The Writers' Lounge

Ooh, interesting thing you raise about the novella tag. (And hello and welcome to cleio!) As far as I go, when I read, I read widely, and it doesn't necessarily bear much relation to what I write. F'rex, I write romance, but don't really read it, aside from keeping an occasional eye on market trends.

Word counts... yes. In writing for pleasure, I don't really bother too much, except in the sense of using them as rough gauges. Everything else, word count gives at least a broad-spectrum idea of where the beginning, middle and end fall, and balances things out. It doesn't need to be specific, and tbh I don't really like the idea that, say, a chapter *has* to be so many words and neither over nor under. Every story has a rhythm, and for me wordage is a tool in measuring and controlling that, but I tend not to obsess.