Should you have a daily word count goal? Pros, cons & alternatives
Published 3 days ago • 3 min read
Hello!
Lots of writers set daily or weekly targets, and if you're writing a novel (or working on any major project), it often makes sense to break it down in terms of words.
For instance, if you're writing a 90,000 word novel and you want to finish in six months, that's 15,000 words per month, or about 500 words per day.
And that would work really well ... if the writing process only involved getting fresh words on the page.
But even when you've got a great plan for your novel, you'll probably have to take a mental step back and re-think or re-plot at some point during the first draft. Plus, you may want to do some editing as you go as well (for instance, if you're preparing a section to share for feedback).
So should you be setting word count goals? Or doing something else instead?
Word count goals are great for:
Easily measurable progress. Unless you're writing by hand, it's very easy to get a word count: any writing software you're using will provide one.
Knowing whether you're on track for your goal completion date. If you're hitting 15,000 words per month, you'll have 90,000 words after six months.
Seeing the process stack up. You can easily add up your words written, day by day ... and watching that total increase can be really motivating.
But having a word count goal can also be stressful. It means:
You never know how long you'll need to spend writing. While you'll probably have a sense of your writing speed (e.g. your average time to write 1,000 words), some parts of your story will just be easier to write than others.
You might be tempted to write when you need to take a step back. If what matters is "words on the page", it's easy to rush into writing a scene that might not belong in your story at all.
Word count goals aren't right for everyone.
One Writers' Cafe member mentioned in her check-in this week that a time-based goal (15 minutes a day) was far more encouraging than a word count goal: "Not having a word count goal is helping me a lot to keep from getting discouraged. As long as I write for 15 minutes it doesn't matter how much I get down!"
Use a word count goal if it's a good fit for you (and if you're willing to change tack when you need to do more thinking or editing than writing). But if a word count goal is making you feel stressed or hemmed in, some great alternatives are:
Setting a time-based goal, like "write for 15 minutes a day" or "write for 5 hours this week".
Setting a goal to do something on your novel every day, even if you just write a sentence, or a few bullet points.
Setting a goal based on scenes or chapters (e.g. one chapter per week).
There's no one "right" way to set goals with your fiction-writing: what matters is that you're making progress ... and enjoying the process. :-)
Happy writing,
Ali
P.S. Writers' Cafe is open right now if you'd like to set goals and celebrate your writing progress with us ... we'd love to have you! See below for more details.
Writers' Cafe is open for new members until the end of January!
We have lots going on in Writers' Cafe, but everything we do is designed to help move you from "novel idea" to "finished novel".
Each week, we have:
💬 Weekly check-ins to keep you on track: this is where we share word count / scene / time / etc targets.
📅 Live writing hours (usually one every day!) so you can put writing on your calendar ... and have the encouragement of fellow writers.
💡 A fresh writing prompt to give you inspiration, if you want to dig deeper into the characters/plot or come up with a new scene.
💬 Our feedback & support hour, where we'll read and offer feedback on your writing ... or just answer your writing-related questions.
We've also got lots more going on each month, like:
📖 Our virtual writing retreats: the first of those is this Friday: join before then and you can take part too! The agenda is here.
💭 Practical writing workshops. You get access to all past workshops as soon as you join: you can watch them in the Cafe or download them.
And I'm always around to answer questions, give you a hand if you're stuck on anything, or just talk about writing.
You can get all the details about Writers' Cafe here:
... or just hit "reply" if you'd rather have a chat about it. We can get together on a video call and I can give you a virtual tour of the Cafe.
Ali
P.S. I'll be closing the virtual doors of Writers' Cafe on Sat 31st Jan, and I don't yet know when I'll be opening it up again ... so if you are thinking of joining us, do check it out this week or next.
You can join for a month or two if you just want some short-term support, or for a full year (recommended, as it gives you time to make huge progress with your novel, plus it works out cheaper per month).
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