by Noelle Sterne
We writers often puzzle (or obsess) over this question: For writing productivity, should I count words or track my time?
Successful authors’ self-imposed word count quotas vary greatly, as lists show. A daily word count can be doable (Hemingway 500) or ghastly (Michael Crichton 10,000).
Many articles appear on word counts, but fewer articles focus on time tracking. Most pieces on time focus on helping us find that elusive time to write. I’ve used both time tracking and word count, and once I find—or, more accurately, make—the time to write, I’ve found that counting time works better than counting words.
Writing Productivity: Why Time?
Emulating the best-selling word-counting writers, I tried tracking words and gave up in red-faced chagrin.
Some days my production was single-digit, and on good days I made it to twenty or thirty words.
But tracking time freed me from that inner word count critic for many reasons. Perhaps they’ll work for you.
1. To Boost Writing Productivity, Relax
Relax into the session.
I start the session with an affirmation: I deserve this time.
No frenzied typing simply to fill the page or meet the word count. (I am not a fan of NaNoWriMo.)
2. In That Relaxing, Take Your Time and Sink Into the Work
Stop, picture, imagine, feel the place, weather, character, situation, time of day or night.
Immerse.
3. As You Immerse, You May Need More Information…
about the environment, the characters, the clothes, or other details.
So you do some research (bless the Internet). Of course, a little self-discipline is required not to keep reading and researching during your writing time way beyond what you need (or clicking on PopSugar).
When I research a place, time, event, or procedure and discover a perfect article or explanation, I make a PDF of it and file it in my folder of the current work. The piece is then easily accessible for reference.
4. Incorporate the Information You’ve Found, Increasing Writing Productivity
As I’m writing, I can pull up the information I found and choose a lot or a little, adapt it to the characters and setting, or add details that appear from my immersion.
Often I write myself notes right in the draft: “MORE HERE? IS THE ROCKY COASTLINE COMMON IN THIS PART OF THE COUNTRY? HOW ROCKY IS IT? HOW DOES SHE FEEL ABOUT/REACT TO THE ROCKY COASTLINE?”
In the next draft, I can do more research, answer those questions, edit, synopsize, expand.
5. Live in Your Setting
Without the word-count constraint, you engage with what you’ve just learned. Like the woman near the rocky coastline, you take the time to live in the setting.
I did a story about a city woman who went to the country one weekend and experienced an epiphany of wonder when she picked wild berries in an overgrown field.
After researching types of wild berries, I imagined myself in the field, the grasses tickling my legs and the fragrant breezes caressing my hair. I felt the soft furry silk of the berries between my fingers and their gentle resistance as I plucked them and placed them in my bucket. And then I wrote about it all.
6. To Enjoy More Writing Productivity, Get Quiet and Ask
If your current project doesn’t require research, and you find the words aren’t coming, you have the freedom to get quiet, connect with your Inner Writer, and ask some prompting questions:
What do I want to express now?
What is most effective here?
What is my next step, my next word?
Listen. Don’t hurry or fret. Just wait. The answers will come.
7. For Increased Writing Productivity, Heed the Serendipitous Answers
The answers will surface, either quickly or slowly, and often after your session while you’re doing something else.
Sometimes too they’ll appear not for the section you’re working on but for the next segment, section, chapter, essay, even book. Pay attention! Take down these thoughts and words! File or paste them in the most logical place, which you’ll remember.
You’re not wasting time or stalling. You’re allowing your intuition to lead you, and you’ll eventually circle back to where you left off.
In my current novel, as I intended to continue the section on the screen in front of me, another scene floated in, almost full-blown. I obeyed—and drafted the whole thing. This was an important part, and I placed it at another point in the book.
So, respect and follow the flowerings, the expansions, and yes, the (apparent) digressions. They can supply precious material for now or later or even another piece.
8. Allow Thinking
Your fingers don’t have to be busy every second to meet some impossible word count that matches or beats another writer’s.
In our relentless do-and-achieve society, we rarely allow ourselves the delicious space of staring into the space of our vast inner universe. And we need this reflective, thinking time.
Take a little time to stare. When you look like you’re doing “nothing”—when you’re thinking or (horrors!) daydreaming—you’re working too. If something from the ubiquitous to-do list rears its intrusive head, acknowledge it, scratch down a reminder if you must, and let it go by.
Then return to your floating now state. This is where rich and truly productive ideas come from.
9. For Optimal Writing Productivity, Yield to the Flow
You may find, to your consternation and delight, that a few minutes into your session the words start to flow. You’re typing or scribbling like a fugitive from NaNoWriMo.
Sometimes, when I immerse and let go, I write a sumptuously shocking amount in fifteen minutes, like 500 words (couldn’t resist counting a little). In the state of the Flow, we feel in control but paradoxically are surrendering.
We follow where the words lead and often feel like we’re taking down dictation. Words and ideas come easily and effortlessly; insights pop up clear as winter air. We’re powerful, wholly creative, alive. The Flow is its own reward, and of course we accomplish our work.
10. Revel in the Satisfaction
The most convincing reason I’ve found for tracking time over words is satisfaction.
This is the fulfillment of producing at least part of a decent draft. With an ominously hovering word quota, I’m tempted to type anything. If I succumb, I leave the desk unfulfilled, empty, and can’t escape the feeling that I haven’t really done anything.
But when I let go of numbers to free my mind, I make room. Words and images float in, the stuff of astounding, fresh similes and metaphors that capture exactly what I need to express.
In a recent session, as I stared into space and wondered how on earth to describe my protagonist’s loss, the perfect words and image appeared: her loss felt “like a sinkhole threatening to suck her under.”
To Motivate Future Writing Productivity, Record Your Precious Time
On a more down-to-earth note, record your time stints. They prod your motivation and add to your satisfaction. The record doesn’t have to be elaborate, and you can access premade templates (for example, Timekeeper).
I created a simple graph with five columns in Word: the day, date, time from-to, number or fraction of devoted hours, and title of the work. If you must, add a column for word count but don’t let it get you down.
I keep my graph by the month, and it helps me see:
- (a) the times of day I’ve written,
- (b) my hotter days and times, and
- (c) my sustained efforts on various projects.
Sometimes, and often for a particular project, I notice that I write better at 8:00 pm than 10:00 am and schedule the writing time accordingly.
A Timely Conclusion
It’s up to you, of course, to set and monitor your writing in whatever way feels best.
You may need to experiment, but choose what most pleases and encourages you. If mounting words turns you on, fine. I love seeing the mounting hours on my projects, with the byproduct often a large number of words.
And nothing matches that feeling of luxuriating in the sacred time I’ve chosen to create.
That’s why I count time over words.
Note: For more help boosting writing productivity, see Overwhelmed Writer Rescue. or check out Noelle’s other article, “The One Thing that Helped Me Write More Consistently.”
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Author, editor, writing coach, workshop leader, and academic mentor and nag, Noelle Sterne has published over 700 stories, essays, writing craft articles, spiritual pieces, and occasional poems in literary and academic print and online venues.
Eons ago, she published a children’s book of original dinosaur riddles (HarperCollins), in print for 18 years. More recently, her handbook to assist doctoral candidates is based on my professional academic practice (PhD, Columbia University): Challenges in Writing Your Dissertation: Coping with the Emotional, Interpersonal, and Psychological Struggles (Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2015).
In her spiritual self-help book, Trust Your Life: Forgive Yourself and Go After Your Dreams (Unity Books, 2011), she draws examples from her academic consulting and other aspects of life to support readers in reaching their lifelong yearnings. Continuing with her own, she is draft-deep in her third novel, with more clogging her files.
For more information on Noelle and her work, please see her website.