Word Count, is it important?

There are many different types of writer. Some sit in front of a computer and key in whenever inspiration strikes and finish a story or an essay in one sitting while others need to be more organized and delve into creating an outline before starting to push through with  Chapter One. 

But regardless of what type of writer one is, there are certain rules that has to be adhered to when writing a manuscript. 

Here are some guidelines that will help us stay focused on the word count. 

1. Short story - A short story usually ranges from 500 words to a thousand, and could go up to 8,000 words. It depends on the length that is required by your target publisher. Usually, publishers especially magazines require up to a thousand words only. For Writer's Digest submissions, it usually is up to 1,500. For the prestigious Palanca awards, it allows up to 8,000 words. Other word count requirement varies so before submitting your work, make sure that a research has been done so that the manuscript will not be automatically discarded. 

2. Novels - For novels, the word count ranges from 50,000 words up to 80,000 words. Most publishers would frown upon a longer submission, and why is that? It's because the longer the manuscript is, the more pages it would consume once it gets published. 

3. Epic - While typically, novels don't go beyond 80,000 words, the word count usually ranges from 100,000 words up to as long as you desire or your story calls for. But there are rules. If you're still beginning and you want to get traditionally published, going beyond these numbers may cause an automatic rejection of your manuscript since it would require a lot of investment when publication comes. There are other factors considered like the length of time it would take to review and edit, what the standard length is that is acceptable to the target market, etc. 

All in all, it is important to be conscious of the word count to manage the overall flow of the manuscript. 

Now, how will one know how many words have been written already?

For one, MS Office has that feature.  Just check this out:

And another powerful tool can be found here on this website: http://www.wordcounttool.com/
Copy and paste your manuscript and hit Submit.

And... here you go.

So, good luck writing, and keep that passion burning.