I Count Words

 
I set my goals and track my progress in my writing projects by the number of words written. Which is obvious to anyone who has seen any of my weekly "Writing Progress Reports".
 
Since 2002, I've tried a handful of different ways to set goals and monitor my progress. Among them:

Time spent – spend N minutes/hours each day writing
Chapter/story – write an entire chapter or story in a day
Word count

 
The only one that's worked consistently for me is word count.
 
Time spent almost works, so long as I also track word counts. Then I can be sure I'm not just yardgazing out my back window while the clock ticks. But if I have to count words anyway, why not just skip the time part and count words?
 
During the A Short Story a Day project, I wrote both The Summoning Fire and The Door to the Sky one complete chapter every day until they were finished. For The Door to the Sky, most of the chapters were only 2000 words, so one chapter each day was quite workable. Then I wrote The Summoning Fire, which had chapters that were upwards of 4000 words. 4000-word chapters take a big chunk out of a day. For The Girl Who Ran With Horses, which I started a couple months after finishing The Summoning Fire, I shifted from one chapter a day to a set word count again. Which was good, as chapters in that book ranged up to over 8000 words.
 
I also stopped trying to finish short stories the same day I started them after ASSAD. That way I could stretch a bit, and have longer stories in the 5000- to 10000-word range.
 
Some people have mentioned setting scene-based writing goals. I've not tried that per se. Possibly because I don't really think of a story as a collection of scenes (no matter that all those how-to-write books and lectures have tried to convince me otherwise). That's not how I build stories (I think I tend to structure more along the lines of revelations and decisions, and less in terms of set piece scenes; I haven't analyzed the process too much), so it feels uncomfortable to approach my writing goals that way.
 
Which leaves me with word counting.
 
When I focus on writing X number of words each day, whatever X might be, I get my writing done. I can even make a good guess as to how long it will take me to finish the current writing project.
 
2002 was only 9 years ago. I expect to still be writing 9 years from now, and longer. In the years to come, I'll probably try out other writing goals and progress tracking. I like experimenting and sometimes feel an urge to be different. Odds are, though, in 9 years, or 18 years, or however long, when you ask me about my writing, I bet I'll still be counting words.
 
-David
 
Related Posts:
Nano – ThoughtsStill Planning, But Also WritingDo I Count Every Word? You Bet Your Sweet Bippy