Word counts of a full time writer

Frequently, people ask how many books I have published. I've counted before, but I don't technically keep track. I now have more novellas than novels written, and interestingly enough, I never thought I'd write shorter books, novellas, or short-stories. Now that I've written so many 15,000 word novellas (Timeless Romance Anthologies), or 25,000 word novellas (Timeless Regency Collections), 30,000 words novellas (Lady of Breken Manor, Mistress Grim), sometimes writing my longer novels (90,000-100,000 words) feels like writing two books ;-)

This year I've been focusing on the Pine Valley romance series, and those novels are on the shorter end of novel word count. Each one is between 50,000-55,000 words. This word count length enables me to write and publish them at a quicker rate . . . also because they are contemporary so the extra research I do with historical manuscripts isn't required.

I have many author friends who write more than I do, but I do keep track of my word count religiously. It's the way I track progress and meet my writing goals (which vary with each book).

I've cut and pasted some of my word count lists for various manuscripts in the Pine Valley series so that you can get an idea of the daily writing effort of a first draft. This of course doesn't include all of the later stages of revision work and editing. For those of you who have done the NANOWRIMO program with the goal of writing 50,000 words each November, that's pretty much what it feels like to be a full time writer. You are doing a NANOWRIMO every month of the year.

Finding Us: A Pine Valley Novel (coming sometime in September 2018)
WORD COUNT
6/5 3,000
6/6 4,500
6/7 6,500
6/11 7,600
6/12 8,000
6/13 11,200
6/14 13,700
6/16 15,000
6/18 15,500
6/19 16,600
6/20 20,000
6/22 20,500
6/23 23,000
6/25 26,100
6/26 28,400
6/27 30,500
6/28 31,500
6/29 36,100
6/30 37,200
7/2 38,200
7/3 41,200
7/4 44,200
7/5 46,300
7/6 49,700
7/7 53,100
7/9 55,300

Waiting for You: A Pine Valley Novel (released June 2018)
Can't find this word count list ;-)

Say You Love Me: A Pine Valley Novel (released April 2018)
WORD COUNT
1/25 3,200
1/26 4,400
1/27 8,000
1/29 11,700
1/30 15,800
1/31 18,200
2/1 21,200
2/2 23,400
2/3 25,100
2/5 28,100
2/6 31,100
2/7 33,400
2/8 36,400
2/9 38,800
2/10 42,000
2/12 45,100
2/13 50,000


Where I Belong: A Pine Valley Novel (released March 2018)
WORD COUNT
12/29 5,200
12/30 11,300
1/1 15,000
1/2 16,400
1/3 19,500
1/4 22,500
1/5 25,600
1/6 28,100
1/8 31,600
1/9 37,000
1/10 43,000
1/11 49,500
1/12 51,500
 

Worth the Risk: A Pine Valley Novel (released Feb 2018)
WORD COUNT
11/25: 1,500
11/27: 4,600
11/28 8,200
11/29 12,400
11/30 15,400
12/1 17,500
12/2 18,600
12/3 19,200
12/4 22,500
12/5 25,600
12/6 27,700
12/7 30,700
12/8 34,100
12/9 35,800
12/11 38,100
12/12 41,200
12/13 43,000
12/14 46,000
12/15 51,700