word count // #hopewriterlife

day 5 // word count ✨

I used to obsess over word counts.
But then again, I studied creative writing in college where stories always had to be certain lengths, & I’m also a product of NaNoWriMo..

But the more I dig into my own writing now, the more I don’t care about the number of words I write each day.

Just that I’m writing & creating things that matter.

Word counts have their place in writing, but when they become the sole focus of a day’s productivity, I tend to miss all the good work I did do. When I focus on numbers, I find myself withdrawing into that inner critic who tells me “today doesn’t matter because you didn’t hit your goal of 500, 1000, 1667 words.”

But the truth of the matter is this:
If I wrote 5 words today, I wrote.
I made progress.
I moved forward.

So these days, I don’t set word counts. Instead, I set writing goals of simply getting words down on paper or screen.
Maybe it’s novel number 2.
Maybe it’s novel number 3.
Maybe it’s an Instagram post or dialogue with a writer friend.

Whatever my words my be, my hope is that they matter to whomever will read them: now or years from now.

But I can tell you... that final word count when I finish a novel?
That’s one worth celebrating

_______
This post originated on Instagram as part of the Hope Writer’s #hopewriterlife challenge round 2, but I’m sharing it here are part of my Notes from a Writer’s Desk series.