I mentioned in an earlier post that I had a brief moment of doubt while creating my outline, because I’d wondered if it was worth it to make my outline so detailed. And from that I realized that part of the problem was in being too conscious of my word counts. How many words I was writing each day, and constantly aware of what it was culminating to.
If I hadn’t been conscious of the word count, I wouldn’t have felt like I was putting too much time into the outline. I would’ve only focused on the fact that I was creating a story-map that would make drafting smooth, no matter how long it needed to be.
Before The Word Count-ing
Initially, I didn’t think much about daily word counts and just wrote until I reached the end. But then, I found that noting and posting my word counts gave me consistent content for social media. Almost after every writing session, or writing day, I’d post how many words I wrote and what the experience was like. It was fun to do.
The Current Process
However, this time around, I’ve decided to write ADOBS 4 without posting daily word counts or focusing on them. Each book is a different journey for me, and sharing my word counts made writing ADOBS 3 fun and fast.
But with book 4, I foresee it making the process feel a bit ‘commodified.’ Almost like my book is about the word counts I hit each day, instead of a love affair with my story.
Over the past few days as I wrote the first chapters, I decided to give this a try, and didn’t post the word count or anything about the daily writing. I thought I might miss the rush of sharing so much of the process. But I actually didn’t. It’s just been steady, and sweet, and enjoyable as I write and write, and find it tough to stop. It’s reminding me that I don’t need cheers to be excited about this beloved activity. It also feels more intimate.
I might share word counts when I reach certain milestones, like 30k or 50k etc. But in general, I want to write this book quietly and savor the experience.🩷
P.S. I’m sorry to everyone who says they feel inspired to write when they see my word count updates! I hope you keep churning out those words regardless!
P.S.S. This post also goes live much later after I initially drafted it and made this decision. Almost 1 month late. So another update is that in that time, I’ve gone on writing quietly and it’s been a lovely, discovery process, and I’ve even surpassed all of the word-count milestones I mentioned!
(Since this is an ultra-special milestone, I can share that I crossed the 80k mark yesterday and am wondering where this story flying to; literally feels like I just decided to write a 4th ADOBS book yesterday and now I’m halfway through the outline! I’m both joyful that writing is going smoothly, and flummoxed because idk what I’ll do with the creative juice when this book is completed.)
The lengthy outline has been invaluable, and it’s just been a lot of fun altogether.
Bottom line: do what works for you! And when your process needs to change, don’t be afraid to flow with it.
Lucia's Fiction 
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