Writing Word Counts
My current individual "word" stats are listed below. Happy counting!
June 2016
06/11/16: 1,487 (TAC)
06/06/16: 1,191 (TAC)
*KEY: "TAC" = The Artists Crypt by Deborah O'Toole with Tracy Jon Powell.
About Writing Word Counts
If I wasn't an author, I'd probably be a statistician. It's just in my nature to organize and track data of all kinds, especially information pertinent to my writing and all else related. I'm a Virgo, which might explain the tendency.
Since May 2010, I've kept track of my writing word counts. The process was inspired by the Daily Words Challenge. I try not to put pressure on myself in order to keep creative juices flowing, thus the multiple challenges. I always forgive myself if I fall short of any of the marks.
Someone asked me if it was time-consuming to track daily word counts, inferring it was an unnecessary task. However, the process takes mere seconds when using Microsoft Word. I can track entire documents, words as I type them or specific selections (such as paragraphs and sentences) with the click of a mouse.
For instance, the above paragraph contains fifty-three words. In Microsoft Word, simply select the text to be counted and glance at the status bar at the bottom of the page. If it's a large document but you only want to count specific text, the status bar will read "53/650" (text selected as opposed to the word count of the entire document). It's quick, easy and painless. Therefore, not time-consuming in the least.
Writers who plan to submit their work to traditional publishers typically have to provide a manuscript word count anyway, so keeping track from the get-go is a good idea.