Can you count to 10 (thousand)?

More on why word count is a novelist's best friend and worst enemy

I am currently writing book 2 of my middle grade epic fantasy Dark Circles and am closing in on the halfway point of the first draft of Do You Believe in Monsters? I began writing book 2 on May 21. As of June 17, I was at 49,135 words.

We’re not talking “almost 50,000” words. We’re talking exactly …

49,135

To those who have read some of my previous posts, you might remember that I’ve mentioned word count a few times already, which means that it must be weighing on my mind. To say that I keep track of my word count would be a vast understatement. Here’s how Book 2 stacks up thus far:

May 21: 2022 — +1012*; May 22: 2622 — +600; May 23: 4703 — +2081;
May 24: 6225 — +1522; May 25: 6808 — +583; May 26: 8380 — +1772;
May 27: 10096 — +1716; May 28: 12104 — +2008; May 29: 14182 — +2078;
May 30: 15,421 — +1239; May 31: 17506 — +2085; June 1: 19877 — +2371;
June 2: 21737 — +1960; June 3: 23563 — +1826; June 4: 25892 — +2329;
June 5: 28104 — +2212; June 6: 29883 — +1779; June 7: 31863 — +1980;
June 8: 33242 — +1379; June 9: 34625 — +1383; June 10: 35936 — +1311;
June 11: 38161 — +2225; June 12: 40170 — +2009; June 13: 41864 — +1694;
June 14: 43866 — +2002; June 15: 45910 — +2044; June 16: 48064 — +2154;
June 17: 49135 — +1071.

• I started at 1010 words because of my front and back-cover content.

June 17 was a bit of a flop because I finally decided to take a break and watch a movie. And since today (June 18) is Father’s Day, maybe I’m primed for a potential Flop 2.

I understand that some/most writers don’t pay much attention to word count. My wife is that way. She doesn’t count the words when she’s writing. And she doesn’t count the words when she’s done. She’s of the school that on any particular day she writes until she feels like stopping. And as far as the finished product, whatever length it turns out to be is the length it was meant to be.

Not me. If I don’t get in at least 1,500 words (June 17, for example), I feel like I’ve somehow failed. I do most of my writing in the evenings, and so I spend the daylight hours convinced that this will be the day when I can’t even break 100. (My wife is rolling her eyes, even as we speak.)

My assumption is that people who pay attention to word count will tend to finish projects faster than those who don’t. But faster, of course, doesn’t mean better.

Regardless, I’m a diehard word-counter and will probably always be one. On Do You Believe in Monsters?, I’m averaging 1754.8214285714287 words per day.

But who’s counting?

(I only added the last sentence because I was three words short.)