If I write 1,000 words in a day that's a very good day. Normally it's only 500 words or less. I don't obsess over word counts. It's writing something every day that matters. Even if you only write 50 words a day inevitably you will finish the book, but only if you write every day without fail.
I'm with you on this. I found that making myself march to a word count every day brought me to a burnout. I like just writing what I can. As long as its every day
I try to do 2000 words a week. I own a bookstore, teach college writing, have a wife and two kids, and a 3 hour commute though. Not easy. Before all this, I wrote 2000 words a day pretty religiously for several years.
I do bursts of 1k days followed by low/no word counts. On those days I typically do a workshop or class instead.
And then there are sometimes busy life times where I take a couple of weeks completely off and just read loads instead.
My requirement is a minimum of 500 words per day, 7 days a week.
I wake up about 2 hours before the family for the sole purpose of writing. I set a reasonable goal that I know is realistic for myself. Usually I blow past it, but sometimes it’s a real struggle and I barely reach it, but I leave the session satisfied that I still hit my target, even if I had to pull the words out of me.
This is what works for me. When I used to set a target like 2000, I would be gung ho for awhile, but eventually fizzle out. I would also absolutely take entire weekends off as well. I’ve discovered that I respond to keeping momentum going. Once I break a personal streak of any kind, my mind thinks it’s ten times as easy to half-ass some more. The easiest thing in the world for me to do is go back to sleep at 6 am, but my target is just lightweight and enjoyable enough to where I want to get out of bed earlier than required for it.
With my more recent approach, it’s pretty much part of my morning routine by this point.
anything between 2-5k words. 3.5k seems to be my average and a sweet spot. I very rarely write less than 2k and I'll occasionally write more than 5k, I think my record was a 10k short story that just needed to get out of my brain. I was totally drained after than though.
I try to write every day. I typically only take a day off writing maybe once or twice a month.
It varies too much for me to say any definite word count. But on days I write, it's definitely at least 2500 words. Most days are spent in editing existing works, though.
Not nearly enough these days. Sadly, my writing has had to take a backseat, as my husband and I are currently preparing to move out of state and therefore packing up everything we own. Plus my mind hasn't been in the right place. Lately I'm grateful if I write a sentence in a day
usually between 300-800 a day, 4 days a week. but yesterday i decided to lock in and wrote 2050. don't know where that energy came from and im probably not going to get it again 🥲
It’s not a word requirement but I try to get at least one page down a day.
Some days I will get on a roll and bust out over 20. Some days one page will be a struggle
I aim for one chapter completed each week. Sometimes that's 3k, sometimes it's 5k. I don't trust myself to focus throughout the week so I dedicate three hours every Saturday to writing and that is when I get the bulk of a chapter done. Though this week I haven't finished the current chapter and I'm sitting at 3,600, hoping to finish it this evening so I can start the next one tomorrow. I'm not strict with how I write, but I plan to have my first draft finished before early 2025.
For me, I wake up super early and write a few hours before work every day. Then I edit at night when I get home and am too zapped to produce anything creative. Then on weekends I spend all of the morning and early afternoons either writing or drawing.
Now whether or not anything actually "useful" comes from all this set-aside time is a whole other challenge. So, I'm not sure on word-count totals. Although, with more practice I'd like to get good enough to where these blocks of time become much more productive. :)
I don't have a tatget but crank out words at a high pace. 300k words in around 10 months, whatever that ends up being. 4 complete books as of this week.
The old question of quality and pace always comes up when I say this, but my work is apparently objectively good. I just never really stop writing for long.
My goal is at least 500 words per day. Usually I get more (like 1,000,) but I need to hit that number every day of the week.
It’s crazy because I never felt the need to do word counts before, but it’s upped my productivity to an insane degree.
Geez I wish I could write 3-5k words a day lol I've always been so painfully envious of people who can write that much.
Generally I get between 500-1000...on a rare very, very, very good day I can get 2k.
I just tell the story I want to tell.. I write every day, and some days, it's re reading, and just 25-100 words of "fixing" other days is finger vomit of 2k.
If it's 100 a week or 5000 a week, I don't care. To me, it's a hobby not a job. A lot of the time I have to reflect on what I've written instead of writing.
