What Is The Right Word Count For Me?

Okay, okay, I know I said I'd actually going to start blogging properly and then went AWOL for eleven days, but I got busy alright? I'm here, now, that's what matters here.
So, here we go, first bit of writing advise I'm imparting in blog form - What Is The Right Word Count For Me? - following on from my last Pro Tips video.
What I mean by that is, what kind of word count should you be aiming for when you have a writing session? For some of you out there, you'll be reading this thinking 'but I just go with whatever I can manage that day and move on' and that's great, I envy you laid back people greatly. For the rest of us, we set daily word counts to either challenge ourselves every day, or to make sure we have a reasonable amount down on paper.
So what should be a good, obtainable daily word goal? The short answer is that it's different for everybody. There is no 'one word count fits all' solution, and to be honest, it is up to you to figure out how much you want to get down on a daily basis.
There are some professional writers out there who write over five thousand words a day, there are some who decide that just six hundred is enough. So really, there's a huge range you can go for here. Personally, I like to aim for somewhere between six hundred and a thousand, depending on what project I'm working on. For one story I'm working on, the six hundred is about a page worth of writing, and can get across my current ideas well without me losing momentum. For my other story, a thousand is needed to fully explain what I want to get across that day. In short, I like to reach at least six hundred words or I feel like my day has been wasted.
How did I get to this number? By trial and error mostly. I started out by making sure I wrote five paragraphs, consisting of at least five lines, every day. But that was in the days before I set things out properly and put speech on new lines (those were dark days my friends, I do not speak of those days any more). Once I did start to set things out properly, it meant my five paragraph rule went out the window, so I had to find a new system to work with. I counted how many words were in my paragraphs, and that came out at about six hundred on average, so I figured that that was a nice minimum to aim for.
Six hundred felt right as it was the number I could get out comfortably without straining myself, so I rolled with it, and has worked well for me over the years. Of course, if I go over that word count then I'm ecstatic and feel very, very proud of myself (and usually find myself some chocolatey treat to reward my wordy little brain). I regularly do go over that word count on a story whenever I write it, which brings me onto another point I want to bring up in this post.
Changing word counts for changing projects.
As I said before, everybody is different, so they have different ideas about what productivity is. And like how every person is different, every project is different too. Some are easier than others to write, which means that some projects make hitting your preferred daily word count easier. You might want to consider changing your word count goals if this happens, to keep the challenge up. If you're writing something you're struggling with but really want to continue it, try lowering your word count a bit, so you're not struggling to reach what seems like an impossible target every day. At the same time, if you're project feels easy to write and flows excellently, maybe try increasing your target, to give yourself a challenge and keep you on your toes. It's up to you though, whatever you feel like is a good productive goal you'd like to reach every day.
In summary, choose your word count wisely. Go with something you can obtain relatively easily without pushing yourself too far, and don't be afraid to change that number if your project needs it. Word goals should not feel like a chore, it should be a nice challenge to yourself, so choose wisely!

This blog is going through come changes!

I've neglected this blog FAR too much ever since... well, ever since I got it if I'm honest. But that's all going to change, this blog isn't just for film reviews anymore! This blog is going to be much more like my vlog channel, which is HERE if you haven't already seen it. From now on, this blog is going to be an extension of my vlog channel, where I'm going to post things about my writing, writing in general, and possibly a few reviews too.
Mainly, what I want this blog to be is a blog about writing. Good writing, bad writing, semi-reasonable writing, all of it. I want to talk in detail about amazing plot lines, beautiful dialogue, the things I wished I'd thought of in the past. Anything like that, I want to praise good writers from the rooftops and encourage others out there to start writing too. Being a writer is a lonely thing for most of us, I want to close that gap and start up discussions about the wonderful thing that is story telling.
Another thing I want to start here is a 'Things I Would Have Done Differently' because not all writing is infallible. For so long now, I've been sprouting nonsense about 'if I was the showrunner/author/writer I would have done it this way instead of like this' so I'm actually going to start doing that. If I think someone could have handled a story line, or a character, or anything like that, better, I will be pointing it out in a hopefully amusing way. Only time will tell if that's true, but for now, I'm hoping for amusement, if not agreement.
So currently that's the changes to this blog, to hopefully bring it to life and get some content on it, and add another facet to my youtube channel.
I hope you enjoy what is to come.