October 2015 - Word Counter Blog

Word Count Goal Counter for Writers

We’ve added some new tools to Word Counter which we’re hoping will be beneficial to all those using our word count tool. One of these new features is the countdown goal counter. This feature allows writers to set a word (character, sentence or paragraph) count goal they need to reach or must stay under in their writing.

This feature is simple to use. Click on the “Goal” button directly above where you place text into Word Counter. Once done, a small “Set Goal” screen will appear which will say, “Enter the number of characters, words, sentences or paragraphs you want to set a goal.” In the first space, you place the goal number to write, then choose words, characters, sentences or paragraphs. You must also choose whether this amount is a minimum (you want to write at least this many words) or a maximum (you don’t want to write over this many words).

Once you have entered these three pieces of information, press the “Set” button and you’ll be back to the main page, but just to the right of the Goal button will be a counter with the goal you just set. As words (characters, sentences or paragraphs) are added in the writing space, the goal counter will display the number of words (characters, sentences or paragraphs) still needed to be written to hit the goal. Once your goal is reached when you set a minimum amount, the counter will turn green to let you know you’ve succeeded. If you set a limit with a maximum amount, the counter will turn red to let you know if you exceed the number.

This feature can prove to be quite useful for a number of different writers. For example, students who have a writing assignment with a minimum number of words can plug that number into the goal setter so they will know when they have written enough for the assignment. It can also be used to make sure you don’t go over a certain number of words such as if you need to write a college application essay of no more than 1,000 words. It’s also a great feature for those who are trying to write a certain number of words on a daily basis. Using the goal setter will allow the writer to know where she stands in relation to her daily goal.

For some writers, it can also be seen as an excellent motivational tool. Those who are aiming to write more can use the tool to set a specific goal, and then they can watch as they get closer and closer to their set goal. Watching this number decrease as they write can be encouraging, and help encourage writers meet a daily minimum word count.

Creative Ways to Develop Your Novel Character

One of the hardest things about writing fiction is creating characters that are believable. Too many writers create characters that are just like themselves. While this seems like a way of “writing what you know,” too often it ends up creating a “Mary Sue” character. Mary Sue’s come across as poorly developed, shallow reflections of the author, not fully developed characters in their own right.

So how to create a character that is believable if the character is nothing like you and shares nothing of your experience? How do you create, for example, an accountant with five kids if you flunked basic math and hate kids? If you want to create good writing, the keys are research, observation, and personal experience. There are several ways to go about gathering the information needed to create a well-rounded, believable character. Here are some ideas.

Library, archive, and online research

If you’re trying to learn about an unfamiliar occupation, historical period (including mannerisms, clothing, occupations, etc.), medical condition, or location, simple research is the best place to start. And don’t just settle for a quick Google search. Spend some time looking at relevant documents/exhibits and immersing yourself in the information. Your character would be living this life, so don’t treat it lightly.

Shadow someone else

If you’re trying to craft an unfamiliar life, try to find someone who lives that life and shadow them. Writing about an investment banker? See if you can find one who will let you follow them for a day. Writing about a single mother who goes to night school? See if someone you know fits that description and will let you ride along for a day or two.

Work their job

See if you can do the actual work that your characters will be doing. Some jobs may be closed to you, but you may have some success getting close enough if you offer to volunteer. If your character is a rancher, ask if you can volunteer on a dude ranch for a few days. Or see if you can volunteer in a classroom to get closer to being a teacher. Volunteering in a hospital may get you close enough to the medical profession that you can create a believable doctor, even if you can’t be one yourself.

Interviews

Let’s say you need to understand how a serial killer works. Chances are, you’re not going to go to interview one. (You might, but probably not. And you’d better not become one.) What can you do? Interview people who work with/around serial killers. See if you can speak to a psychiatrist, cop, or coroner to get an idea of the motivations, methods, etc. of a serial killer. It’s always best if you can interview someone directly about their job or life but if you can’t, think of a way around that limitation. Speak to people who work with or around the subject you need to know about.

Visit their location

If your characters are living in an unfamiliar location, try to visit that location. You’ll get a better sense of the place, people, and opportunities/lifestyles if you go there rather than just relying on travel guides. Location visits are also useful for battlefields and historical settings, as well.

People watch

Watching people is one of the best ways to learn about them. Figure out where your character would go (for work, leisure, living, etc.) and go there yourself. Spend some time watching how to the people act, interact, and speak. What do they do? Where do they go? What do they talk about? What are they wearing?

Create a character profile

Spend some time filling in all the details you can about this person, even if those details won’t make it into the book. Appearance, age, medical history, traits, quirks, politics, religion, background, genealogy, education, relationships, life experiences, career, childhood experiences, residences, travels, and more are all things you should know. The more you know about your character, the more lifelike she will seem and the better able you’ll be to determine how she’d deal with the situations in your story. If you really want your character to come to life, consider giving him or her 10 traits that you never plan to reveal directly to the reader. These will come through in your writing even though you don’t directly share the details with the reader giving the character more richness.

