Do you have word count goals?

[Palamon]

Do you set word count goals for yourself? I always try to go above 1,000 words, obviously. But, other than that? No. When a story/section of my story is done, it's done. I have yet to write something that's over 12,000 words, though, but the thing I'm currently writing is already looking like it might topple that, anyway.

But, yeah, I would say I do have a minimum word requirement for prose. For poetry, though, nope. I think poetry should be free to be as long or short as the writer wants.

 

[gimmepie]

Not for RP posts, fic chapter or poetry. The former two there's not real any reason to beyond a vague "not too long, not too short" and for poetry it just seems like a weird constraint to put on something.

For things I'm planning to publish, it's a bit more up in the air. I generally aim for at the least a rough wordcount goal even if individual chapters or whatever don't have a set wordcount I aim for.

 

[Caite-chan]

I tried to do at least 1,000 words or more when I would write. I feel like less was just not enough. It's kinda hard to explain.

 

[Bay]

I might go for a vague "I think this piece will be x wordcount" and usually I'm half-right, half-off on those guesses. Most of the time the half-off guesses the wordcount got much longer than anticipated. Foul Play I wanted the chapters to be in the 3k-5k words average with some exceptions. Sometimes though a chapter would be too long and I had to break it into two chapters instead.

 

[Palamon]

I might go for a vague "I think this piece will be x wordcount" and usually I'm half-right, half-off on those guesses. Most of the time the half-off guesses the wordcount got much longer than anticipated. Foul Play I wanted the chapters to be in the 3k-5k words average with some exceptions. Sometimes though a chapter would be too long and I had to break it into two chapters instead.

I commend you for being able to sometimes guess how long your chapters are going to be. I can't ever do that. Last night, I wrote something for my Genshin oc fanfic (that Idk if I'll post here when it's done, we'll see!) thinking it'd be around 2k but ended up being 4.6k words. So, it's impressive you can estimate with at least some accuracy how long yours will be.

 

[Zeostar]

In my introductory course in college, it was 1,200 words per essay at minimum or immediate failure. This ended up ingrained in my head habitually for most forms of writing.

 

[Palamon]

In my introductory course in college, it was 1,200 words per essay at minimum or immediate failure. This ended up ingrained in my head habitually for most forms of writing.

You'd...fail immediately if it was less than 1,200 words? That's harsh, but college isn't a cakewalk, I suppose....

 

[Aquacorde]

I found over the course of reading a LOT of fanfic that I really feel like chapters are a good length if they're between 1k and 3k words. There are always exceptions- some chapters feel right even if they're shorter, and I'm not opposed in any way to reading way longer chapters- a lot of saga-like fics average 13k a chapter and it's a grand time! But personally I stick to about 1-3k for my RP chapters. If I have something shorter I'll usually just merge it with the next part, and if it gets above 5k I usually cut it. But clearly I have no hard and fast rules haha. And for fics I really only write one-shots and they just. Take as many words as they take.

It's all just about what needs to be said, not the length used to say it!

 

[Zeostar]

You'd...fail immediately if it was less than 1,200 words? That's harsh, but college isn't a cakewalk, I suppose....

Yes. She was a rough professor, both with grades and attitude. Failure to have two other peers review your work would also result in a 0% score. Wrongly placing citations would result in failure of the course and being reported to the college head.

It wasn't easy to ask questions in there either, because the smallest thing would have her yelling and screaming. I have quite a few stories, but here isn't the place. Needless to say, there were only a few of us left in the class at the end of the semester. I stuck it out and passed with a C.

 

[Knight Of Legendaries]

I generally try to aim for at least two thousand words per chapter and four to five pages.