How many words do you usually write in a day?

[StillStunned]

That's roughly 11k words so divided by 2 is 5500 per day, or by 3 is 3700 per day. Either way one of the highest counts in this thread.

I think you misread: they say it takes them 7-10 days. Still an impressive rate, if they can keep it up consistently.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I think you misread: they say it takes them 7-10 days. Still an impressive rate, if they can keep it up consistently.

Oh, yea I guess I did.

11k divided by 10 would be 1100 words per day.

 

[StillStunned]

Oh, yea I guess I did.

11k divided by 10 would be 1100 words per day.

That's alright, we're writers, not mathematicians.

 

[AllenWoody]

Well now I feel like the odd man out since I've never thought about my productivity in terms of word count. I've averaged very roughly one story per month with an average over 12K words. So that's what, 400 words per day? Not very high, but I have at least fifteen stories/chapters in the queue which are finished but for whatever reason not ready to publish. That pushes me closer to 600 per day, I suppose.

Seems like it should be more.

 

[Devinter]

I cannot take things in moderation so it's not uncommon for me to get in the flow of things and write for like 8 hours in a row, without breaks. I probably write more than 10k words in a day at least once a week. Average is likely around 5000 though, and some days (only a few) I don't write at all. Not every word written actually makes it into a story though. A lot of it gets cut and other stories just end up going nowhere.

But yeah, once I get into that "flow" state, it's honestly hard to stop. I forgot to eat dinner again today. Oops.

 

[Enigmatica91]

It's been growing steadily over the last month or so, usually somewhere between 2-3k words most days recently. Used to write a lot as a kid, but haven't had much reason to bother for the last couple of decades. It's a slow process of re-learning everything I forgot along the way!

A day with inspiration could be as high as the 7000 I hit two days ago, others could be down to 500 or occasionally even nothing. Forcing creativity just contributes to burnout and rushed scenes, so I tend to write what's already in my head and move onto something else until there's more to put down, regardless of the word count.

Ultimately it comes down to the projects themselves as much as the writer - some days dialogue just isn't my thing at all, but more action-focused scenes come easily, other days it's the reverse.

Having a multitude of stories at various stages helps to always have something to write that suits the mood I'm in, where if I was to focus on a single project there could be weeks of total stagnation.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I remember reading that Ian Fleming would sit down at the typewriter each day and write until he had 2000 words. He would start in say February and then at 2k per day would have a novel 120kish by April. I was like 'sheesh, there is no way that I could do that'. And some of his novels were quite good or at least good as cheap pulp goes 'Casino Royale, Thunderball, Russia with Love' but some of them were dreadful and read just like they were forcefully banged off with little to no inspiration, plots full of loose ends 'Spy Who Loved Me, Only Live Twice'.

I suppose that after reading in this thread how so many other writers struggle to get 500 or 1000 words on most days, I don't feel quite so slow. :s

 

[MrPixel]

750. For some reason.

 

[samhasstories]

My goal is usually 600-1000 words in a day. The average is likely less than that, because some days I don't manage to write anything, some I force a couple hundred out like pulling teeth.

But then there are the good days where I work up a real head of steam, and by the time I come up for air I realize I've written 2000 words or so. Sometimes more. Those days are rare, but they do happen from time to time. Not today.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I cannot take things in moderation so it's not uncommon for me to get in the flow of things and write for like 8 hours in a row, without breaks. I probably write more than 10k words in a day at least once a week. Average is likely around 5000 though, and some days (only a few) I don't write at all. Not every word written actually makes it into a story though. A lot of it gets cut and other stories just end up going nowhere.

But yeah, once I get into that "flow" state, it's honestly hard to stop. I forgot to eat dinner again today. Oops.

I love that feeling.

It can be difficult to get into that mode (that I call 'the groove') but once I'm in it, I can sometimes stay in it for days. The only problem is that my brain can stay there, but my body just can't physically sit in this chair that long and I have to get up and do some chores, but then I can't focus on the chores because my brain is constantly being drawn back to the keyboard.

I also find it pretty close to impossible to be in the groove when working full time.

 

[luv2custrip]

That's roughly 11k words so divided by 2 is 5500 per day, or by 3 is 3700 per day. Either way one of the highest counts in this thread.

I really have to look at my stats. I might as well face it: I’m addicted to writing.

 

[XerXesXu]

Net, about 135 a day, over many years.