Figure out what they want

Characters, just like real people, are driven by a variety of needs and forces. You’ll have to figure out what they want to gain from the story as a whole (win the war, secure the romantic relationship, kill the bad guy, etc.) as well as what they hope to achieve at each decision and action point within the larger story. Even something as mundane as, “Why is the character speaking to the landlord?” has a motivation behind it (or it should). Is she hoping to get a lower rent, or is she seeking information on property management? Does the landlord have a clue that your character needs to solve a mystery? Is she looking for a date? The motivations matter and can greatly change how a character acts in any given scene. Know their motivations and write accordingly.

Pay attention to speech

Your characters need to speak like real people, only without all the “um’s” and “likes” that go on in real conversation. That means that they might speak in a dialect, or with an accent. They might have a peculiar speech pattern due to mental illness or a tic. They may speak like a well-educated person or a poorly educated one. There will be gender differences, as well. Good dialogue that matches the characters is hard to pull off (go easy on the slang and dialect to avoid annoying the reader, but make it apparent that it’s there) but it’s essential. Otherwise, all your characters sound the same and that’s boring (not to mention difficult on the reader). Observe people who speak like your characters and try to capture that on the page.

Don’t deviate from their nature

If you’ve spent the entire book creating a needy, shy, retiring character, you cannot suddenly have that character fearlessly charge into battle and start slaying bad guys. You have to be true to the character. Doing otherwise feels forced and will turn readers off. If your character is going to change, it will not happen suddenly. You will have to spend time crafting that change so that when it finally happens, it feels believable.

Creating a believable character isn’t easy. You can’t skimp on the details and hope that people just buy into your character. You have to give readers reasons to care and believe and that can only come through careful thought, research, and observation. Just slapping a person on the page and hoping for the best will have your readers reaching for the next story. Don’t cop out and write a fictional version of yourself. Readers can tell when you’ve done this. Give your characters their own unique personalities, failings, and successes and readers will be more willing to read the story you’re telling.

(Photo courtesy of Frank Kelly)

Create Your Optimal Writing Place: 1000 Words a Day

I’m lucky in that I can write just about anywhere. I travel a lot which means I spend a lot of time in different places with different surroundings, and in most cases, I can make it work if I need to get something written. Even though I can write in most conditions, I have learned over the years that I write much more effectively when I have a specific surrounding that’s most conducive for my writing productivity. That’s what I try to create as my writing space at home. Having a quality writing space can help immensely when you’re trying to write 1000 words a day.

If you have read anything on productivity, and especially writing productivity, one of the suggestions often given is to find a quiet place in the time you set aside to write. This is essentially a good point, but what “quiet” means will depend a lot on your own personal preferences. What you really want to do is find a space which allows you to write at an optimal level, and the chances are you are going to need to experiment a good amount to find what this exactly means for you.

It would be great to make a list of the perfect writing space, but the truth is what works for one writer may not work for the next. For example, I write much better while have the background noise of music playing, but I have writer friends who can’t imagine having that distraction while trying to write. In the end, you will have to create your space for you, and that space will likely be different from other writers you know. That being said, I can list some of the choices I made when creating my space which you can use to consider what would be the best writing space for your needs. These are a few of the things I determined I needed for my space:

A restricted area where people can’t regularly interrupt
No TV (I learned early that if there was a TV in the room, it would eventually get turned on and my writing would end)
Non-commercial music (I write better with background noise, but only with music. I can’t listen to radio where DJs speak as that ruins my writing rhythm)
No phones (and cell phones turned off)
A good chair (this is something I didn’t realize how important it was until I purchased a good chair)
A notepad with paper (I like to jot down notes about other possible articles when I write)
A timer (I set my writing for 20 minutes and then take a break)
A drink, but no food (A large glass of iced tea is essential, but any food is a distrction

Those above are some of the things I have found make me more productive when I write. They may or may not be important for your writing productivity. There also may very well be other things that are important for you as a writer which I didn’t even mention. The important step to take is to begin to think about what is important for you to be in a space which is the most conducive for you to write at your optimal level, and begin creating it. (550 words)

(Photo courtesy of Jeremy Segrott)

Make Writing a Priority: 1000 Words a Day

If you want to improve your writing productivity, you need to make writing a priority. While this may seem obvious, it actually took me a long time to learn, and I know other writers who struggle to do this as well. Wanting to write more and actually taking the steps to write more are two completely different things. It took a long time for this to click for me, and I’m sure there are others out there who struggle with it without even realizing they haven’t noticed the difference. If you find you have all the best intentions to write 1000 words a day, but you aren’t able to reach that goal more days than you’re able to, there’s a good chance you aren’t making your writing a priority.

