The day I crossed 50,000 words on a novel draft and felt nothing

I've been working on this fantasy novel for about 8 months now. I set a goal of 50,000 words thinking it would be this huge moment where I felt like a real writer. When I finally hit that number last Tuesday, I just stared at the screen for a minute and then closed my laptop. No fireworks, no sense of accomplishment. It felt like just another Tuesday. Now I'm wondering if milestones even matter in creative writing. Maybe the whole goal setting thing is just a distraction from actually telling a good story. Or maybe I'm just being too hard on myself and should celebrate more. Which side are you all on? Do you find hitting word counts motivating or do they just add pressure that kills the fun of writing?

2 comments

2 Comments

robin4899d ago

Hit 50k words and got the same feeling as finishing a bag of chips. Like okay, cool, now what, I guess I'll keep chewing. Maybe the real milestone is when you stop caring about the milestones and just enjoy the chaos of making stuff up.

richardknight9d ago

Exactly how I felt when I hit 40k on my own thing last year... sat there for a minute and then just went to make a sandwich. That bag of chips comparison is spot on honestly. The milestone felt important until I actually got there and realized the story doesn't care about some number I pulled out of thin air. Maybe the real trick is just writing without watching the word count at all, like driving without looking at the odometer.