Writing Tip Wednesday #7

When writing chapters, it's always a good idea to have a minimum word count set. For me, I try to make ever chapter at least 1,000 words, but that's just my personal preference.

My advice is to start small when you first start setting limits. Maybe do 500 words minimum, then maybe add 100 words as you continue getting better.

But how do you get this many words? Piggybacking off of the last tip, expand your vocabulary. Use descriptive words to expand that word count. Little descriptions/describing a character more adds a little bit more words, but it adds up I promise.

Ex: "Kyle walked to the store to get milk." (8 words)

"The tall brunette male walked to the convenient store to pick up some milk." (14 words)

You don't have to do that for every sentence, but every now and then doing this with your sentences will help get your word count up.

If they're surprised, repeat the same sentence a few times, but change it a little. It will be alright (in first person) because you'll be showing how they are feeling in the moment, how they are trying to comprehend it themselves.

Having a good idea of what you want from the chapter will help as well. If you don't know what you're writing, it may take a while to get to that word count goal.

But keep in mind, you don't ALWAYS have to hit your goal. I'm sure some of you notice that in my filler chapters, the word count is less than 1,000 words. Which is okay.

If you're stuck, don't try and add more to the chapter. End it. It's frustrating on you, it could be drawn out too long in the eyes of the reader, etc.