Making your writing a priority will mean you’re going to have to make some changes to your schedule. It may mean you will have to delay, or even give up, some of the things you enjoy doing. You’re going to have to make a concerted effort to put aside time to make sure you have the opportunity to reach your daily take a walk and begin writing. This is one example of a change I needed to make to my daily routine to truly make writing a priority. Some others included watching less Netflix, not wasting time on the computer, and limiting the time I spent on several of my favorite hobbies.

Here’s a challenge. Take a look at the things you are actually doing each day. The things you’re actually doing are what you are prioritizing over the things you aren’t able to find the time do. If the things you’re actually doing aren’t consistent with what you say you want to be doing, then either one of two things is going on:

1. What you say you want to do isn’t really a priority

2. You need to change your life so that you’re actually doing what is a priority.

For most people, you’re going to have to make changes so writing becomes a priority (if it was already a priority, you’d already have no problem reaching your daily word count goal). This is especially true if your goal is to write more on a daily basis. It’s often not easy to find the extra time to write as much as you want, but if writing 1000 words a day (or whatever your daily writing goal may be) is something you truly want to do, you’ll find a way to make that time.

On a side note, this really applies to all areas of your life, not just writing. It’s good to do a monthly audit of how you spend your time to make sure you’re spending it doing the activities that are most important to you. If you find you aren’t spending time in a way that aligns with your goals, you need to figure out a way to change up your routine so those things most important to you become a priority. (659 words)

(Photo courtesy of R/DV/RS)

Set Aside Time to Write in the Morning: 1000 Words a Day

Anyone who wants to be successful at writing 1000 words a day for an extended period of time will have to put aside time each time to reach that goal. The question becomes, when is the best time to set aside writing time each day? While many will say to set the time aside when you enjoy writing most, I’ve come to the conclusion that’s not necessarily the best approach when you are trying to increase your writing productivity.

As I mentioned earlier, I take a walk each morning which is an important aspect enabling me to be a productive writer. Upon my return each morning, I sit down to do a minimum of an hour, and as much as 3 hours of writing. The actual amount of time I have each day to write depends on what other things I have to do, but I make sure I have that minimum of an hour to write each morning. Since I have already outlined what I want to write in my head during the morning walk, I usually can hit my 1000 words during that hour.

I think it’s important to set aside time in the morning to write even if you don’t happen to be a morning writer. I feel I can make this claim because I’m definitely not naturally a morning writer. I used to do all my writing late at night, and I still do a good amount of my writing during the evening hours. What I’ve discovered over time, however, is if I only set aside time in the evening to write, I fail to reach my writing goal much more often than if I set aside time in the morning.

There is a simple reason it’s important to put aside time in the morning if you want to be successful writing a certain number of words on an ongoing basis. Life happens. There will always be unexpected events which will make it impossible for you to write during your designated time no matter how faithfully you plan. This is especially true when you first begin a project like this and haven’t yet established it as a routine. It takes time to carve out a specific period of time each day that’s devoted solely to writing, and one should expect hiccups while in the process of establishing this time (and even afterward, although not as often).

When something happens and I’m not able to write during my planned time in the morning, I immediately realize I missed the time I was supposed to writing. I instantly begin to figure out when I can make up that time and squeeze in writing so I can still reach my 1000 word goal. I have the rest of the day to make up for the unforeseen event and still reach my goal.

When I was writing in the evenings, if something unexpected happened, it was much more difficult to make up for life impeding on my writing. There just isn’t enough extra time in the day to reschedule for missed time when it’s already in the evening, and the day is almost over. Due to the time factor, scheduling your daily writing period in the morning will give you a much better chance to reach your word count goal when you take up a challenge.

Another huge factor that came into play for me is energy level. The amount of energy I have at the end of the day depends on a lot of factors which happen during the day that aren’t always in my control. The result was that even when I had the time set aside, I was more likely to be tired. Many times I didn’t have the energy to concentrate on my writing the way I should so even when I was writing, the quality wasn’t necessarily the best.

If you’re not a person who usually writes in the morning, this change will be difficult. I know because of how difficult it was for me to adjust. Even today, I don’t feel as comfortable writing in the morning as I do at night, but I’ve gotten a lot better at it over time. More importantly, I have seen how much more productive I have become by beginning my writing early in the day rather than toward the end.

For anyone who has the goal of writing 1000 (or more) words a day, it’s worthwhile taking the time to figure out how to set aside time in the morning. That doesn’t mean you can’t write in the evenings as well. I still do on a regular basis, and as I’ve stated above, I actually enjoy writing in the evening more than I do in the morning. Creating morning writing time will greatly increase your chances of hitting your word count goal each day.

