Word count is not an achievement
I once heard a nurse who wrote in their free time tell the story of a patient he treated who wrote a 100,000+ word book in a few days. The nurse was struck with jealously, wishing he could do the same, and it made him want to quit writing. That is until he read the book, which the patient brought into the hospital with them. Turns out, the patient wrote it during a manic episode, and it was complete nonsense.
Point is 👉 substance over everything. What you say is far more important than how you say it, or how long it takes you to say it. In fact, the longer it takes you, the worse your writing likely is. I get that it feels good to cross 10k words or 50k words, and that it feels like you’re getting somewhere. But when it comes down to it, word count has zero impact on the quality of your story. Novels are ~60k word because convention says that’s how long it takes to tell a story well (and because most readers won’t read anything longer).
Focus on putting as much meaning as possible into each page; into each word. Cut the fluff (even fluff you love), and your writing will turn a corner you didn’t know was there.