Saturday, 7 February 2015

Target practise?




Target practise

One of the things I slavishly try to follow is word counts. I can no more give them up than I can just eat one small square of chocolate!
I set a target for the week and then for each day depending on what else may be required of me in terms of the rest of my life, and then I go for it! You’d think that would be great, eh? Not a bit of it. You see for me it’s all or nothing… If something gets in the way and I have less time, I will abandon the day. It’s a case of ‘have a chance of getting there or not bother at all’! Can’t be healthy can it? Once I start however it would have to be a pretty serious emergency for me to forgo my target and settle for less.
 In my defence, I am generally realistic with what I can achieve – I learnt a long time ago that not being realistic was a sure fire recipe for disaster and next to know words done at all!! My method does get me there though so I have learnt to trust my instincts and respect my need for targets.

I think it may be the ‘tick off’ bit of my psyche that controls this. I love’ to do’ lists and can’t help but experience a sense of achievement when I tick something off. The word count sheet is similar and I feel satisfied when I can tick off that I made my target. Mo matter if the actual words are total garbage!! As someone said, elsewhere, you can’t revise or edit something you’ve not actually put down on paper. Now that’s another story…

 
So do you make word count lists (or time spent lists) and then stick to them?
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous9 February 2015 at 20:10

    The only time I worry about my word count is during NaNoWriMo.

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  2. Arlee Bird10 February 2015 at 02:09

    Right now I just blog and don't think of specific word counts. I do think the word counts represent progress or least an appearance of accomplishment. Even if most of the words get scrapped later at least the process of having initially created the words is an exercise in writing.

    I would probably do better in my writing life if I set goals and made lists like you're doing. I know when I've done NANO I've been good at meeting the goals that challenge set for me. I probably need to create my own personal NANO of a kind with a word count that suits my level of comfort.

    Arlee Bird
    A to Z Challenge Co-host
    Tossing It Out

    ReplyDelete
  3. Denise Baer11 February 2015 at 10:47

    I'm bad at word counts. I probably should start setting weekly word count goals, but up until now, I haven't done so. Thanks for the food for thought.

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  4. Carol Kilgore14 February 2015 at 00:32

    I'm much like you. But with my new project, I'm trying something different. It feels more natural, and I'm less stressed. Time will tell if it works.

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  5. Rena George21 February 2015 at 10:36

    I love my lists, too, Pat, but then I’m an organising freak. Nothing would ever get done if I didn’t plan it. Setting a daily word count is such a great idea. Even on those days when you don’t quite meet that target you will still have got further than if you just left it all to chance. Love the blog BTW. xx

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