS OVER ONTO HER BACK FOR THE FIRST TIME!

What's the deal with word counts on Facebook?

gettingby

amergina

Pittsburgh Strong

Hapax Legomenon

brainstorm77

practical experience, FTW

bearilou

DenturePunk writer

lizo27

Speshul snowflake

bearilou

DenturePunk writer

CrastersBabies

Burninator!

BenPanced

THE BLUEBERRY QUEEN OF HADES (he/him)

Weirdmage

Sunflowerrei

Jamesaritchie

Putputt

permanently suctioned to Buz's leg

Becky Black

Writing my way off the B Ark

Jamesaritchie

Sam Argent

Rygel XVI

Myrealana

I aim to misbehave

BenPanced

THE BLUEBERRY QUEEN OF HADES (he/him)