Words You Can "Count" On
I love reading and I want to keep it that way.
If you write a whole bunch in a session and then find out it's all crap, please don't feel bad about deleting it off of your working page. Sure, move it somewhere else, to a special crap word file you might keep, but there is no reason to leave it in your story.
Like I said, the thing is that I love reading and I want to keep it that way. I say that without hyperbole.
When I hear about a new book coming out I want to read it just because it's out. That's how I roll. When someone tweets that their book is on sale over at Smashwords or Amazon for .99 cents, I seriously want to go pick it up, just for the fact that I feel like I somehow met the author.
I love reading and I want to keep it that way.
Now let's get to the heart of it. It seems that we base the quality of our writing on word count. If this is the case we need to stop this shit and quick. I don't read tweets or Facebook posts that say things like, "I wrote a really great chapter today." Or I never read, "I'm really starting to understand my WIP." None of that. I see this: "Just wrote 1,000 words and boy am I tired." Or, "Got in 5,000 words today. It's coming along great."
Does anyone truly think the number of words you write means anything? I mean, really.
Let's say you write 3,000 words that day. Okay, that's a good thing but so what. We all know that of those 3,000 words, you might not keep any of them. Or maybe you'll keep about 1,000 of them. I mean, I question the whole business of keeping a word count per session in the first place. Ask yourself, what are you doing by counting your words? Really, what is the point?
The word count isn't writing or reading. It's not even craft. It's merely something we get hung up on. I used to do it too. Who am I kidding; I'm a word counter in recovery. I still do it out of habit but I'm getting better.
Instead of word count, this is what I learned to keep track of: My writing habits for the day; the time in which I write and how well I use that time. I do this because I love reading and I love writing but I don't love counting words. I appreciate sitting down at a the screen, writing until I've emptied what I got for the moment, taking that break to sip my wine, sending a few tweets, reading a chapter of whatever, complaining about life, sending a few more tweets, and then coming back to the screen to see what bullshit I put on the page. I then do a rough edit, nothing too heavy, hopefully, just enough to let me properly see the next moment and then I get started. I'll go back again hours later and read both of my sessions and see if perhaps I have a third session waiting in me. If I do, then I'm up till 5 a.m. If not then I have a good day at work the next day.
Sure, I count the words, but that's simply a habit I'm trying to break. I recently started writing on a word processor that doesn't naturally keep a word count. It's refreshing.
Like I said before, word counting is a draft thing. Because in the end I truly think a 130,000 word novel is too long. That's just me. I'll look at that word count and probably start brainstorming how I'm going to edit.
Until not too long ago I thought this is kind of what everyone was doing--just writing when they got the chance, and developing their skills and habits. I'm finding we're counting words and somehow finding meaning in the word count.
I might be wrong with my assessment. But if I'm not wrong, guys, remember, quality over quantity. If you write 1,500 horrible words, just delete them or move them somewhere that's not on the working document. That way, at the end of the day, you can say, today I had a great writing day. I wrote 1,500 words and didn't keep one bad one.
Because like I said, I love reading and I want to keep it that way. Hopefully, I'll get more tweets that say,"I wrote 1,500 great words in my WIP."
Man, I can't wait to pick it up.
Don't forget to check out my novels, especially my newest work In Blackness, a coming of age story that erupts into sci-fi/horror, available wherever books are sold
If you write a whole bunch in a session and then find out it's all crap, please don't feel bad about deleting it off of your working page. Sure, move it somewhere else, to a special crap word file you might keep, but there is no reason to leave it in your story.
Like I said, the thing is that I love reading and I want to keep it that way. I say that without hyperbole.
When I hear about a new book coming out I want to read it just because it's out. That's how I roll. When someone tweets that their book is on sale over at Smashwords or Amazon for .99 cents, I seriously want to go pick it up, just for the fact that I feel like I somehow met the author.
I love reading and I want to keep it that way.
Now let's get to the heart of it. It seems that we base the quality of our writing on word count. If this is the case we need to stop this shit and quick. I don't read tweets or Facebook posts that say things like, "I wrote a really great chapter today." Or I never read, "I'm really starting to understand my WIP." None of that. I see this: "Just wrote 1,000 words and boy am I tired." Or, "Got in 5,000 words today. It's coming along great."
Does anyone truly think the number of words you write means anything? I mean, really.
Let's say you write 3,000 words that day. Okay, that's a good thing but so what. We all know that of those 3,000 words, you might not keep any of them. Or maybe you'll keep about 1,000 of them. I mean, I question the whole business of keeping a word count per session in the first place. Ask yourself, what are you doing by counting your words? Really, what is the point?
The word count isn't writing or reading. It's not even craft. It's merely something we get hung up on. I used to do it too. Who am I kidding; I'm a word counter in recovery. I still do it out of habit but I'm getting better.
Instead of word count, this is what I learned to keep track of: My writing habits for the day; the time in which I write and how well I use that time. I do this because I love reading and I love writing but I don't love counting words. I appreciate sitting down at a the screen, writing until I've emptied what I got for the moment, taking that break to sip my wine, sending a few tweets, reading a chapter of whatever, complaining about life, sending a few more tweets, and then coming back to the screen to see what bullshit I put on the page. I then do a rough edit, nothing too heavy, hopefully, just enough to let me properly see the next moment and then I get started. I'll go back again hours later and read both of my sessions and see if perhaps I have a third session waiting in me. If I do, then I'm up till 5 a.m. If not then I have a good day at work the next day.
Sure, I count the words, but that's simply a habit I'm trying to break. I recently started writing on a word processor that doesn't naturally keep a word count. It's refreshing.
Like I said before, word counting is a draft thing. Because in the end I truly think a 130,000 word novel is too long. That's just me. I'll look at that word count and probably start brainstorming how I'm going to edit.
Until not too long ago I thought this is kind of what everyone was doing--just writing when they got the chance, and developing their skills and habits. I'm finding we're counting words and somehow finding meaning in the word count.
I might be wrong with my assessment. But if I'm not wrong, guys, remember, quality over quantity. If you write 1,500 horrible words, just delete them or move them somewhere that's not on the working document. That way, at the end of the day, you can say, today I had a great writing day. I wrote 1,500 words and didn't keep one bad one.
Because like I said, I love reading and I want to keep it that way. Hopefully, I'll get more tweets that say,"I wrote 1,500 great words in my WIP."
Man, I can't wait to pick it up.
Don't forget to check out my novels, especially my newest work In Blackness, a coming of age story that erupts into sci-fi/horror, available wherever books are sold
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