Writing Scene Goals vs. Word Count - RESULTS!

 I bet you thought I'd never get around to sharing this, did you?

Back in late March, I decided to switch from writing daily word count goals to writing scene goals. I did this because I thought it would help me reach my deadline on Hunter Moon a little faster, and so I could compare how many words I ended up with when I trying to reach a certain number.

I wrote down the total number I of new words I ended up with for each day. This is the first time I've gone back through and added them up, and I have to say, I think this might be my new go-to writing method from now on! I felt less rushed when I wasn't trying to hit a certain word count and I got to focus instead on making the scenes as good as possible on a first draft.

Here are the results!

(Reminder: Blue pins represent scenes I'd already started, but needed to finish. Red pins represent new scenes I still needed to write.)

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22 March 2021:

- Finished one blue pin scene card

- 1,187 words

 

23 March 2021:

- Finished one blue pin scene card

- 1,378 words

 

24 March 2021:

- Research needed for new red pin scene cards

- 0 words

 

25 March 2021:

- Wrote one red pin scene card

- 766 words 

 

26-27 March 2021:

- Re-worked midpoint timeline

- Finished two blue pin scene cards

- Reorganized scene order, added one new red pin scene to the outline

- 2,831 words

 

28 March 2021:

- Finished 3.5 blue pin scene cards

- 1,030 words

 

29 March 2021:

(Migraine, no work done)

 

30 March 2021:

- Finished one blue pin scene card

- 800 words

 

31 March 2021:

- Notes for last red pin scene cards

- No words counted

 

01 April 2021:

- Wrote last red pin scene card

- 933 words 

02 April 2021:

(Day off, no work done)

03-04 April 2021:

- Finished last five blue pin scenes

- 2600 words

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Total: 11, 525 words 

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I wrote 11,525 words in two weeks! 

I think I can safely say, that is the most I've ever written in that amount of time. Will I always be able to get this much done writing by scene instead of word count? Probably not. It really depends on the length of the scenes themselves. But as I said before, I felt more relaxed in general even as a deadline was looming.

Have you ever tried writing this way? (I realize this applies more to plotters than pantsers.)

Do you prefer to write by a word count goal?  Or, do you use an entirely different method?