#WordCount

[writingwithfolklore]

Reaching Your Wordcount Goal

                Have you ever been in a situation where you just can’t seem to get a scene to fill much more than a page or two? Or you’re at 500 words when you want to be at 2500 and it feels impossible to get there? Here’s some common problems that may be holding you back:

1. Your pacing is too fast

Pacing is probably the number one controller of word count. If it’s too fast, amazing scenes that could take up 5000 words are going to be 500. I talk a lot more about controlling pacing here, but essentially, try to use your MCs senses and internal dialogue to create ‘space’ between physical events of the scene. In an action-packed scene that should fly by a little faster, cut these parts out and focus more on the physical action instead.

2. You aren’t utilizing the setting

Similar to pacing, you may be underutilizing the elements of the scene. Make sure you’re incorporating all of the senses—sight, sound, smell, taste if applicable, feeling. Even things such as the vibe or non-physical feeling of a place add something to the setting. Try to think of unique details that make a place more interesting—get specific!

3. You aren’t checking in with your MC

Memories, internal dialogue, ruminating and ideas are all things that bring us closer with the MCs and add to a scene. You can use these moments to develop their character, their dynamics with others, foreshadow or hint towards upcoming plot, or add or strengthen any other elements of the narrative. These check ins ultimately allow you to explore the unique perspective your MC has on a situation, and are a great opportunity for words!

4. Your scene went off a few lines back

Maybe it was a weird turn in dialogue or a missed opportunity, but sometimes just rewriting the scene and actively trying to take it in a different direction can dislodge something that’s sticking the gears. Don’t be afraid to write through different paths and options and find the one that works the best!

                What are some ways you find makes a scene go easier?

[keydekyie]

28,744 words

I guess I should start keeping my word count for book IV

[ddwcaph-game]

New Wordcount

I've finalized the next update's wordcount!

~ 608,000 total wordcount (including code) ~ 99,000 additional words (including code) ~ New average playthrough of 129,000 words! (up from 115k)

Keep in mind, there isn't actually a new chapter! All 99k of those additional words is spread out on all the existing chapters.

[the960writers]

Recently, our online community has been asking for word count tracker recommendations to help them keep up their daily writing goals. We’ve rounded up a few of them for you in no particular order.

Of course, if you prefer to track your writing sessions the analog way, we have a blog post for that. Coming soon is the sequel to that blog post, but we wanted to get these suggestions out to you first!

[harringrovemicroficandart]

Word count poll

I want to know your opinion about the word count of the challenge. I set 1000 words as a symbolic top but maybe it's too much for this kind of blog? I leave here some options, please let me know every other suggestion!

[vanosslirious]

SMii7y is trapped, and Brian is making jokes, and things don't really end well...

Words: 1.776 | 65.290

Excerpt:

"Hey, we just want to know how long we're gonna be here, some of us work," Brian said to the witch.

The man scoffed. "They won't be long."

"I wanted to interrogate the witch first," SMii7y called over to him. "Lila Woods, right? You guys have her, and since I'm part of Orion, I deserve to hear what she says before anyone else."

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Okay, Now We're Talking

Remember how I said that when I get to write what I know and am not having to do so much research that I can really knock out some wordcount? Well, I just averaged 1000 words/hour for the last three hours on The Everyday Naturalist. I think it's probably time for some dinner, and then back to writing!

[the-laridian]

Wordcount 7 Nov 2023

Legion ACG: 1098 (with @porkwithbones)

Warwilf (nano project): 1690

Legion ACG solo writing: 1704

Mob AU editing: 3802

Also today: ironed the remaining 50-some blocks of Autumn quilt, and trimmed all 80 of them. Tomorrow I'll see about laying them out for sewing.

Total for today: 8294

Total for November: 58,569

Total for 2023: 2,932,028

[keydekyie]

120,715 words

we are getting somewhere!!!

(last wordcount was January 14th at 118,013 words so this is great progress for me)

[shepherds-of-haven]

Almost 900k words and we're not even at chapter 13 yet 😭🙏 how many words do you think 1 playthrough will be?

I have no idea lol, I wouldn't even know how to begin calculating the length of an average playthrough versus total wordcount, and it doesn't seem that anyone's come up with a surefire way to do it yet! There's a technique that some people have said works--running randomtest and dividing the total wordcount it sees by the number of seeds it ran--and that number pops out something around 130,000 for an average playthrough, but I'm not totally convinced that's an accurate number, since my game is structured a bit differently (having all the day off stuff as a hub/recursive loop that's separated out into different files, and same with training sequences, glossary and codex, etc.). So I don't really see how that could be accurate at all, given that Chapter 5 alone is like 90,000 words... So I'm not really sure how to calculate that, unfortunately!

[the960writers]

SloMoWriNo

Over on @the-wip-project, @mareebrittenford started slomowrino, a challenge of writing a little every day to write one book (or more) in a year.

For this we're supposed to set a minimum goal and a maximum goal for our daily writing. And I must admit, that stumped me for a moment. Setting a minimum is easy enough, I've done that often enough. But a maximum? I have never set a maximum and for a little while, I kind of resented that idea. I mean, if I can write thousands of words more, why would not want that?

But as she wrote in the post:

The goal here isn’t to wring every drop out of your creative well in a single session, but to create a long term writing practice.

The point is to develop a habit, without burning out. And yes, I can see how a maximum would be a healthy limit. If I think back to the one time when I won nanowrimo, finishing by writing over the 3000 words every day during the last week and how I couldn't write anything for the next half year — yes, I get it.

So, this is my engagement post for SloMoWriNo. I'm setting my goals as

200 words minimum

and

2000 words maximum.

Uhm, yeah, that feels about right. I can always rejiggle this when the situation changes but I feel confident I can stay inside these two borders every day.

Interested in this challenge? Come over to the @the-wip-project and check out the intro post. We also have a discord server.

[space-blue]

oh.my,.fucking GOD

If I write a one shot that's 366 words........

[bornangelauthor]

NaNoWriMo Day 15: END!

I love that my daily word count looks like a roller coaster: I finished today with 6320 words and a total of 60,885 words in the book. #AmWriting #NaNoThatWriMo

And yes, I'm going to put it on here again PLEASE go check out my books!!!!

SALE ON BOOK BUNDLES! Also, there is a five chapter sample of both A Born Angel and The Stained Angel on my website. www.thebornangeluniverse.com/samples

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Frank are you part of the Kataru?

Nope. I'm just a web crawler on a different topic, somewhat less actively maintained but hopefully still functional.

[the-laridian]

Today I hit my 2023 goal of writing/editing 3 million words! And ahead of schedule, too!

Because I inflict this sort of challenge on myself regularly: Last year I kept track of my words and decided, you know, in 2023, why don't I aim for three million? Which required meeting an average Arbitrary Daily Word Goal of 8220 words/day. And by golly I did it. 

Having proved to myself that I can do this, I'm not intending to aim for a specific word goal in 2024. I'll still keep track of the words, though, and I'll keep track through the rest of 2023 as well, because then I can say, when asked what I got done this year, that I wrote/edited more than 3 million words. Which is guaranteed to not be a conversation starter.

However, Nanowrimo is still ongoing, and I'm doing two of them at once (cowriting and solo writing), so I have to finish those, too.

Go me!