There's not really much I can suggest for word counts. Just make sure to tell a story in as many words as you can *concisely* and making sure *every* word plays its role and more. Get good at trimming sentences, but this is going more into under/over writer territory now. However, I want to give you a few tips on how to work with words counts for you writing. I'll try to cover all types of writing here ,as word counts are pretty universal amongst a lot of different types of writing.
Consider lengths of Chapters
It doesn't matter if you're writing academically, fiction or non fiction, you're still going to need to consider the lengths of your chapters. Depending on your genre, the best piece of advice I can give is about 1500 for a small scene, but it depends heavily on your book and the genre. Thrillers, for example, will make smaller chapters useful, whereas longer epic works of Fantasy will want more.
If you are submitting to an Agent
This is for those who want to get a traditional publishing deal. For this you're going to need to show the agent why your work is good enough to make them bother, consider it like filling in a job application and them asking you 'why do you want to work here?' but hopefully having a more impassioned, genuine answers than some people give in job interviews.
Consider making a plan
Making a plan for your writing, otherwise known as an outline, I wanted to tell you to consider it. Making writing work for you, even if its a bullet point less, keeping it focused. It doesnt matter if you write by the seat of your pants or not, I encorage everyone to make a outline and then deviate from it if you want to or where feels right. Outlineschange and morph with projects, and I encourage you to do that. However, save each itteration for it, it might be useful for your process and can always be added on as content in the back of your book or as an add on.
Consider studying writing (and I don't mean formally)
I don't mean from a critical perspective, although looking at the nuts and bolts of a narrative and construction definitely makes a difference. You can tell the writers that widely read and the writers that only stick to their genre. You could look at the pages of chapters in your genre. How many pages of printed paper do they take up (in book form)? Do they take up more for longer scenes, does it matter for the pacing> Is all the narrative fast or slow? Study a variety of novels to get a grip.
This also works for other pieces of writing, too. For example if your lecturer ahs given you a word count, they might have some examples to look at how many points you can make, in lets say 3000 words. You should also, in this case, consider how many words you are using in quoted material.
If you are writing non fiction, for example, you could go for looking at the similar competitive titles in your genre. Are you writing a memoir? How long are their chapters, what are the pace of their scenes? Looking at professional writing, helps makes your professional, too.
The End
I hope you've got some valuable insights or tips you can go forth and use in this post. If you need anything, please contact me on Instagram or Threads (@ericaj.kingdom).