Whoops

Apologies to Silver for the gender reassignment

Are You Sick of Word Count Yet?

I know, I go on and on about word count, but I think it's one of the key issues facing both new and experienced writers.

I've got a weekend with a goal of 6,000 words. How am I going to accomplish that?

1. Sharpen the axe - write longhand for a few minutes at the start of the writing session about what's going to happen, what everyone's feeling, and how it ties in to the rest of the story
2. Chop it up - don't try to get all your words in one daily session. If your attention starts to flag, go do something else and come back later. Try three sessions — 800/800/400
3. Just a few more - I get an extra few hundred words in at the end of the day by telling myself "Just a few more paragraphs."
4. On a Roll - By all means, if you're on a roll and the words are flowing, keep going!

Some interesting figures
If you wrote 2000 words a day, 5 days a week here's what you'd have:

• 1 week - a 10k novelette
• 1 month - 2 40k novella
• 2 months - a full-length novel
• 1 year - 6 novels

I personally couldn't keep up the pace for a year; I think writing 2k/day is more like a sprint than a marathon, but it might be worth sprinting sometimes to get more of your stories out there into the world!

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