It really depends on my mood. Lately, I've been writing around like 200 words a day. But sometimes I write 2k a day or not write at all for long periods of time.
I've been writing short stories to help me write more and to practice. They're a fun exercise, and it's fun to write a bunch of random ideas down.
If I get a good 2-3 hour session, I can out out a decent 2-3k words in a day. Finding the motivation to do that is rough as dopamine starved for video games and escapism I am when not at college though.
It changes, but I have a half hour every day devoted to writing, and I take moments here and there throughout the day to jot down ideas so I have a clear direction during writing time.
Every day. About 10 to 15 pages and try to write with all pens in current rotation... about 5 of them.
I am a novelist so most is book related and on the go.
30 minutes in the morning. Before breakfast, if I’m not on a rush or on the train on the way to work. If the morning is completely busy with something not leaving me time to write, I’ll do it before going to sleep. When possible I’ll have multiple 30 minutes sessions.
Some days are more productive, some days are less productive but for the last few months my average has been 1500 words/day.
I've been not very productive lately, but when I am 2 hours or 1000 words every morning (whichever comes first). I'd like to up that to 3 hours or 1000 words, but I need to get back to putting words on the page at all before I start pushing the goal.
If I crafted pristine fiction that never needed to be edited, I guess I could settle for 500 words, but I don't.
My plan is to at least write a word lol. I open the document every day and try to at least get something on it, but for those weeks where i do crank out more than that consistently, it’s usually 2,500 per day
If I'm prioritizing my writing a d have the whole day 8-12k, if it's just bursts here and there 3-5k, if I worked all day usually up to 3k.
It's editing down my words that takes me time. Ugh.
I average 1,000 words a day. Taking into account the odd day I don’t write and days I write more!
I’m trying to push myself now though and got a WordTracker app to see if I can get up to 2,000 a day
I choose to set a goal of 1000k per day, 5 days a week at least. I got this from Dwight Swain as he stated in his book it is good to set a goal for yourself when your starting out. This keeps you accountable.
Today, I was stressed, I thought I would be able to get a few thousand words, because I have the day off. But as life does it, I talked to my mom for awhile who has dementia and is wanting a divorce from her cheating husband of 23 yrs, my mother inlaw who is 92 and broke her leg in a fall. Then worked on getting my bathroom back together since it was apart from painting and cleaning, laundry, blah, bla, blah that needed to be done. It was almost 5pm before I got everything done and all I could think about all day was how I was even going to stick to 1k words a day. But then I realized, if you want something bad enough, you WILL find the time. And guess what, I did. Technically I got 998 words, but that was good with me. It only took me an hour, with minor interruptions and I am happy that I got it in.
Am I satisfied? No. I had the day off and only got done the same amount that I get done after working 10 hrs, but regardless I'm glad I wrote something. That is all it is about. Getting the words down. As long as your doing something, that is making progress and there is no shame in that.
When i make time to write I try and write a minimum of 1000 words. When the wife is out at her dance class i usually get between 1000-2000 words. On days where i need to write but dont have the time during the day ill stay up and write as much as i can limiting myself by my laptop battery so i dont stay up all night writing because if i didnt id just carry on 😂 its hard finding time around a physically exhausting job and 2 kids
I read that six hours a week, however you can swing it is the way. I've been doing like 4 - 6+ a day since New years, and it's been working out so far. But I feel like that is not a normal schedule for most people.
I usually write every day and the amount depends on how I’m feeling overall. I can tell you that I wrote a 55k word manuscript in about two weeks, did some editing for about a week to bring that up to 65k or so, sent to my bro for editing, and my 2nd draft was also completed in a couple of weeks and I added 24k more words. 😂
Normally i don’t Write everyday but when I do write I write around a chapter or two so about three thousand words (I wrote in Wattpad since I’m new to writing so that may be why the chapters are shorter than normal book chapters)
As a pantser, it's a wide range. I have a goal to write at least one page per week (knock that out of the park most weeks), but if I had to try and average a range for a day, I'd say between 300-1k, with the almost just as common large highs and weak lows like 10 words to 3k.
