A publisher won’t consider your work a novel unless it’s 80,000 words or more. That’s a lot of writing and it can get overwhelming if you think about it too much. I’ve read quite a few books that were so redunant that I had to stop reading. The author clearly was worried about meeting that word count. I wish publishers would focus more on content and quality of work but since that’s not the case you have to make a balance between quality and volume.

I’ve decided to handle the word count problem at the very end. I want my work to be good and that means no redundancy. I don’t check the word count and I’m using a single spaced format until the very end. I refuse to think about volume right now. The quality of my story is more important to me. If the word count comes up short at the end of my writing, I will go back and find places that needs more suspense or better description.

The magnitude of the story itself can get overwhelming. Just think about how much time your story covers. It most likey extends over a longer period of time because that’s the definition of a novel. Sometimes when I’m writing I get flustered when I think about how much time I still have to cover. I handle this problem by writing in small scenes and I concentrate only on that particular scene until I’m done. This little technique has gotten me through the first few chapters of my story and will escort me to the very end.

In sum, don’t focus on the big picture when you’re writing because it’s way too much information. Think about your story in the sense of time not word count. Dissect that time into small scenes and worry about one scene at a time. Calculate your word count at the very end of the writing process and then go back if you come up short.