Keeping Track of Extra Words

I’ve been listening to a lot of Writing Excuses lately, as well as reading about the inspiration and writing process of other authors. Reading about it is as good as doing it right? Nah. But I’ve been on a kick, and one of the things I’m finding in common is that they don’t throw words away. Or ideas. That might sound weird. You can’t really throw words away, right? And you have to erase somethings! Edit, edit, edit! True, but they keep some of the stuff they’ve edited or written but decided not to pursue. I’m going to share one of the ways I’ve developed to do that keeps the almighty word count more consistent.

I use Scrivener, and when you erase words, it takes them out of your words written target. Word does something similar as well. While I don’t mind while I’m writing straight through, while I’m editing or rewriting I take out whole chunks. This leaves me at negative words and doesn’t tell me how many words I’ve actually come up with that day.

At the same time, it can be difficult to kill your darlings- I’m getting better at it but it can still sting. The necessity can overcome that sting the closer you are to your deadline though, pro tip. I definitely not recommending that you wait until the last minute to edit your wip, but… it can make you more practical.

So I’ve changed up my process in the last few pieces. I create a new blank document in Scrivener and start writing. Just one sheet, all the way through. (Helps that I’ve been working on short stories, though this is working on my longer pieces as well so far.) After I’ve finished the first draft and need to start taking things out, I create another sheet Called “extra words.” These are the words that needed to be cut or completely redrafted. I cut them out of the original draft and paste them into the extra words file, which means that my words count stays at 0 for those words, instead of negative. That way I make sure I can keep track of any new words I’ve written this way.

I’m sure people like Steven King or Nora Roberts no longer keep track of their words counts so obsessively, but it encourages me. Do you have any tricks like this to keep track of your words? Or does tracking words discourage you?