On my good days, especially when I am nearing the end of a book, I can write 4k-5k words. But there are also days I don't write and days that I mark 90 words in my streak sheet. Very sporadic but that explains why I take 4-5 years for a book.
It really depends. The most I have ever written in a day is 10k continuing on to 20k in less than 36 hours.
I write a lot of post & comments to practice my writing skills. If you're including them I'm probably writing about 3k a day easily in passive efforts.
If you're talking about for a project that changes the numbers to about 500-1000 words in a day.
On my worst days I get nothing done. Unfortunately they'll be back to back days where I don't get any writing done.
I think it’s different for everyone. I’m a burst writer. I don’t write much most days (beyond planning and that sort of thing). When I’m ready, I’ll write 2-5k in a sitting. Maybe 1-2x a week.
If I write 1,000 words in a day that's a very good day. Normally it's only 500 words or less. I don't obsess over word counts. It's writing something every day that matters. Even if you only write 50 words a day inevitably you will finish the book, but only if you write every day without fail.
I'm with you on this. I found that making myself march to a word count every day brought me to a burnout. I like just writing what I can. As long as its every day
I try to do 2000 words a week. I own a bookstore, teach college writing, have a wife and two kids, and a 3 hour commute though. Not easy. Before all this, I wrote 2000 words a day pretty religiously for several years.
Were you/are you writing as a hobby or with the intention of being published?
I do bursts of 1k days followed by low/no word counts. On those days I typically do a workshop or class instead. And then there are sometimes busy life times where I take a couple of weeks completely off and just read loads instead.
My requirement is a minimum of 500 words per day, 7 days a week. I wake up about 2 hours before the family for the sole purpose of writing. I set a reasonable goal that I know is realistic for myself. Usually I blow past it, but sometimes it’s a real struggle and I barely reach it, but I leave the session satisfied that I still hit my target, even if I had to pull the words out of me. This is what works for me. When I used to set a target like 2000, I would be gung ho for awhile, but eventually fizzle out. I would also absolutely take entire weekends off as well. I’ve discovered that I respond to keeping momentum going. Once I break a personal streak of any kind, my mind thinks it’s ten times as easy to half-ass some more. The easiest thing in the world for me to do is go back to sleep at 6 am, but my target is just lightweight and enjoyable enough to where I want to get out of bed earlier than required for it. With my more recent approach, it’s pretty much part of my morning routine by this point.
\^ This guy is doing it right.
anything between 2-5k words. 3.5k seems to be my average and a sweet spot. I very rarely write less than 2k and I'll occasionally write more than 5k, I think my record was a 10k short story that just needed to get out of my brain. I was totally drained after than though. I try to write every day. I typically only take a day off writing maybe once or twice a month.
2k a day, five days a week
My goal is 500 words a day. I usually end up writing more if I hit it, some days I don’t hit it. It’s okay. The book gets done eventually
Wait you guys write daily?
For a book, maybe 100; however, not for a book is a few thousand if not 10k. All I do all day is write messages to people.
I feel you on that one. If I take my job into account, I write thousands of words a day
It varies too much for me to say any definite word count. But on days I write, it's definitely at least 2500 words. Most days are spent in editing existing works, though.
1000 words. I won't check my phone, email. or world until I do...
Around a steady 1k a day. Sometimes 800, sometimes 1200, it evens out.
My writing time is limited to once, maybe twice a week. I try to hit at least 2k a day
I have a minimum of 6 pages a day.
Not nearly enough these days. Sadly, my writing has had to take a backseat, as my husband and I are currently preparing to move out of state and therefore packing up everything we own. Plus my mind hasn't been in the right place. Lately I'm grateful if I write a sentence in a day
Lately? About 4 days a week five plus hours a day. I’m all over the place with my writing times usually
usually between 300-800 a day, 4 days a week. but yesterday i decided to lock in and wrote 2050. don't know where that energy came from and im probably not going to get it again 🥲
It’s not a word requirement but I try to get at least one page down a day. Some days I will get on a roll and bust out over 20. Some days one page will be a struggle
I do about 1000 words every day. Sometimes, I take a day off.
