Time vs. Word Count

Nothing set. I go with the flow until the next time I'm in front of my computer.

Even if I hadn't wrote a single word but, figured out how a complecated situation might work its way out, then it's been a good writing day. In fact, that might even be a very good day.

Same here. I normally don't measure writing progress by either time spent or wordcount, but by scene. If I can get one scene nailed down in a sitting, I'm happy.

Both?

I tend to go to 45 min or 1000 words per day, whichever comes first, if I'm working on a novel. If I hit that first one and still want to keep going I can, but I have to get to one or the other of those goals (usually the 1000 words)

I don't have goals, other than to write, which I try to do every day.

The most important thing (for me) is to put my butt in the chair everyday--even if just for 15 minutes. Sometimes I get a page, sometimes I get a paragraph. The joy/agony of writing.

I do it by word count, after work. It takes as long as it takes. I manage this by having a fairly low word count goal (250) but typically write 500-1000 words a day.

I did 1000 words a day when I started and kept it up about 4 months, but in the end decided to set a pretty easy daily goal (which still adds up) and then exceed that when I am able. This works for me because my time is limited but I want a certain amount of words on the manuscript rather than time spent looking at the manuscript, so it makes me do *something*.

blacbird said:

I'm with Axl. I much prefer to concentrate on the quality of the words that come out, rather than the quantity.

caw

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How's that working out for you? Ray Bradbury, and a lot of other very good writers, for that matter, said that quantity breeds quality. All the evidence I've seen seem to show he was right.

Jamesaritchie said:

How's that working out for you? Ray Bradbury, and a lot of other very good writers, for that matter, said that quantity breeds quality. All the evidence I've seen seem to show he was right.

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Yes but, he would never suggest that just by chirming out the words that'd automatically produce quality.

sugarhit said:

Do you prefer to use your writing time to have a certain amount of hours to write or to have written a certain amount of words?

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Both. I write for five hours each day, broken into two equal sessions. I also write a minimum of 2,500 words each day. Going by both time and word count means I can't really cheat and dash off bad words, telling myself I can always fix them later.

If I hit 2,500 words early, I keep writing until the five hours are up. If I haven't reached 2,500 words at teh end of five hours, I keep writing until I do.

These aren't arbitrary numbers. I know from experience t hat it usually take about four hours to write 2,500 words, so even on a tough day, I rarely have to go over five hours. I also know from long experience that I can maintain five hours per day forever without burnout.

I go by word count. Otherwise I screw around not accomplishing anything (I could teach classes in procrastination, except I'd never get around to it ). There's no way to 'cheat' word count like I could if I went by scenes or hours or any other method. 4,000 words is 4,000 words no matter how long it takes me to get there.

I'd love to do 2500 or something like that, but I'd need to not have a job. With wife, job, children, it is difficult to do that kind of work.

Depends

When I'm drafting, I try to get in a set amount of words a day (Though I'll settle for getting a tricky scene right)

When I'm editing, I go by other criteria. Pages done, for copy edits. How many knotty problems if content editing


The important thing is to have a goal and try to reach it. This means you are making progress (if if you fail in your goal today, you have made progress)

Not having goals (for me anyway) means I faff and achieve nothing. If I reach the goal GREAT! If I miss by some, well at least I made things better than they were yesterday. And I can catch up tomorrow when I hit an easier patch

Have a goal, something to aim for. Long term and short term (Today I want to write X words, and/or finish this draft by Y)

If you do not meet your daily goals because life* then don't throw in the towel. As long as you are meeting your longer term goals (or close), you're good


*I have a dodgy disc in my neck. Sometimes it plays silly buggers and I have had the neck/headache from hell today, plus a lot of work related stuff -- redundancies -- oh and the train got cancelled this morning and I cannot write on the replacement bus because no room for laptop. Today was a bust pretty much. But tomorrow....

I just write whenever I'm home and know what to write, until I decide I need a break or am out of ideas for the moment. I don't do schedules or quota.

Neegh said:

Yes but, he would never suggest that just by chirming out the words that'd automatically produce quality.

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No, he wouldn't suggest it, he would actually say it, and he did say it on many occasions.

If you have no talent, churning out words won't help. If you do have talent, however, churning out stories will help. I don't think it's coincidence that the great majority of successful writers I've studied, particularly short story writers, were also almost always extremely prolific.

sugarhit said:

Do you prefer to use your writing time to have a certain amount of hours to write or to have written a certain amount of words?

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I prefer a minimum word count per day, but author Aaron Michael Ritchey told me once that it doesn't take a lot of time to write a few words. I don't need a full hour to sit down and write. Fifteen minutes is all it takes to bust out fifty or a hundred words, and every word (especially in that first draft) is vital to getting past that finish line.

So both, really. I LIKE to hit 1k per day, but I'll settle with writing what I can when I can on the busy days.

Jamesaritchie said:

How's that working out for you? Ray Bradbury, and a lot of other very good writers, for that matter, said that quantity breeds quality. All the evidence I've seen seem to show he was right.

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Maybe only in the sense that quantity = lots of practice = quality (one hopes).

However, I don't think that has anything to do with how many words someone generates in a given writing session.

Jamesaritchie said:

How's that working out for you? Ray Bradbury, and a lot of other very good writers, for that matter, said that quantity breeds quality. All the evidence I've seen seem to show he was right.

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There's no correlation between the number of words I write in a day and the quality of those words. The amount of effort I put into it, yes, but not the number of words.

BethS said:

I don't have goals, other than to write, which I try to do every day.

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Yes, me too, although there are many days I can't. Writing is only around the 5th or 6th most important thing in my life, so other matters take precedence.

I write for no other reason other than because I want to and enjoy it. I write when I can and don't when other things are more important.

Jamesaritchie said:

No, he wouldn't suggest it, he would actually say it, and he did say it on many occasions.

If you have no talent, churning out words won't help. If you do have talent, however, churning out stories will help. I don't think it's coincidence that the great majority of successful writers I've studied, particularly short story writers, were also almost always extremely prolific.

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I miss Ray Bradbury. I very much enjoyed the lectures, workshops and conversations I had with him over the last 25 years. I am sure he has said that by writing and reading as much as you can you will make you better at doing both, but I can not believe he said that quantity = quality. I think you may have misunderstood the thrust of what he was talking about.

JAR has a point about prolific writers, though. Great non-prolific writers seem to be the exception.

The reason that I don't simply go by time is that I don't want to encourage the perfectionist in me to go overboard. Having page counts helps me make progress, rather than staring at one sentence for twenty minutes. Which I still do sometimes anyway.

I began doing page counts. I found that keeping track of word counts distracted me, and it felt like I was gunning it to the finish line. At least with page count, I can force myself to write what I need to.

However, I'm beginning to shift my daily goals from page count to scenes. I tried it this week, told myself to write a full scene instead of my usual page count. I fell short on my page count goal, but the scene I wrote was more vivid and well thought out. Also, it's more satisfying to begin and then end a scene rather than terminating it in the middle.

I'm still open to ideas, but at the moment, I'm switching back and forth between daily page count and daily scenes.

Jamesaritchie said:

How's that working out for you? Ray Bradbury, and a lot of other very good writers, for that matter, said that quantity breeds quality. All the evidence I've seen seem to show he was right.

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I think it's kind of undeniable that writing a lot will teach you more than writing a little.