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How Many Words? #MFRWAuthor Blog Challenge

Simply Romance Posted on by

Words on the Page

For this week’s MFRW Blog Challenge and Hop, we’re talking about word count.

One thing is for sure: if you’re going to write a book, you need to get words on a page. But how many? How often?

One Author’s Rule

Author John Grisham just came out with some rules for writers, and one of them was that you should produce 200 words every day on your work in progress. That is a slow process for a full-length book!

But it makes sense. And if you set that as the low bar, you can work guilt-free through bouts of sick kids, visits from in-laws, and crises in the day job.

My Way

One of the hardest things in the world for me is getting that first draft on the page. I actually enjoy the editing, revising, and polishing processes, which take me forever…because getting the first draft down is excruciating.

I only have hard and fast rules about word count when I’m challenging myself to get the first draft out. I’m in the midst of one of those challenges right now, working on the fifth book in my Sons of the Spy Lord series. I’m shooting for 500 words per day, and so far not doing so well.

And so…I’d better get back to that book!

This is a blog hop, so hop along with my fellow MFRW authors and see what they have to say on this topic.

Image credits: MFRW, and Wikimedia Commons

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Comments

How Many Words? #MFRWAuthor Blog Challenge — 12 Comments

  1. I’m beginning to realize that my brain was in a totally different place when I wrote my blog post than everyone else’s LOL. I didn’t even think about daily word count, but that’s probably because a few years ago I had to stop setting word-count goals and focus on time spent in front of the computer. I agree with you that the bottom line is that a writer needs to get words on the page. We each need to do what works for us at the moment. There have been times in my career when I’d have laughed at Grisham’s 200 words a day, and other times when that rule would have felt far too demanding.

    • Going by time spent at the computer is another good way to manage, as long as I don’t start browsing through social media!

  3. Good luck with your draft. 500 words sounds doable, if you’re not me. LOL I set a goal for 600 words a day this year and yeah, it’s been a struggle. But I keep trying.

    • I like Nora Roberts’ philosophy–if the words aren’t on the page, we can’t fix them later.

  5. The thing with aiming for 500 or 200 words per day, or even 8 minutes of writing per day, is that is gets you to sit down and just write. Some days, you’ll undoubtedly write more than you expect, which is manna from heaven.

  6. Social media and blog posts like the ones we are doing for this challenge sure can get in the way of actual WIP writing. I’m learning to write first and check social media later…way later.

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