 

[luv2custrip]

I cannot take things in moderation so it's not uncommon for me to get in the flow of things and write for like 8 hours in a row, without breaks. I probably write more than 10k words in a day at least once a week. Average is likely around 5000 though, and some days (only a few) I don't write at all. Not every word written actually makes it into a story though. A lot of it gets cut and other stories just end up going nowhere.

But yeah, once I get into that "flow" state, it's honestly hard to stop. I forgot to eat dinner again today. Oops.

I’m there. Waking up and finishing a tale at 3 a.m.

 

[Devinter]

I also find it pretty close to impossible to be in the groove when working full time.

I agree. It's hard to reach that state of mind if you have to worry about things, feel stressed, or being low on energy. Thankfully I work from home most of the time - usually only out and about 1-2 days a week - and to be perfectly honest, it also helps that I live alone. Breaking up with my now ex-girlfriend increased my efficiency by like 300%.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I agree. It's hard to reach that state of mind if you have to worry about things, feel stressed, or being low on energy. Thankfully I work from home most of the time - usually only out and about 1-2 days a week - and to be perfectly honest, it also helps that I live alone. Breaking up with my now ex-girlfriend increased my efficiency by like 300%.

I've never had a relationship that has truly allowed me to maintain my creative side and this is the biggest reason why I am single.

 

[mildlyaroused]

Each day, the first ten words take as long as the next 1000 combined.

It's ridiculous.

 

[karina_jayde]

At an absolute bare minimum, I shoot for 1,000 words a day.

Over the course of a good week, depending on my work schedule, I can average about 4,000. If it's a rainy weekend day and I'm not doing much else, I can get up to 10,000.

Are those all GOOD words? Absolutely not. I often spend more time in edits/rewrites than in the first draft, but for my style it's better to get the words on the pages fast, and then do the work later to clean them up.

 

[ronde]

I write until I reach my "stopping point". That's when I need to think some more, I need to stop to get some sleep, or when I'm tired enough I can't make sense of what I'm writing. My average is probably about 400 words a day, but that varies considerably. If I'm really into a story, I can write upwards of a couple thousand.

 

[luv2custrip]

56 stories of 266,000 words in about fourteen months, so 625 words per day.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Depends on the day and story, but I try to put down at least a thousand when I sit down to write. I don't worry about it much.

 

[oneagainst]

I have to do work too so on those days it's zero, but if I make time, 3500 to 4000 words in a morning. Last week I had the place to myself and was clocking 9k+ a day, about 50k in a week and a half. It's all done in one pass, laid down and then a little light editing for sentence flow. The flipside is that after dropping the 1M words on the Wonderland story series, I thought I was done with a chapter (or two) published a week, but have just mapped the release schedule for the upcoming work and it's solid to Nov 14th already.

It's the bunnies. I need a rabbit-proof fence around my head.

 

[dmallord]

No idea. [That's two words for today.] {wait, that's more than ... two, isn't it? or doesn't this make it twenty?}

 

[VerbalAbuse]

I have to do work too so on those days it's zero, but if I make time, 3500 to 4000 words in a morning. Last week I had the place to myself and was clocking 9k+ a day, about 50k in a week and a half. It's all done in one pass, laid down and then a little light editing for sentence flow. The flipside is that after dropping the 1M words on the Wonderland story series, I thought I was done with a chapter (or two) published a week, but have just mapped the release schedule for the upcoming work and it's solid to Nov 14th already.

It's the bunnies. I need a rabbit-proof fence around my head.

jeez. or is it jizz? you're writing three novels every month.

that pathetic loser, stephen king, may learn a thing or two from you. he thinks six pages a day is an achievement!

even asimov would call you granddaddy.

 

[intim8]

My record is over 12K reasonably coherent words. A more normal day, if I'm devoting most of the day to it, is more like 5-7K sometimes as much as 10k. Problem is, I rarely get to devote a whole day to it.

I can't just sit down and hammer out 500 words then drop it. Either I can't get my head into it if I know the time is very limited, or I do and can't get my head out of it when I have to do other things.

120,000 published words a year

That's a lot more significant than X thousand words of pantsing or rough draft per day.

 

[intim8]

I used to write for a weekly contest site that, because of some misguided decisions by the admins, it paid to get the story in as soon as possible after it was announced. Limit of 3000 words. So I used to make a point of getting the story written, edited, and published by early afternoon on the day the contest theme was announced. I have maybe a dozen stories up there, all right up against the word count limit.