Abandon Word Counts: Unpopular Opinion about NaNoWriMo

"There are three rules to writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are," - W. Somerset Maugham

Happy National Novel Writing Month, fellow writers! We've got a couple of days under our belt, maybe you're doing great, maybe you hate yourself a little bit. Regardless, I'm here to drop some truth on why word counts are toxic for me and why it's worth considering to move away from word counts. 

November 2014 was my first NaNo experience - I was still working on A Cactus In the Valley in my freshman year of high school. I went at it for about a week, and then petered out. 

Every day, I felt like a failure for not meeting my word count goal, despite having written some good content during that first week of NaNo. And then my quality started to decline. I thought - why do this if I'm just going to emotionally drain myself and write garbage? Keeping track of my word counts makes me feel like a failure, no matter what the actual quality of what I wrote was. 

Ever since then, I've been super strict about not keeping abreast to what my word count of a particular project was. For me, it puts a quantifier on something that can't really be quantified. 

NaNoWriMo also judges success on word count, instead of quality. And maybe that's the point for newer writers who need to just let loose. 

However, I judge my writing - and my writing sessions - not on length or word count, but by quality and how far I progressed. Did I finish a chapter? Did I finish a couple of scenes? Then I surely had a successful writing night, no matter how many words I wrote. 

However, sometimes, I'll still feel the nag to constantly check my word count or judge how short something is in comparison to something else. And honestly, I feel like the writing community is partially to blame for this mentality, and the almost religious adherence to word counts. 

But are you ready for this: word count doesn't matter. At least not when it comes to the quality of your story/your writing. Sure, word count matters when you're submitting something or when you're cutting or fleshing out to adhere to genre conventions for novel length. However, when writing - just write. Don't try and slap a number on your success or failure. 

Now, don't get me wrong and say that I'm trying to convert you who swear by word counts. If you have found success through NaNoWriMo, then more power to you. 

What I am trying to do is help you see it in a new light, from another perspective, from someone who has failed at NaNoWriMo every single year, but still manages to write award-winning stories - both long and short. Find your own creative process that works for you. Don't feel like you have to measure your success on arbitrary word counts.

Success in writing comes not from quantity - not even from quality sometimes - but in a story that is creatively satisfying to you. One that changes you. Don't let believing that you have to write X-amount of words in order to achieve success stop you from actually persevering and writing that story. 

So, hence, screw word counts. I don't use them. They stress me out. I only use them when I'm completely done with a story. 

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. 

~The WordShaker