I see a lot of focus on social media and on WordPress on word count. It feels like everyone is in a race just to vomit words upon the page.

That’s not my approach at all, but it’s perfectly fine if it that’s what motivates you. I’ve never really cared about writing quickly, to be honest.

When I do write quickly, it’s because I’m inspired to write this particular next scene, and I’m just so excited about it I can hardly sit still to write it, and I want it to materialize.

I don’t care anything about the word count.

I have a day job. I have other obligations. I am not a full time author, as much as I’d love to be. I’m honestly more focused on trying to figure out how to market the first installment of my trilogy, to get income to put out the second installment, than I am in writing anything at the moment.

If I kept track of how many chapters I edited or how many words I wrote a day I’d lose my mind.

Which leads me to the point of today’s post: There is no right or wrong way to go about composing a first draft.

Plotter? That’s fine. Panster? Fine. Somewhere in between? Perfect.

You write quickly? Awesome. You pride yourself on producing a moderate but regular output, roughly the same amount each day? Fantastic. You write in fits and spurts as inspiration comes? There’s nothing wrong with that at all, as long as it works for you personally.

We are all different by temperament, and more than that, I think we all write for different reasons and find joy in different aspects of the writing process.

Some approaches will produce a finished draft earlier, but one less polished. Other approaches might involve some editing as you draft, which I’ve heard is a big no-no, but honestly, I think it’s all just personal choice.

Editing while you draft will leave you with a slower pace that will produce a first draft that might be slightly more polished than otherwise.

If the trade off works for you–if you don’t have a problem with it, or if doesn’t happen to put you behind any contractual deadlines–it’s not an issue.

Don’t let people get you down or make you feel inferior because your process is different. You’re not in competition with anyone. There’s no gold standard way to go about creative writing.