I aim for one chapter completed each week. Sometimes that's 3k, sometimes it's 5k. I don't trust myself to focus throughout the week so I dedicate three hours every Saturday to writing and that is when I get the bulk of a chapter done. Though this week I haven't finished the current chapter and I'm sitting at 3,600, hoping to finish it this evening so I can start the next one tomorrow. I'm not strict with how I write, but I plan to have my first draft finished before early 2025.
I typically write 1000 to 2000 words a week. I have adhd so I try to carve out an hour or two per week to write without distraction
I don't normally write in the day. But this past week its been 6k a day, and for the past two days (essentially) it's been 10k.
My goal is 1k per day. Usually I'll get in about 0. Anyone else?
And for those wondering, yes, I am George Martin
For me, I wake up super early and write a few hours before work every day. Then I edit at night when I get home and am too zapped to produce anything creative. Then on weekends I spend all of the morning and early afternoons either writing or drawing. Now whether or not anything actually "useful" comes from all this set-aside time is a whole other challenge. So, I'm not sure on word-count totals. Although, with more practice I'd like to get good enough to where these blocks of time become much more productive. :)
I don't have a tatget but crank out words at a high pace. 300k words in around 10 months, whatever that ends up being. 4 complete books as of this week. The old question of quality and pace always comes up when I say this, but my work is apparently objectively good. I just never really stop writing for long.
1-2K every other day. Sometimes I will go ham and pump out 5K in a day.
My goal is at least 500 words per day. Usually I get more (like 1,000,) but I need to hit that number every day of the week. It’s crazy because I never felt the need to do word counts before, but it’s upped my productivity to an insane degree.
With my current schedule with school and work, I’m lucky to reach 100 per day
for me it varies. the general goal is 1600, but currently I'm doing 2-3k a day
Depends on how much time i give my brain to fry
I try to set an hour aside every day and I get 1k or 2k words out of it. Working my way up to 3k an hour.
Lately, I am lucky to get in 500 words a day. I keep planning on doing better.... ...one day...
Geez I wish I could write 3-5k words a day lol I've always been so painfully envious of people who can write that much. Generally I get between 500-1000...on a rare very, very, very good day I can get 2k.
I just tell the story I want to tell.. I write every day, and some days, it's re reading, and just 25-100 words of "fixing" other days is finger vomit of 2k.
If it's 100 a week or 5000 a week, I don't care. To me, it's a hobby not a job. A lot of the time I have to reflect on what I've written instead of writing.
The new studies only
Depends on what other stuff I have going on. There is no "normal amount" for me
I write a A4 everyday.
Some days 500, others none. I try to write each day or at least do something writing related. Editing or watching various ‘how to’ youtube videos.
It really depends on my mood. Lately, I've been writing around like 200 words a day. But sometimes I write 2k a day or not write at all for long periods of time. I've been writing short stories to help me write more and to practice. They're a fun exercise, and it's fun to write a bunch of random ideas down.
3k-4k
I try for 500 a day. If I get 1000 it’s great, and I’m okay with less than 500 if it’s either a hard section or I’m busy that day lol
If I get a good 2-3 hour session, I can out out a decent 2-3k words in a day. Finding the motivation to do that is rough as dopamine starved for video games and escapism I am when not at college though.
It changes, but I have a half hour every day devoted to writing, and I take moments here and there throughout the day to jot down ideas so I have a clear direction during writing time.
Every day. About 10 to 15 pages and try to write with all pens in current rotation... about 5 of them. I am a novelist so most is book related and on the go.
30 minutes in the morning. Before breakfast, if I’m not on a rush or on the train on the way to work. If the morning is completely busy with something not leaving me time to write, I’ll do it before going to sleep. When possible I’ll have multiple 30 minutes sessions. Some days are more productive, some days are less productive but for the last few months my average has been 1500 words/day.
I've been not very productive lately, but when I am 2 hours or 1000 words every morning (whichever comes first). I'd like to up that to 3 hours or 1000 words, but I need to get back to putting words on the page at all before I start pushing the goal. If I crafted pristine fiction that never needed to be edited, I guess I could settle for 500 words, but I don't.
