Samantha over at
Day By Day Writer does a neat little word count update where she posts her current word count, new words written, and the words she needs until her goal, including a fluctuating daily-required count. I love the idea of keeping track that way, so I've decided to steal her idea and do my own while keeping my weekly goals as well.
Current word count: 10,698
Goal last week: 5,000
Accomplished: 3,625
Words 'til finish: 49,302/948 words a day until the end of October.
Goal this week: 6,636
Excuses / comments: Things were busy this last week with my daughter's birthday and all the wedding planing going on. I didn't do as much as hoped, but I'm definitely making progress. If I want to make my goal of being done with a new draft by NaNo, I have to maintain 948 words a day right now, coming in at a total of 6,636 for this next week. I'm not sure I'll be able to do it with everything that's going on at the moment, but I've done 1k a day in the past (easily) so I know I'm more than capable. After all, I managed NaNo last year, and that was around 11,000 words a week, wasn't it? Right. So I'll just tell myself...I can, I can, I can.
How are your goals coming along? Anyone else waiting to hear who
Tabitha's new agent is? The full story is supposed to come out
tomorrow. Woot! Congrats Tabitha!
Anytime I start a new project I have the following goal: 50,000 words in 30 days. If I can do it for NaNo, then I can do it personally. On one project, I hit the 50,000 word mark in . . . two weeks. The writing, for that project, was close to an obsession. Fast Forward more than 2 years later and I'm on the final revision phase of the project. Woo-hoo. Queryland here I come!
ReplyDeleteI initially started my writing blog to keep track of my progress on whatever WiP I was working on at the time. The blog has morphed into something else, but keeping track of words written per day, how I felt about what I wrote, and all that jazz was great.
Best of luck on meeting your goal.
S
Still, 3600 words in a week is really good!
ReplyDeleteOh, and congrats on being Beth Revis's blog of the month. Go you!
I always have a hard time imagining the word count goal, over all. It makes the process feel too forced for me. Whether it ends up at 70K or 110, it's the story that defines it for me. But that's me.
ReplyDeleteNo goal this week.....yucky. Wrote some, but nothing very good. Can't wait until the beginning of the year craziness passes and things settle down.
ReplyDeleteGood for you on your word count!
Shelley
My kids still haven't started school, so the only goal I've set is to get any writing done. A sentence? Works for me. A paragraph? Celebrate! A whole page? Happy dance around the room! :)
ReplyDeleteAs for word count goals, I can never guess how big a story will be until it's done. I tend to write sparse in the first draft, and have to add meat to the bones in subsequent drafts. My YA novel was 30k in the first draft, but ended up being 55k in the final draft. Same thing is happening with my WIP. I could take a guess, but I'd probably be waaaay off. So I don't bother. :) Instead, I set goals in chapters.
I have to echo Elana and say CONGRATS on being Beth's blog of the month!! Your blog is fabulous (I've already said this) and this is an award you totally deserve. :)
And thanks for the shout out! It was almost like therapy when I wrote out my agent story, and I'm really excited to share it with everyone tomorrow. :)
Hi Scott! That's an ambitious goal. A good one though, if you an manage it. Congrats on being nearly done with your revisions! That must be a great place to be. Give my regards to queryland when you get there. I hope to visit someday. : )
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Elana. 3600 words is definitely better than what I was doing just a couple weeks ago. It sounds like your doing great as well!
Aimee, I used to be hesitant to make an overall word count goal, too, but I like knowing where I stand, so I started aiming towards "suggested word counts" for YA and it's worked well enough. If I write less or more, it doesn't really matter, because I generally don't stray more than 10k from 60k.
I hope things settle down soon for you, Shelley! You'll get back on track when it does.
I love your attitude, Tabitha! I tend to write a bit light in first drafts as well. Chapter by chapter goals are great. We all have to find what works best for us!
Thanks again for the mention in your SCBWI article, and I can't wait to read your agent story tomorrow!
Hi :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
I know you will hit your word count goals.
:)
All the best,
@RKCharron
xoxo
Hi RKCharron! Thanks for your belief in me. I hope I can prove you right and hit my goals.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by!
Yeah you! And congrats on getting Beth's blogger award. She's the best.
ReplyDeleteAs far as myself, I'm having my face to face critique group talk about my first chapter tonight. Nervous! Maybe they will tell me it's good or not.
I'm doing another fine tuning of the end of my book.
But it's almost ready to go. I think! Maybe by the end of the week if I don't sleep much?
I'll be using your blog for help!
I hope your talk went well with your critique group, Christina. Congrats on being just about done! How exciting. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail if you need help with anything. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteHey Casey, I'm so behind him my blog reading and just saw this. I'm thrilled you like my word count and are using something similar. One of the interesting things I found in doing it -- because a list person who likes to be able to check things off -- having to put that word count up every day motivated me to make sure it was going up, even if it didn't go up as much as my goal was some days, I at least wanted it to go up. So, I highly recommend this to anyone whether you have a blog or not -- having a blog is great because then it's like you're kept accountable because you're showing it to your readers. But even if you're just keeping note on a piece of paper, post in your fridge and change it every day.
ReplyDelete