Journal

Word Count

So I’ve been writing. Write, write, write. It’s taken a bit of adjustment, balancing this with the school work and all other things. In the past, I’d do one thing at a time. In fact, I’m still adjusting, though signs are that it’s working out. I’m pretty much on schedule, and learning where best to spend my energies in every given situation as I go along. This experience will definitely come in handy in the future when I’m no longer schooling.

I’m pretty much on schedule. That is, some completely imaginary/arbitrary schedule that I impose on myself. Usually, I have a daily goal and a mid-term goal. The mid-term goal tends to be for a deadline within the month or the next, and also tends to be either content-based or word count-based. If I have a good idea of what I’m doing, then it’ll be content-based, in the sense that I tell myself to finish this section or that by the deadline. If I don’t, then I imagine a number and tell myself that it would be nice to hit that number this month.

It’s all arbitrary. I pick these objectives out of the air. Whatever looks nice. And I adjust it as I go along.

I’m sure all of this looks very shallow, but the word count is one of my best friends because it reflects to me that I’ve actually done something. I don’t make it a point to make any section a particular length or endeavour to meet certain hard requirements; I’m actually very okay with just about anything, as long as it works. And frankly, it’s not a priority at all. The priority is to make sure that I don’t write trash. This comes a little lower down the list. (I probably chop and change the most of it eventually anyway.)

But you know, when you’re there, alone, at work, in for the long run, the word count is a very friendly thing to look at. It keeps you going. It’s like a marathon buddy. He (or she) can’t run for you; and if you take it the wrong way, you might feel as if you have something to live up to. But a buddy’s great to have in a marathon because she (or he) can cheer you on, crack a joke or two, and remind you of how far you’ve run (in a positive way, of course).

So I think that’s the reason I like to set some of these goals. I don’t actually get too disappointed if I don’t meet a deadline, but it reminds me not to slacken off and let everything die some kind of awful slow death, which used to happen a lot when I was much younger.

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© 2010 a modest odyssey.