(Photo courtesy of Michael Coghlan)

Find Your Quiet Activity: 1000 Words a Day

One of the most important activities I do to increase my writing productivity which doesn’t initially appear to have anything to do with writing is to take a morning walk. Before I turn on the computer, sit down to write, or do any other writing activity, I go outside to walk. While it may not first appear a walk would be something to increase my writing productivity, that’s exactly what it does. In fact, I can confidently say my morning walk is the most important step I take each day when it comes to being a productive writer.

There are a number of reasons my morning walk helps improve my writing productivity. Here are a few of them:

Arrange My Thoughts

This is the biggie. My morning walk allows me to go over the topic I’m writing about so I can arrange my thoughts and what I want to write. Instead of sitting in front of the computer trying to figure out what I want to write, I’ve already done this. In a way, it’s like creating a mental first-draft of what I need to get down on paper. By sorting through all these thoughts, it allows me to begin writing as soon as I sit down in front of the computer.

More Productivity

Since I already have created the mental first draft, I already know exactly what I want to write when I sit at the computer. There is no staring at the computer screen wondering what I should write next. When I am writing, there’s a lot less stopping, rewriting and changing my mind. The walk allows me to have already mentally sorted through the common stopping points so all I have to do is get the words into the computer.

Brainstorm

Taking a morning walk doesn’t only allow me time to think about my current writing, but also plan articles I can write in the future. Walking allows me to brainstorm about a variety of other topics. The result is I rarely sit in front of my computer wondering what topic I should write about next because I have a long list of topics I’ve already brainstormed on my walks.

Writer’s Block

Walking prevents me from having writer’s block. In fact, I began walking when I was having writer’s block a few years ago. It worked so well at helping me overcome it, I started to make it a part of my daily routine. That’s how I discovered it made me so much more productive. If I ever reach a point where I’m having trouble putting something down on paper, 99% of the time a short walk will help me overcome the obstacle.

Gives Me Energy

Exercise is a great way to increase energy. One of the greatest benefits from my morning walk is I feel a lot more energized. Due to this, I am able to write a lot more (and for a longer period of time) than I do when I try to write after I first wake up. My body is more alert and I feel ready to tackle the writing in front of me.

While taking a walk is what helps me write more productively, that may not be the optimal quiet activity for you to do before you sit down in front of your computer. I have a writer friend who likes to sit quietly meditating under a large oak tree in her backyard. I have another writer friend who gets her quiet time in her garden. You know yourself better than anyone, so you need to understand what works best for you so you can find the quiet time that’s most appropriate for you. It should be something that even while you’re doing it, you have the opportunity to think and consider your writing at the same time. If it allows you to do that, anything is game. (653 words)

(Photo courtesy of Patrik Nygren)

October Writing Challenge: 1000 Words a Day

For all those who are planning to participate in the National Novel Writing Month challenge in November, you may want to try a warm-up word count challenge with me in October. For anyone who isn’t, but who wants to increase the amount of writing they’re producing, there’s no better time to begin than at this moment. Over the next month, I will document my 1000 words a day challenge. 1000 words a day is a great goal for any writer who wants to begin getting into the habit of writing on a daily basis. As part of the challenge, I will explain some of the methods I’ve developed over the years, and I hope others who are also doing this challenge (or who have done a similar challenge in the past), will contribute their insights and tips to the conservation as well.

As I explained in a previous article, there are a number of steps anyone who decides to take up a challenge like this should consider and answer to better define the challenge. Doing so will make it more likely the challenge is completed. Here are my answers to each step:

Step one: How many words will I write each day? 1000.

Step two: What’s the minimum number of words I must write each day? 100.

Step three: How long will the challenge be? One month (during October).

Step four: Will there be any off days? No.

Step five: How will I let others know about the challenge to keep myself honest? I will be doing this by recording it on this blog throughout the month.

Step six: How will I keep track and record my daily word count throughout the challenge? I will do it here on this blog.

If I’m successful with the challenge, I will have written a minimum of 31,000 words by the end of the month. Going by past experience, even if I don’t reach the goal, I should write more than I would have without the challenge as long as I continue it for the entire 31 days. That’s a vitally important point for all these challenges. While you should do your best to achieve the goal, the true benefit from these type of challenges is to get you writing on a daily basis, and to write more than you would have if you hadn’t undertaken the challenge in the first place.

So I put forth this challenge to all those reading this now. Commit to begin a 1000 word a day challenge for a month and see what you can produce. If you have any questions along the way, feel free to ask them in the comments of any challenge article. While I’m doing this to keep me accountable for the number of words I write this month, I also want to try and help any writer who is having problems writing consistently over a period of time.

Below are a list of articles I’ve put together as part fo this challenge on tips and hints you may be able to incorporate into your own writing habits to increase your productivity:

(Photo courtesy of Dennis Skley)