Word Count: You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do

"You gotta do what you gotta do, Baby."

by Louis Shalako

Word count is important because it shows whether you are working or not.

I like having ideas. When I get an idea, I write the story.

***

So how do you create a word count, big or small, for better or worse?

Allow me a bit of a brag.

So far in 2014 I have written eight stories and I have another 2,000 down on the next one. It’s only January fifteenth.

Those eight stories are at least 25,000 words and probably more. One of the stories was 4,300 words, and the shortest was still about 1,650. I’m writing science-fiction, erotic romance and even a spooky adventure snuck in there.

I’ve got two more story ideas. I create the file, name it and leave it on my desk-top. When I get a story done I submit it, (or post it on my blog) and at some point I stick it in a folder. I don’t always submit them right away. Right now I have three or four un-submitted stories, which have never appeared anywhere before. I don’t quite know what to do with them.

I’ve got four new ones under submission plus a handful of previous stories under review by pro, semi-pro or at least ‘pay’ markets.

In the past, I have sold the odd story.

I make no other claims.

Every so often I do give one away, for exposure. If nothing else, I can tweet about it, and post it on Facebook.

The story I am working on now will be worked on tomorrow. I reckon I can finish it up tomorrow. Why not? And then there are the next two stories. Got nothing better to do…

What I need more than anything is ideas.

When I run out of ideas, there are plenty of administrative things to do, but nothing is as satisfying as actually working with a story from beginning to end.

That’s what really does it for me.

I guess that’s why I’m here.

***

So in other words we work at it. It really is that simple.

We make the time. The actual writing is probably only good for two to four hours a day.

I have written two blog posts, (now three) one of which has been published, (now two) although the other needs a bit of work.  That one’s about Control.

I have formatted a new 5,000 word story for publication, complete with front and end matter, designed a book cover (marketing image) for it, got an ISBN number, written the blurb, etc.

In order to get the marketing image, I had to shop for it and then make ‘the cover’ using a simple paint program.

For the last little while, I’ve been uploading books to Google Play and Google Books. I do one or two a day as time permits.

One of my pen-names has a nice story coming out very soon. It will be published to Smashwords and all of their distribution channels, Kindle and OmniLit. Uploading a book can take ten or fifteen minutes. Everything takes a certain amount of time.

Other than that, I try to keep busy.

That’s how I get my word count.

I wouldn’t say it was easy,

I wouldn’t say it was hard.

You gotta do what you gotta do.

END