Word Count or Set Aside Time?

[Sandor]

For writing routines, do ya'll strive for a certain word count or do you write for a period of time? I've tried word count, and I find it decent for strict deadlines when I have nothing to shop around, but I tried writing for an hour today and it works well. The current Novella I'm writing doesn't have an established outline yet, so I'm kind of just taking the night to write, read, and maybe watch a movie. If I spend an hour writing, that's good, especially if I don't have something established I can just write through.

 

[Night Herald]

I usually freestyle, typically meaning a frenzied session of anywhere from 4 to 16 hours (obviously with breaks). I enjoy the feeling of timelessness when I write. Helps me stay in the moment and focus solely on the work.

Aiming for a word count never worked for me. I find it super distracting, and it messes with my flow. I've caught myself using long phrases where a succinct word or two would be better, solely to reach my quota faster. Guess it's because I'm a lifelong gamer and therefore wired to want to fill up bars of things and fabricate higher numbers. That's just no good.

I've found some success with timers, though. I've tried now and again to create a kinda-sorta normal workday for myself, to get away from my normal frenzy -> burnout -> inactivity cycle. It sort of works, but I'm not a creature of routine (okay, so I'm undisciplined) and I haven't yet managed to stick to it for very long. Just knowing there's a timer lurking in the background stresses me, if only ever so slightly, and often makes me try to churn out words faster at the cost of quality. Haven't given up on it, it's something I could probably get used to.

So yeah, the best thing for me is a freestyle frenzy for new drafts, and mellow tinkering for revisions.

 

[Madman Starryteller]

I try to write until I run out of steam or am interrupted by pesky mortal needs.

Reading the word count at the end of a session is satisfying, but I don't tend to write to a certain word count goal.

 

[Louanne Learning]

Definitely a "set aside time" writer here. I never aim for a word count, but slowly plod through the unfolding of the story. I kind of edit as I go.

 

[Dogberry's Watch]

Since I write by hand first, I don't know my word count until I type it all up. I usually write for an hour a day on my lunch break, and if the going is good, I can get about three pages of standard notebook paper written. Sometimes I've written for several hours a day on the weekend and gotten up to 14 pages done. That always feels like some kind of marathon.

 

[Sandor]

Since I write by hand first, I don't know my word count until I type it all up. I usually write for an hour a day on my lunch break, and if the going is good, I can get about three pages of standard notebook paper written. Sometimes I've written for several hours a day on the weekend and gotten up to 14 pages done. That always feels like some kind of marathon.

What's your experience writing by hand like? Is typing it up a bother? What got you writing by hand and why do you feel it works better for you than typing?

 

[X Equestris]

I strive for word count, because time isn’t a useful metric for me. Five hundred or a thousand words is a better sign of how productive I’ve been and how much closer I am to finishing than writing for four hours but only coming away with one or two hundred words.

 

[Luxuria]

I do words written. Because I can get easily absorbed in writing and there goes the whole damn day! Laundry? Nah. Dishes? Nah! Doing anything else? NO! I'm writing!

So, I must have a word-count limit for the day. Which is 1000 words. That way, I feel I have gotten things done, but also can do other things. Have I worked on training myself to write in 1000 word chunks? No! Not at all. But it's a goal.

 

[Sandor]

I strive for word count, because time isn’t a useful metric for me. Five hundred or a thousand words is a better sign of how productive I’ve been and how much closer I am to finishing than writing for four hours but only coming away with one or two hundred words.

Sometimes I use wordcount, which works very well when I have a story I love very much and that's outlined with established characters. When I'm not fully outlined I tend to just sort of pick at it till it gets to that state, or I finish a first draft. I have a mental health disorder, some days it's too much of a struggle to write. Those days its more important to be kind to myself and to just write a little and maybe edit or outline a little. To be honest I think that happens to everyone, people do have busier or more difficult days. Overall I've grown to believe in the idea of a "writing muscle" you need to keep up. I do think it can get sprained though - if you write beyond what you can handle reasonably, you might end up struggling to write in the near future. That's my experience, it might be different for other people.

 

[Dogberry's Watch]

What's your experience writing by hand like? Is typing it up a bother? What got you writing by hand and why do you feel it works better for you than typing?

It hurts my wrist now since I'm closer to forty, but I ignore the pain for the love of the words. I didn't have a laptop when I started writing as a youngster, and so I would get notebooks. It feels more natural to me to write by hand, and I get to feel the words physically leaving me that way. Typing it up is a bother, but only because I wait to do it so it becomes a marathon. I think I typed 40k words in a weekend once, and that was gross. I should try typing a chapter when it's finished, see if that helps me out.