The Writing Process

I think it’s hard to learn the difference between what’s important and what is just fluff. That has been one of my biggest challenges so far. We are taught from a young age that word count is important. I hate word count stipulations; I think they’re just another man-made stresser and I feel that they are both unnecessary and ridiculous. (Take that sentence, for example. I could’ve just said: I hate word count stipulations because they stress people out. That would’ve gotten the point across just fine I think, but I had to add extra fluff because I have to make a word count.) I understand their purpose: enforcing word count is a way to ensure that students are doing the same or almost the same amount of work. It is a leveler. But I hate word count just like I hate standardized tests, we aren’t all standard and not every individual’s writing needs are the same.

Suppose that a professor has proposed his/her class to write a thousand-word essay about the toils of adolescence. Consider also that he/she is asking her students to make this a personal essay, little to no background research necessary. Some students just might not have had that many toils! Others might have too many toils to fit into a thousand-word essay; they may need two thousand words. Neither of these groups of students will do their best work because they will either be filling their essay with unnecessary and ridiculous fluff or they will be cutting out important parts of their lives, trying to cram in all the terrible goings-on of their teen years in too little space. It’s sabotage! Some things are wildly unimportant and word count helps the writer think a little more about what is and what isn’t—especially in the case of those of us who tend to write over the limit. But writing should just be writing and young writers should freely be allowed to write things down. Word count is like a turtleneck is like a very weak man strangling you all day long.

In writing, especially in my own, I think it is important to keep the main goal in mind. That sort of goes hand in hand with the thing I think I ought to learn about knowing what’s important and what’s not. Digressions are important, necessary, healthy even. Sometimes they prove a point and sometimes they don’t. The ones that prove a point are the important ones. But depending on your word count (ugh, sigh, ugh), writers should keep in mind just how long any given digression is. Honestly, regardless of the word count a very long digression can make the reader forget what your main point is and a very short one can cave in on itself because it may seem just like a random sentence or two that likely would get cut in the editing process. I think what’s important to take away here is that word count sucks (but may or may not be a necessary evil) and that when writing one should keep in mind the goal and not use unnecessary words, even if (especially if) you’re just trying to meet said word count.