The challenge of word counts

If you are writing for publication, or entering competitions, Word Counts can seem either very restrictive, or very challenging.

When I first started writing, the words came slowly, and I thought I'd never be able to write enough for a novel (50 000 words upwards). So, I set myself the challenge of writing a trashy romance novel. It took a while, but there was an enormous sense of achievement when I hit that wordcount. More significantly, the fear of word counts was gone! The novel wasn't great, and I do plan on rewriting it with the aim of making it publishable. The Romance market is actually surprisingly tough to break into.

You can see a table of word counts for different types of writinghere: https://users.pgtc.com/~slmiller/writinglengths.htm

On the other end of the scale is flash fiction, and writing a piece to fit into 101 words, or 150 or 500 is really tough too. I find with these stories I go through multiple edits, trimming the fat and any extraneous details. They are a healthy exercise, because they force to you to edit carefully, and teach you to be concise and clear in your writing. My favourite challenge is the Twitter #sixwordstory which gives a prompt and you have to draft a six word story on that prompt. It's a real challenge. Read through other entries to get an idea of how it's done. Another weekly online challenge is the Ad Hoc Fiction competition, for 150 words: https://adhocfiction.com/submit/

Why does it matter to work within word counts? The answer is quite simply that if your work doesn't fit, it will be rejected or excluded. Publishers work with strict space allocations, and need to know your story fits into them. Very occasionally, a publisher may ask for a rewrite to fit their word counts, but it is more likely your work will be rejected outright. Similarly, with competition entries, you should aim to be as close to the word count as possible.

Writing for word counts offers a great opportunity for a writer to hone their skills, and flex their writing muscles. Don't be afraid of them, but rather treat them as an opportunity to develop your writing skills.