Writing Word Counts
My current individual "word" stats are listed below. Happy counting!
JULY 2024
07/19/24: 2,626 (LOI)
07/16/24: 27,945 (HS; editing)
07/15/24: 19,501 (HS; editing)
07/13/24: 1,773 (HS; editing)
07/11/24: 3,344 (HS; first draft complete)
07/08/24: 2,081 (HS)
07/06/24: 3,954 (HS)
07/04/24: 2,132 (HS)
07/03/24: 1,407 (HS)
07/01/24: 1,411 (HS)
CURRENTLY WORKING ON:
*KEY: "HS" = Hearts in Sorrow by Deborah O'Toole writing as Deidre Dalton.; and "LOI" = Limb of Iniquity by Deborah O'Toole writing as Deidre Dalton.
Other books in the works: Celtic Fragments (sequel to Celtic Remnants), and Spirit of the Ossuary (sequel to The Crypt Artist).
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 Inkygirl Wordcount Challenge. I try not to put pressure on myself in order to keep the creative juices flowing, and always forgive myself if I fall short of the challenge.
Someone once 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.