Word Counts… Why Should I Care
When I first started writing, I scoured the internet trying to get tips on how others do it and what was required. I wondered what makes a novel a novel. Several sources I found referred to word counts. The consensus being that a fiction novel should be over 100,000 words with each chapter being around 2000 words. Since I believe everything I read on the internet, I kept this in the back of my mind as I cranked out chapter after chapter of Shiva’s Eye. When finished it measured a whopping 101,000 words. I felt like I had just hit the green with a perfect chip shot on a par 4. All I had to do now was tap that sucker in the hole.
Easy, right? Not so much. I began to edit said book , trimming and tightening each chapter. While doing this I didn’t pay much attention to the counts. I was just trying to making the damn thing better. After two passes though the editing process I looked at the count. 95,865 freakin’ words! This wasn’t a novel after all! Had I written an extremely long short story? I was a failure. I now had to shit 5,000 more words or the jig was up!
I was in the pit of despair. Whoa was me. It made me mad and frustrated that I was beholden to the status quo when it came to word counts. I feel like my book is good despite the count. It may be the biggest piece of shit ever written, who knows. (BTW, I am currently seeking peeps to read said piece of shit so that I can get some real world constructive criticism. If you would like to participate please give me a shout. Go to the contact page and shoot me an email)
After much consideration and meditation, I have come to a realization. That realization being that I don’t give a shit about word counts. It is a distraction at best and an arbitrary measurement at worst, put forth by ‘the man’. In the interest of full disclosure though, I have to admit that when I cross 2,000 words in a chapter a little voice in the back of my brain says ‘wrap it up!’
I am currently working on the follow up to Shiva and two other unrelated books. My total word count for all of my projects is up around 300,00 words and I am learning with every syllable. Knowing this, I will probably take another pass at Shiva so that I can put in some of the descriptive, flowery junk that I am not so great at. What I will not do though, is give a giant shit about how many words there are.
BTW, the above has exactly 453 words in it and nobody gives a rat’s ass!