One of my biggest pet peeves in writing is the idea of a word count. "In order for us to even read what you've written, your piece needs to be a certain length." For some reason, that doesn't seem to cut it. One of the marks of a good writer is being able to balance out quality vs. quantity.
According to Merriam-Webster.com, quantity is defined as the "total amount or number" and originally comes from the Latin quantus, meaning "how much" or "how many". This is a measure of amount and can easily be counted. Quantity talks about word count, page count... how much a person has written. On the other hand, quality is the measurement of how good something is. It is defined as the "degree of excellence" or "superiority of kind" and comes from the Latin qualis, meaning "of what kind".
Imagine these as graphs. Along the y-axis, you have quantity. Along the x-axis, quality is plotted. Find the area under the curve (hoorah for calculus!) and you'll have some measure of how good the piece is, right? Think of that scene in Dead Poet's Society where the teacher is talking about poetry if you don't get what I'm talking about.
Now, some writers have a very high quantity score, but a low quality score. For example, the guy who wrote Moby Dick. A high number multiplied by a low number usually gives a medium number (ie on a 1-10 scale, 2x10=20). For the sake of our purposes, let's make a rule that the factors can't add to more than 12. An author with a higher quality score and a lower quantity score would have a similar result (10x2=20). The best result with the restrictions we've applied is to even out the numbers and make the factors as close to equal as possible, or have 6x6=36. This would seem to imply that a balance between quality and quantity is the most useful.
But is this really the case? To some extent, yes. Both quality and quantity are important, but rather than having them work against each other, it's best to have good quality. Having good quality will undoubtedly lead to some increase in quantity. The point I'm trying to make? That quality >> quantity.
The verdict? Don't worry about how much you write. Instead, pay attention to the details and little gems that make the quality of the writing higher. Usually length will follow, but don't force yourself to write with lots of words unless you have to.
According to Merriam-Webster.com, quantity is defined as the "total amount or number" and originally comes from the Latin quantus, meaning "how much" or "how many". This is a measure of amount and can easily be counted. Quantity talks about word count, page count... how much a person has written. On the other hand, quality is the measurement of how good something is. It is defined as the "degree of excellence" or "superiority of kind" and comes from the Latin qualis, meaning "of what kind".
Imagine these as graphs. Along the y-axis, you have quantity. Along the x-axis, quality is plotted. Find the area under the curve (hoorah for calculus!) and you'll have some measure of how good the piece is, right? Think of that scene in Dead Poet's Society where the teacher is talking about poetry if you don't get what I'm talking about.
Now, some writers have a very high quantity score, but a low quality score. For example, the guy who wrote Moby Dick. A high number multiplied by a low number usually gives a medium number (ie on a 1-10 scale, 2x10=20). For the sake of our purposes, let's make a rule that the factors can't add to more than 12. An author with a higher quality score and a lower quantity score would have a similar result (10x2=20). The best result with the restrictions we've applied is to even out the numbers and make the factors as close to equal as possible, or have 6x6=36. This would seem to imply that a balance between quality and quantity is the most useful.
But is this really the case? To some extent, yes. Both quality and quantity are important, but rather than having them work against each other, it's best to have good quality. Having good quality will undoubtedly lead to some increase in quantity. The point I'm trying to make? That quality >> quantity.
The verdict? Don't worry about how much you write. Instead, pay attention to the details and little gems that make the quality of the writing higher. Usually length will follow, but don't force yourself to write with lots of words unless you have to.
3 comments:
Well said.... now you need to follow through ;)
Nice. I guess NaNoWriMo is pointless then? Haha...
I have been working on following through with this, if you hadn't noticed. ;)
I'm not sure if NaNo is pointless, as the purpose is to get people to sit down and write. I just don't think quantity should be stressed as much as people stress it.
I just noticed this, but the words differ by only one letter... o.O
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