“Whoever writes the most words in a day, wins!”
Is this what we’ve come to?
That’s why we’re Writing All Wrong.
How many words should I write in a day?
—Nathan Burt, Cantonment, Fla.
What?
This isn’t NaNoWriMo. This isn’t a contest. This is writing. Art. Do or do not. There is no word count goal in life.
So what occasions this question? Oh, I know!
Writers.
Writers who will toot the rusty trumpet of wordcount boasts by the 500s, 1000s, 1500s, and OMG I WROTE OVER 9000 WORDS TODAY. Writers who have slit throats and slain the “good writing goats” over the profane altars of “Most Words Wins.” Writers who forgot that writing isn’t probs, probes, stats, or maths. This isn’t a numbers game.
You misspelled quality. Looks like you wrote quantity instead. That’s your problem.
Is it OK to eke out some occasional hollow boasts of word count in your Tweets, posts, and braindumps? Can’t fine or arrest you for that. We’re all guilty. But don’t make it a habit.
Don’t be guilty of surfing with the popular crowds of crows, shouting out into the nothing about the numeric dent they’ve made in their #wip. Don’t strut like an ostrich on uppers after you write xxxx number of words in xxxx amount of time. You don’t see stenographers hop up and do the Dougie in the courtroom after they wrote “FIFTEEN THOUSAND WORDS IN A DAY, YEEEAH!”
Heck, you could write “swag swag swag” over and over again for an hour and light the jorts off of most wordcount poseurs.
Just write. Write something. Make it good. One hundred hard-earned words well-written and kept quiet win out over the thousands who write for nothing more than the inevitable wordcountbrag fodder.
It’s the words that count, not the word count that counts.
Writing All Wrong can be reached via email (WritingAllWrong@me.com) and followed on Twitter (@WritingAllWrong).
The Life Autistic 
And herein lies one of my biggest issues with NaNoWriMo. Bravo for a piece well written.
Thanks!
And yes, I do feel there’s something amiss about celebrating more of a “numerical milestone” victory. Might be a good topic to touch upon this November . . .
Or the idea in general that you can churn out a novel in a month and “win” based entirely on if you finish or reach a certain word count and not on if the piece is actually done, edited, and good.
…I might be the world’s biggest NaNoWriMo curmudgeon. XD
Your last line summed it up nicely for me. I’ve posted it on my laptop to cheer me when I write few new words in a day but raised the quality of my wip by tenfold or more.
“It’s the words that count, not the word count that counts.”