The Word Count Obsession

If you’re in the author/writer space anywhere online these days, then you hear it and see it daily. The coveted daily word count goals. Or weekly word count goals. Or monthly word count goals. All the word counts. All the time. Writers of all types have become hyper-aware and overly fixated on how much they write.

Why? Let’s take a look at my thoughts on the subject.

I think every writer, no matter what they write, at some point will come to the conclusion that they are behind. Whether it’s because they see other authors putting work out quicker, or they have some goal they are trying to meet, or possibly even a deadline of some kind… they all tend to fall into the trap of word count obsession.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I firmly believe having goals, having a value you’d like to achieve, can be helpful, but too often I see it end up hurting the writer instead of helping them. Which is understandable given how hard we can be on ourselves. I spoke a little on this in my New Year’s blog post about how hard we are on ourselves for not achieving a goal, no matter how small, and when we consecutively don’t hit the arbitrary number for our word count, we can spiral or quit altogether. Myself included.

A lot of people I know seem to have come to their word count goal by way of other authors and their comments on the subject or from them sharing their writing routines. For example, most authors I have talked to have a daily word count goal of 2,000. How did they decide on that number?

Stephen King.

When he talks about craft and writing, he’s very open and honest about his process. Even down to the fact that he listens to metal music (which isn’t his typical cup of tea) while writing just to stay in the zone. He also prints out his last page or so from his last session and has it waiting for him to come back to the next day so he can quickly and easily reread it and get back into the flow state. His writing room is distraction-free, and notes that he leaves his phone in another room. The biggest takeaway that most people took from his talks on writing is the fact that he says if he writes 2,000 words a day, he can write a 180,000-word book in 90 days; 3 months. That’s it. And that is his “secret” to being so prolific.

So, writers read that and think, “Huzzah! In order to be prolific, I too must write 2k words a day!”

Is this correct thinking? Yes, but also no.

I want to stress this more here than anywhere else… EVERY WRITER IS DIFFERENT.

Some writers have families and are caregivers. Some have full-time jobs or multiple jobs. Some have health issues that might keep them from being able to write some days no matter how much they want to (I’m looking at myself on this one). Some have all of the above and more. I don’t know everyone’s lifestyle or what could get in the way of their writing, but I do know one thing. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.

But let’s be honest, even if there were, given some things that hold writers back from writing, would it even matter if we had the extra time? Not exactly.

Some people can just sit down and say, “It’s writing time. Time to write!” and crank out those 2,000 words in no time. Most days, this is me. If I actually turn everything else off and open all my writing stuff, I can generally write 2,000 words in about an hour to an hour and a half. Some days it might take 2 hours, but the point being, generally speaking, if I set myself to it, I can.

But… key word being “most days” there. See, some days, with my health issues and brain fog, I can sit in front of this laptop screen and damn near give myself a brain aneurism trying to force myself to form even one sentence. It just doesn’t work for me that day. So what do I do when I need to work but can’t form a sentence, let alone keep a plot going? I work on something else related to writing. I try to edit if I can or I work on “bible work,” which is background character stuff, location specifics, adding notes for scenes later, etc. Basically, brain dump everything I can. So no matter what, I am being productive and actively working progress on something.

I know me. If I set a daily word count goal and failed it, then I would fail it every single day after because I would be disappointed in myself from the previous days. I also know this because I’ve lived it. I had “daily word count goals,” and you bet your ass if I didn’t hit it, I spiraled. I should have known better given my medical history and how I’ve fallen into that trap with making art, but I didn’t think about it. I got caught up in the online lives of other authors and fell into it headfirst.

And I mean it when I just said “online life of other authors” because that is exactly what it is. This is a whole other topic for discussion, but I will just say this on it… what you see online is not reality. People fake and lie about how their lives are all the time. And even when they aren’t, even when the photos or posts are genuine, you still do not see the behind-the-scenes that lead them there. You don’t know everything.

So, as a whole, stop comparing. Stop getting caught up in word count in comparison, especially in comparison, I would say. Because there are so many things that the other person might not have going on that you do, etc. But in total, yes, it’s nice to see the progress. I’m not saying don’t think about it at all. Seeing your book slowly come together and move up higher in word count is so fun and exciting. But when you obsess over it like some/most writers do, it becomes unhealthy.

What have I done differently after catching myself falling into that unhealthy obsession?

I formed a new mantra that anything more than 0 is a good writing day. Even if it’s bible work. Even if it’s prepping social media posts (you still have to write for them). Even if it’s simply editing a paragraph to sound better. Writing is writing. Progress is progress. Yes, I add my “goals” to my daily task list, BUT the difference is now I don’t beat myself up if it doesn’t get checked off every day. I use it mostly as a reminder that today is a day that I could get that done. Could being the operative word.

I wish we could collectively get away from the urgency of publication. It’s become an unsettling trend lately of pushing as many works as possible in as little time as possible, and frankly, I could write a whole other post on my thoughts and opinions, both for and against it. If you’re interested in that, let me know.

I have many more thoughts on this subject and more encouragement I could offer, but this is all I will say for now…

It’s okay to not write like Stephen King. It’s okay to not feel beholden to some unrealistic word count goal that could never and should never fit your lifestyle. Setting a goal is fine. Setting a daily goal is still fine as long as you are considering your life, your health, and your well-being. Don’t ever feel like you need to put yourself in a state of distress for the sake of your art.

When you are hydrated and well-rested, you can accomplish way more. Trust me.

‘Til next time…

Happy Reading

<3 Rhea