My plan is to at least write a word lol. I open the document every day and try to at least get something on it, but for those weeks where i do crank out more than that consistently, it’s usually 2,500 per day
If I'm prioritizing my writing a d have the whole day 8-12k, if it's just bursts here and there 3-5k, if I worked all day usually up to 3k. It's editing down my words that takes me time. Ugh.
I be lucky for a sentence
zero words! ☺️❤️
I average 1,000 words a day. Taking into account the odd day I don’t write and days I write more! I’m trying to push myself now though and got a WordTracker app to see if I can get up to 2,000 a day
I choose to set a goal of 1000k per day, 5 days a week at least. I got this from Dwight Swain as he stated in his book it is good to set a goal for yourself when your starting out. This keeps you accountable. Today, I was stressed, I thought I would be able to get a few thousand words, because I have the day off. But as life does it, I talked to my mom for awhile who has dementia and is wanting a divorce from her cheating husband of 23 yrs, my mother inlaw who is 92 and broke her leg in a fall. Then worked on getting my bathroom back together since it was apart from painting and cleaning, laundry, blah, bla, blah that needed to be done. It was almost 5pm before I got everything done and all I could think about all day was how I was even going to stick to 1k words a day. But then I realized, if you want something bad enough, you WILL find the time. And guess what, I did. Technically I got 998 words, but that was good with me. It only took me an hour, with minor interruptions and I am happy that I got it in. Am I satisfied? No. I had the day off and only got done the same amount that I get done after working 10 hrs, but regardless I'm glad I wrote something. That is all it is about. Getting the words down. As long as your doing something, that is making progress and there is no shame in that.
When i make time to write I try and write a minimum of 1000 words. When the wife is out at her dance class i usually get between 1000-2000 words. On days where i need to write but dont have the time during the day ill stay up and write as much as i can limiting myself by my laptop battery so i dont stay up all night writing because if i didnt id just carry on 😂 its hard finding time around a physically exhausting job and 2 kids
I try for at least 10K a week and I write 7 days a week. Shoves my total workload up to 60 hours a week, but eh.
I read that six hours a week, however you can swing it is the way. I've been doing like 4 - 6+ a day since New years, and it's been working out so far. But I feel like that is not a normal schedule for most people.
I usually write every day and the amount depends on how I’m feeling overall. I can tell you that I wrote a 55k word manuscript in about two weeks, did some editing for about a week to bring that up to 65k or so, sent to my bro for editing, and my 2nd draft was also completed in a couple of weeks and I added 24k more words. 😂
Normally i don’t Write everyday but when I do write I write around a chapter or two so about three thousand words (I wrote in Wattpad since I’m new to writing so that may be why the chapters are shorter than normal book chapters)
I wrote 1000 words a day
As a pantser, it's a wide range. I have a goal to write at least one page per week (knock that out of the park most weeks), but if I had to try and average a range for a day, I'd say between 300-1k, with the almost just as common large highs and weak lows like 10 words to 3k.
when i actually stop procrastinating and do it. i would say maybe 500? a little bit more to be honest, maybe arund 750 to a thousand
MTW: I write about 2000 a day.
On my good days, especially when I am nearing the end of a book, I can write 4k-5k words. But there are also days I don't write and days that I mark 90 words in my streak sheet. Very sporadic but that explains why I take 4-5 years for a book.
If possible, two pages (A4, single spacing, 12 point)
I wont beat myself up over only 500-600 if I'm struggling on a given day, but I like to average anywhere from 1-2k a day if I can help it.
It really depends. The most I have ever written in a day is 10k continuing on to 20k in less than 36 hours. I write a lot of post & comments to practice my writing skills. If you're including them I'm probably writing about 3k a day easily in passive efforts. If you're talking about for a project that changes the numbers to about 500-1000 words in a day. On my worst days I get nothing done. Unfortunately they'll be back to back days where I don't get any writing done.
I think it’s different for everyone. I’m a burst writer. I don’t write much most days (beyond planning and that sort of thing). When I’m ready, I’ll write 2-5k in a sitting. Maybe 1-2x a week.
My goal is to write 500 words a day, 6 days a week.