Do you ever ask yourself that question?

What makes it possible to actually finish a piece of writing? I have so many friends and colleagues who doubt their ability to actually finish a writing piece. I hear, “I have seven short stories (or two novels, or lots of poems) that I just can’t seem to finish.” Sad, no?

So what makes it possible to actually FINISH? Research shows that having a hard deadline to finish a piece of writing is the strongest predictor of completion.

Well, what if you don’t have a publisher’s deadline or other outside pressure?

The next best predictor of finishing is a making a daily word count quota. Some proponents of that idea are Steven King, whose thinks a daily quota of 1,000 is “starting slow.” Tom Wolfe, 1,800; Anthony Trollope kept a diary of his word counts, so he  might feel “sorrow” to his heart at seeing his low productivity. (The funny thing is he apparently NEVER broke his own “law that cannot be broken.”)

Trollope adds, “A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules. It is the tortoise that always catches the hare.”

I was taught that method of keeping a daily word count by TheWritePractice.com. I made a table with columns for the date & time; how many words I started with, how many I finished with for the day, how long it took, and name(s) of the document(s). The mere act of making a new row, with time of starting and document focuses my efforts, calls in the muse.

At the end of the writing day, I can see my word count, and even if I hate the work of that day, I can feel happy that I kept my word.

Are you willing to record your own word counts for a week? Let us know how the process was, and comment below. Happy self-trust building!

Quotes are from, Stephen Koch, The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction (New York: The Modern Library, 2003), 44-45.