Word Count, Vol.4:  14,861 (I’ve decided on a 2k words/day minimum, with more in the afternoon should I feel like it)

Thanks to All Who Bought Echo!  And BIG THANKS to Melissa, Barbara, Ian, Lorna, [anonymous], Lisa, Meg, Matt, Bobby, F.T., Alice Smith, Leslie Coop, Richard, Shauna, Sydney, Pam, Jessica, Angela, Kiesa, Ross, Keith, and Alice for posting AMAZING reviews on Amazon!!!  Ashley too for the 5 star on Nook!

News:  Back into drafting mode!  2k a day, with more if I feel like it in the pm!  That 14k word count is from six days worth of drafting, and I’m happy to say that my 3 month editing period for Echo Volume 3 hasn’t put any kinks in my flow of ideas.  The words come pretty easy, for the most part.  For those of you interested in the travails of a budding writer, I’ll explain why I settled on 2k.  Most of you, though, probably couldn’t care less, so feel free to stop reading, haha!

First off, for purposes of pure ego-stroking, 2k a day will make EVERY MONTH the equivalent of a NanoWriMo + in word count.  Secondly, Stephen King—who I’ve looked up to since my days of staying up late with a flashlight under the blanket so I can read books to my parents’ dismay—does 2k a day.  Also, the benefits of increasing word count start diminishing the more you push it past 2k.  I’ll explain below.

If my goal is to create a 90k word manuscript (a sci fi book is generally between 80 and a 100k in word count) then at 2k a day, I pop a rough out in 45 days.  Say I slow down to 1k a day; now I’m looking at finishing the manuscript in three months time—adding an extra 45 days onto my process, or making the whole thing 90 days in totality.  That’s an entire month and a half that I have to tack onto my publishing timeline.

Now if I DOUBLE my word count to 4k a day, I reach my 90k goal in 22.5 days, cutting the other 22.5 days off of my timeline.  So if I start stretching towards 1k a day, then I could possibly add another month onto my timeline, or if I turn the word count up to 4k a day, then I’m speeding things up by about three weeks.

Here’s where I personally stand on it:  I’m not ok with adding another 45 days (or even less) onto my rough horizon of a 45 day completion (for rough draft).  That being the case, I’m also not okay with going crazy trying to do 4k a day so I can save myself a lousy three weeks.  An extra three weeks is okay in my book.  That’s how I’ve come to my magic number of 2k words a day.

I’m sure that’s probably one of my more boring weekly updates, but I know a small percentage of you are interested in the writing process as well as the writing itself.  I hope I’ve managed to add another interesting tidbit onto Kent Wayne’s Writing Journeys.  Right now I gotta get a new watch (lost my watch a few days ago and I hate not being able to time my rest periods when I’m lifting), so I think I’m done writing for today—it is the weekend after all.  Anyways, if you are a writer, I wish you inspired drafting and insightful editing!