The 30-Second Commute

Word counts: Blessings in disguise

A comedic look at freelance writing
By Stephanie Dickison
Published: July 30, 2010
Either it’s way too long or not long enough. This is an issue that we writers deal with on a daily basis—our piece goes on and on, or we’ve been at it for an hour and a half and we’ve only managed to sputter out 300 words on a story that’s to be filed with our editor at 1,000.

A fellow freelancer often writes 5,000-word articles, and they just about annihilate her every time. She stumbles out of her apartment bleary-eyed and dazed, but she continues on. I felt that way writing my book. Two hundred pages and about 75,000 words—that just about killed me.

But despite the raw angst that comes with word counts, there is comfort.
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