Wordcount matters…

But shouldn’t control you.

Knowing standard wordcount ranges for your genre is important to be marketable. Google it. Most writing coach websites and blogs have information on industry standards by genre. If you’re writing for you, for your happiness, then write as little or as much as you want! But if you want to put a marketable bound novel in the hands of readers out there in the wide world, then pay attention to wordcount.

Some may say, “My book doesn’t fit this range—and this author wrote a much longer book and look how successful they are!” Yes, but that is likely an outlier example and almost certainly wasn’t that author’s debut. So try to stick to the range.

I see fellow writers setting wordcount goals for themselves to stay on task. That’s great! But I have the opposite problem. I write too much. Most of my first drafts were ‘too long’ for industry standards for fantasy. Then I started second drafts and realized that I had rushed certain big moments, or didn’t take enough time to set the scene when I arrived at a new location—and I wanted to scream at the number on the bottom left of my screen, mocking me as I purposely increased total wordcount.

But like I mentioned in my last post Cut that unnecessary subplot… thousands of words can disappear during editing too.

Yes, wordcount matters, but shouldn’t control me during the writing process—because it will go up and down by the thousands during those first few drafts. I keep an eye on it, but I don’t let it hinder my creative work. When I get to the point where I feel draft two or three is “good” enough for beta readers, I am either within range by then, or slightly over and add the “what can I cut” question to the critique conversation. My lovely betas will tell me what was boring, dumb, unnecessary, etc. They say it nicely, but it helps to know where exactly I can save a few hundred or a few thousand words by eliminating scenes, subplots or characters that I don’t need. I smile and have more confidence once I get under that upper limit.

So sit down and write the words already, but watch the total.