Word Count

I’m three chapters into the first draft of my first book, which for now is humorously called Working Title (WT). The story’s flowing freely. I’m feeling really good about writing it. What I have noticed is that I have an obsession with word count.

I’m obsessed with the idea that a novel needs to be a certain number of words, that I’d need to get to such and such a number to be able to publish as a novella. I obsess over how many words are in a chapter, is it enough, is it too much? This isn’t a new phenomenon. I remember when I still wrote on paper figuring out my word count when I’d finished writing.

Sometimes even part way through writing I’d stop and count how many words were in a line, how many lines on a page. I don’t think it ever reached the mythical number that was in my head. I always ended up disappointed.

So this morning I freed up my little obsession and I’m happy to report that my words are flowing easier than ever on the page.

I should mention here that amongst other things I’m a qualified NLP practitioner, hypnotherapist and coach. Whilst I don’t currently take on clients I’m very used to using my skills on myself. It is not a difficult thing to do though. To recognise a thought process that’s holding you back and do something about it.

Why don’t you try it yourself, it’s incredibly liberating!