writing wednesdays: on word counts

I have a love-hate relationship with word counts. If you've read any of my posts, you know I'm planner. I like my project plans and deadlines and those, obviously, include how many words I need to write on any given day in order to meet said deadlines. 

When I started this crazy month-long rewrite, I calculated that I'd need to write about 3,000 words a day. Now, for me, that's insane. I've attempted NaNoWriMo on numerous occasions but never completed it (although, truth be told, I've never been at the starting point of a manuscript when November rolled around; somehow I'm always revising). But this time, I didn't have a choice. So I took a dry erase calendar and marked down how many words I needed per day, giving myself a smaller count on days I knew I had less time, and more words on the days I didn't have to go anywhere. 

Every day, I write how many words I did that day as well as the total for the manuscript. Here's why ... 

Some days, the words flow and I crush my goal. But, predictably,  there are days when I feel like I'm deleting more than I'm writing. Seeing the low number under the goal frustrates me. On those days, especially, I focus on the total word count for the manuscript. Seeing how much I've actually managed to write in a short period is the boost I need to keep going. If I only focused on the less-than numbers, it would be too easy to see the failure.

So, yeah, I cringe when setting word count goals, but I also know it's a necessary part of the process for me.